Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Hotel
View from Hotel Wittlesbach balcony Berchtesgaden, Germany
On Wednesday after German class, we departed to Berchtesgaden, Germany to stay until Friday. It was approximately a 5 hour train ride; we switched trains 3 different times. It was the first (and last) organized overnight group trip. It is a very beautiful border town within the mountains- the beginning of the Alps. We had to climb a very steep, but rather short hill, to reach our hotel, which offered amazing views of the mountains from our balcony. Once we settled in our rooms, we went out to eat at a restaurant in town. I ordered the Beef Goulash…but received something that was nothing like the goulash that I am used to. It was like a rich, thick beef gravy with some thicker potato-like noodles. It was very good, but very very rich. Also, the Germans are really big on cabbage salads (see food photos). After dinner we hit up a few gift shops and then shortly went to bed…we had a long night before and were eager to get some sleep.
The next day we went to Salzburg, Austria, which is my next entry.
The day after that, we toured more in Berchtesgaden. This was a
view
Berchtesgaden very exciting day. We met up in the morning and walked about a mile (downhill J ) to the Berchtesgaden Salt Mines for a tour. This was something that was really interesting and cool. We had to wear black suits with reflective white tape. I heard someone say that the material will keep our bodies warm in the cold mines and that the reflective tape will help us see each other in the dark.
To start the tour, we got to ride a tram…kind of like a train. It was kind of fun, but it did not move very fast initially. We rode into the mines and were told some facts about the mines. Next, we spotted our mode of transportation which would take us further into the mine- a steep slide! It looked very much like the steep water slide at Valleyfair. But the way we ride it is 4 people long, with your arms connecting you to the person in front of you. If you did not want to take the slide, you could walk the path but it would take much longer. Once on the slide, it did not feel as steep as it did when
Goulash
So this is German Beef Goulash... I first saw it. The ride down was not too bad, but I was still pretty nervous about it. When we were off the slide, my butt was so hot from the friction! We toured more around the mines a little bit, learning about salt and the history and how the salt is extracted. We had to go on another slide to get further into the mine also. But this time, there was no choice- the only way down was the slide. Finally, another cool part was we came to a brine lake (which has formed over hundreds of years)! We got into a wooden pontoon-like boat and floated to the other side. On the way across the lake, we were treated to a music and laser light show. It was all very surreal to think we were floating across a brine lake well underground! After a few more pit stops to learn about salt, we were taken to a large elevator which brought us upstairs, and then we boarded on the tram again, which was much faster this time. At the very end, we were given little vials of salt mined there as a souvenir.
After checking out
Salt Mine
Our suits at the Salt Mine tour- Scott, Stephen, Brian, Garrett, Derek, and Mark of our hotel, we headed to the travel agency, which was hosting a tour of Hitler’s bunkers and his Eagle Nest. We boarded a large bus with all of our bags and the bus drove us to the bunker (museums). The whole idea of touring the bunkers is very interesting, and I learned that the Americans were the first to find it. However, I do not know that much about World War II from that perspective, and I was slightly bored. This tour dragged on for about an hour, walking in and out of the bunkers. But then it started to get interesting!
We took another bus that was to drive us up near to the Eagle’s Nest. For those of you who do not know what that is, Google “Hitler’s Eagle Nest” immediately. Hitler= bad, but Eagle’s Nest= cool amazing views of Germany, Austria, and the Italian Alps. The bus ride was a little scary for me, as the bus was driving up the ALPS (!) very steeply, and since the road was only one lane, we were extremely close to the wooden rail that was supposed to make sure we would not fall over the edge…yeah right.
It was very scary. As we got higher and higher I like the ride less and less. Don’t get me wrong, the views were phenomenal, but it was just too high for me. When we finally reached the top, the views were great! We could see for miles and miles. We walked through a long bricked tunnel, and reached the entrance and Hitler’s Gold Elevator. We rode it to the very top, it took approximately 45 seconds. I am not sure exactly how high we went up, but it was very high. When we got off, we walked through a restaurant (the only way they can keep it- there are no memorial buildings for Hitler- it has to be a restaurant) and toured a few of the rooms. We learned that Hitler had only ever been to the place 14 times, and did not come more often because of his fear of heights and claustrophobia. But like I said, the views were great. We were in the Alps, and there was snow up where we were- that’s how high up we were. We were able to walk outside higher up the mountain. The crows were so close and clumsy that
it was almost as if they were puppets. All the views were so beautiful it appears as if it is a backdrop. We took a lot of photos, and a lot of people were daring and would stand near the edge and climb rocks, but I was much too afraid to do that. I still walked up quite a bit and got some great photos. It wasn’t terribly cold up there, but like I mentioned there was snow and lots of slush.
After the tour was over, we took the bus back down, and caught the train back to the Villa. It was a very long but fulfilling day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 15; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0244s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 5;
; mem: 1.1mb