Tuesday in Germany

Tuesday was a travel day, we didn't have any musical events (at least none planned) and were only traveling from Munich to Salzburg, via Berchtesgaden (the town near Schloss Adler, the 'Eagles Nest').

It started to rain as we were loading the luggage onto the trailer that we pull behind our bus, and the temperature was probably about 50 degrees...cooler than Monday for sure. We left Munich at 8, headed for Salzburg, Austria (only about two hours away). Along the way we stopped for coffee & to use the facilities at an 'american' themed rest stop restaurant; Route 66 & Jimmy Dean figured heavily in the motif. It was clean & convenient, both qualities which easily disqualify it as a genuine American roadside stop. The scenery at the restaurant was very pretty; we're approaching the Alps & it's becoming quite dramatic. Here's the view from the patio (ignore the goofy looking guy blocking the mountain view):
Here's a shot that doesn't really do the scenery justice, but is the best I can do --
As you can see, it's foggy & gray, but beautiful nonetheless.

We continued to Berchtesgaden, and up the mountain to Schloss Adler, the Nazi retreat of Hitler & his party leaders. Almost all remnants of the Nazi regime have been eradicated from modern Germany, but this one remains for several reasons. One is its location; it's basically a modest tearoom perched on the peak of an alpine mountain almost 7000 feet high. Another is its cost -- at the time (1938) it cost about $200 million to build, a staggering amount for the time. So it's still there, although the government takes care to ensure that it doesn't become a rallying point for any neo-nazi organizations. The building is a relatively small teahouse on the peak of a tall mountain, with a tunnel & elevator cut through hundreds of feet of solid rock to get there. All this was a 50th birthday gift for an insane dictator who was afraid of closed spaces (like elevators and tunnels) and afraid of heights. Go figure.

Anyway, we reached the parking lot nearest the schloss to find that we'd ascendend directly into those pretty clouds you saw earlier (and as we all know, clouds up close are just fog):
so there wasn't likely to be much of a view today. Still, we entered the tunnel, where the Internationals (as they have 3 times in the past) struck up an impromptu bit of guerilla polka right there:
The other tourists, both coming and going, were certainly startled to see a Bavarian music quartet playing in the approach to Hitler's private aerie...which, in the picture below, should have an amazing view of the surrounding countryside but instead has an amazing view of the clouds:
Inside the aerie, there are several rooms (no bedrooms; it was never occupied at night), one of which has a large fireplace with an Italian marble face. The marble was chipped away (with shovels, chisels & gunshots) for souvenirs by the American GI's who first entered:
You may need to look closeup to see the remaining marks on the marble. I have a hard time imagining what it was like, to fight your way across Europe shooting & being shot at, living on the ground, eating cold rations and then finding yourself in this elevator:
which is polished brass, rather than the gold it looks like (and the first GI's thought that it was), and is propelled up the hundreds of feet of shaft by a submarine engine. Here's what the elevator looks like on the inside:
which was where, as we went down, Bob & Steve performed another impromptu little performance. More tourists' mouths were agape as we exited the elevator at the base with accordion & tuba swingin'.

After the visit to the Schloss we went down to the nearest town, Berchtesgaden, a very picturesque village. We found a little tavern for lunch (sausage & beer, naturally). Here's Bob, Jan, Adam, Tessa, Erica, Brandee, Kristey & Jim waiting impatiently for food -

From the platz in the town, the hillsides around look like this:
I'd like to visit again, and in the winter to see the snow (I'm certain there would be QUITE a lot).

Here's the obligatory fountain in the platz, with Bob & Jim in front -
After leaving Berchtesgaden we continued on to Vienna and Salzburg, where we arrived around 6PM at the Hotel Mercure (see the sidebar on my blog page for links to the website & map) and wandered out to dinner at an Italian restaurant operated by what I took to be Turkish muslims. The pizza was great and the beer was, well, Austrian beer. Good, that is. Then to bed!

Later --

p.s. I've added more photos to my google photos page.