Chapter 4 - Day 5 - innsbruck to Vienna

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Another 7.30am start on the coach, but again well worth it as we headed off to visit the Eagles Nest, Hitler’s mountain top retreat, high up in the Bavarian mountains. Things just get more amazing by the day!

THE EAGLES NEST
On the way to eagles Nest we picked up our local guide. Insight has a Tour Director who travels with the group and ensures everything runs smoothly, in some areas they have local guides who have specialist knowledge of a particular area (usually when it is a special highlight of the tour) – this was one of those occasions - our guide was Gabby.

Initiated by Martin Bormann and presented on behalf of the National Socialist party to Adolf Hitler on his 50th birthday Eagles nest is perched on a mountain to 6,017 feet above sea level in the Bavarian Alps – Kehlstein Mountain. The road to Eagles nest is unique in the world. It was blasted out of solid rock and was completed in just 13 months. No latest technology here, the cobbles for the road were loaded onto a box, put on people’s backs and then walked up the steep incline for them to be placed. It should be noted this wasn’t slave labour they were Axis workers who were well paid for the job-even so the back breaking work meant most lasted between 3 and 5 weeks on the job. To get the road completed on time teams of men worked through the freezing Austrian winter.

The road to the summit (or 400 feet below it) is closed to the public, special busses with 20 gears do the 15 minute run from the town half way up the mountain to 400 feet below the summit. The engineers couldn’t find a way to get the road to the top so they installed an elevator. We walked into a tunnel which went deep into the mountain. The original elegant brass lined elevator took us to Eagles Nest. Hitler and his henchmen were driven into the same tunnel in a Mercedes. To be in the same elevator where Hitler, Goebbels, Goring, Hess etc had stood was very freaky indeed.

We left the elevator and were in the Eagles Nest. Not being one for heights it was all a bit scary! We saw a room which had a marble fireplace; you could clearly see the chips where the USA soldiers had claimed souvenirs after they had conquered ‘The Nest’ as WW2 came to an end. Out the back you could walk along the ridge and get the most spectacular views imaginable. For the first time on tour I bought a ‘been there done that’ tee shirt –over 6000 feet up that’s pretty amazing! Gabby gave us an awesome description of the area, the Eagles Nest and what had happened over that period in history. AN INCREDIBLE MORNING NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN.

SALZBURG TO VIENNA
From there (with Gabby still in charge) we moved on to Salzburg the birthplace of Mozart - just another stunning historic town! Gabby gave us an excellent walking tour around the old town (central city highlights) and then we were free to roam for a couple of hours. I had an awesome sausage for lunch – filled with cheese and very tasty. Then we hit the road for a 3 hour trip to Vienna our next stop – 2 nights YAA.
On the way we stopped at a roadside diner and had our first ‘order things from people who don’t speak English’ experience! With a bit of pointing and waving of arms it all went fine, hopefully a good omen.

Our Hotel in Vienna is the Hilton Vienna which is nice and central and a very good (also very busy Hotel.

NOTE
Soon we head for Croatia and Albania, will try and update daily but heading into the unknown - so its a bit watch this space

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Photos

Eagles Nest
On the ridge behind Eagles Nest - Adolf Hitlers retreat

Eagles Nest
Perched on a cliff at the top of a mountain

Sound of Music
Salsburg - birthplace of Mozart and home of the Sound of Music (this statue features)