Berchtesgaden
After Füssen I went to Berchtesgaden in the far southeastern corner of Germany and then took the evening train to Salzburg where I stayed the night.
Berchtesgaden is the sight of The Eagle's Nest - Hitler's mountain top teahouse that you might know from Band of Brothers. It's located about just below the summit of a mountain and is accessed by a long road, then you walk 124m along a tunnel before travelling up a 124m lift. It's construction was completed in an astonishingly short period of time, even by todays standards, as a 50th birthday present for Hitler. Ironically Hitler suffered from vertigo and claustrophobia and so visited his new teahouse, which cost US$14 million to build in today's money, only a dozen or so times. That's some expensive tea. Whilst I'm sure the views are spectacular from the top I wouldn't really know as it was enshrouded in cloud. However here's a pic I've filched off some website to give you an idea of what it might of been like.
The other point of interest is the museum and underground bunker system. The entire area, by way of background knowledge, was Hitler's holiday home. During the war he then started developing it such that it became a military base where, had it been completed, it would of served as a second command post with communications facilities equal to those available in Berlin. So the bunker system is fairly vast and, scarily enough, just like the underground tunnels and things you go through in all those WWII computer games.
The whole place was really interesting and to cap it off, the tour guide had no spare space but said I could tag along for what turned out to be less than if I'd paid for the museum, bunkers and Eagle's Nest without any kind of guide - score!
Berchtesgaden is the sight of The Eagle's Nest - Hitler's mountain top teahouse that you might know from Band of Brothers. It's located about just below the summit of a mountain and is accessed by a long road, then you walk 124m along a tunnel before travelling up a 124m lift. It's construction was completed in an astonishingly short period of time, even by todays standards, as a 50th birthday present for Hitler. Ironically Hitler suffered from vertigo and claustrophobia and so visited his new teahouse, which cost US$14 million to build in today's money, only a dozen or so times. That's some expensive tea. Whilst I'm sure the views are spectacular from the top I wouldn't really know as it was enshrouded in cloud. However here's a pic I've filched off some website to give you an idea of what it might of been like.
The other point of interest is the museum and underground bunker system. The entire area, by way of background knowledge, was Hitler's holiday home. During the war he then started developing it such that it became a military base where, had it been completed, it would of served as a second command post with communications facilities equal to those available in Berlin. So the bunker system is fairly vast and, scarily enough, just like the underground tunnels and things you go through in all those WWII computer games.
The whole place was really interesting and to cap it off, the tour guide had no spare space but said I could tag along for what turned out to be less than if I'd paid for the museum, bunkers and Eagle's Nest without any kind of guide - score!
posted by Ricardo at
6:14 pm
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