Eagle's Nest

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Ok, I must share my morning experience. I was getting ready when I hear, “house keepiiiiiiiing?” No joke, it sounded exactly like the Family Guy episode where Peter is a maid. He repeated it again, “house keepiiiing?” I actually burst out laughing.

Anyway! On to my day. As much as I wanted to see “Mad” Ludwig’s castle, I didn’t want to pay around $100 and get up at 7am to join a tour. So instead, I headed off an adventure into the heart of Bavaria, to Eagle’s Nest - a chalet-retreat house the Nazi Party gave Hitler for his 50th bday.

I could’ve joined a tour, but really, who needs that? I figured out how to use the ticket machine, planned my route and off I went!

First I took a two hour train ride to Freillasing. It was a nice ride - the scenery was quite beautiful. (Tracy, I saw many cows but wasn’t quick enough with my camera..!) I then had to wait about 15 min for another train to take me to Berchestesgarden - about 40min ride. We passed some beautiful lake, and a bunch of small little villages.

Arriving in Obersalzberg is when things got interesting. First off, no one really spoke English since I was in a little dink town, but I managed to “charade” my way through things, plus it’s a good thing I can at least understand German numbers now (Drei zen euro). I took a bus up to Dokumentation, which is like the base camp I guess. That was quite the bus ride - it’s essentially a coach bus zooming up a winding road that is BARELY wide enough for a car and a bus to pass each other… which you know is fine until you come face to face w/ another bus. Actually, you don’t even come face to face b/c there are so many blind curves that you have to check the mirrors they’ve posted all over the place. I’m so glad I didn’t visit in winter, I can’t even imagine.

One funny thing - on the drive up we passed a ski resort, that is also a golf resort. I sat there thinking how on Earth could you play golf in the Alps… but then we were above it and sure enough, there were people carting around all sorts of hilly greens.

Anyway, I made it to Dokumentation in one piece, only to get onto another bus, to go up another other mountain road. At least this it’s only open to the Eagle’s Nest shuttles, so no traffic to deal with. The drive was stunning - we were overlooking Salzberg, parts of both Austria and Germany, all these little towns etc. It’s too bad the day was overcast b/c otherwise the pictures would’ve been a lot clearer and crisper. Oh well.

Arriving at Kehlstein, you walk down a long tunnel that’s blasted directly into the mountain, and then you’re whisked away in fancy-smancy elevator to the Kehlsteinhaus - Eagle’s Nest - 1834m in the sky.

It offers quite the view.

I spent about an hour roaming around the mountain top; the views down into the valley, of the surrounding mountain tops, and just the rock formations are incredible. As I already mentioned… it’s a shame it was overcast b/c the photos really don’t do it justice.

Bus and train ride back to Munich was relatively uneventful. Waiting at Obersalzberg I got a lovely croissant-like pastry, which would have to hold me over until Munich. A guy started talking to me in German, I’m like “sprechen sie English?” haha. There ya goooo. He was actually originally from England, but has lived in Germany for years now. We had a nice chat while waiting for the train.

I managed to bs my way through 3 ticket inspections in German. W/ a couple bitte and danke, I’m good to go.

Now I’m back at the train station, waiting a bit before heading out to catch my bus to Prague. For supper I grabbed from bratwurst - the guy gave me about 5 choices in German, so I wimped out and asked what he recommended, in English of course. This led to him asking me where I was from - yay Canada! “Are you from Quebec?” (I didn’t even speak French to him, wtf hahaha.) I replied, no. I’m from Ontario. “Ottawa?”

I almost did a happy dance of joy. Finally someone who knew Ottawa!
(It was only b/c his cousin lives in Montreal... so he knew it since it's close. But still!)

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Comments

[Meg]

Having been to Ludwig's castle (Neuschwanstein?) I can tell you that you're not really missing anything. Impressive castle and cool stories, but if you've ever been to a (any) historic castle, you definitely chose a better option. VERY jealous!

[jewel89]

Please tell me you had to google the name haha. Yeah, I'm definitely happy with my choice.

[Lulu]

BAHAHA
Housekeepiiiiing???? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMG I LAUGHED SO HARD HAHAHAHA STILL LAUGHING A LITTLE OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THAT IS EPIIIIC!!