Semester Trip 2024 (29 Jul) - 19 - Eagle's Nest

Today we had a quick stop planned and then a long drive up to Berlin.  The original plan has been to stop at Leipzig - mostly as it was a decent distance from Salzburg to form a stopping point so we didn't have a 12hr drive in one day. I had a (cancellable) hotel booked in Leipzig, but Cameron asked if we could see Berlin again as he didn't remember the last time (fair enough it had been 5 years ago), so we changed things up. I was able to get a decent priced hotel and cancel the Leipzig one, but the only issue was now we had an 8 hour drive instead of 6.

But I'm getting a head of myself. We didn't leave Freilassing and head straight for Berlin, instead we headed south to the Kehlsteinhaus, otherwise known a the Eagles Nest.

The Kehlsteinhaus was built by the Nazis atop the Kehlstein mountain in the Obersalzberg region of  Germany. The building was designed to hold government meetings and as a social retreat and was visited fourteen times by Adolf Hitler.

The Kehlsteinhaus is 1,834m above sealevel and was built in 1937. It took 13 months to complete and 12 workers died in constructing it. There is a road up to the house, but it is now closed for public traffic as it is only 4m wide. Nowdays tourists take a bus from a lower carpark up the mountain.

At the top of the mountain is a 124m tunnel that ends in an elevator that travels 124m up to the building. The elevator is coated in brass, green leather and venetian mirrors, but Hitler did not trust it (worrying about a lightning strike to the winch) and so would travel by foot for the final climb.

The name "Eagles Nest" was coined by French Ambassador André François-Poncet in 1938 after his visit.

The building is now owned by a charitable trust and runs as a restaurant and beer garden. To prevent it becoming a rallying point for Neo-Nazis, only guided tours are able to access the interior rooms.

We had planned to have a slow start, so I had booked out tickets up the mountain for 11am, but we ended up getting moving early (mostly knowing we had a long drive ahead), so we arrived at 9:30.  We managed to squeeze onto an early bus - Tom and I on one bus and Kris and Cam on another just behind - and made our way up to the top.

Unfortunately our visit wasn't the best. The main building was much more restaurant and beer garden than historic building and the weather did not cooperate, making the views non-existent:

The Kehlsteinhaus 

We started by taking a walk up higher above the Kehlsteinhaus - 

At the first landing there were a number of stone piles and a cross:

The clouds cleared briefly and we were able to see some of the mountaintops (but nothing lower):

and then they swept in again:

While Kris and Cam waited at the top to see if they could get a picture when the clouds cleared, Tom and I explored inside:

Fireplace gifted from Mussolini (the center stones are chipped by allied souvenir takers)

The sun terrace

Our tickets gave us three hours at the top, but knowing we had the big drive ahead, we stayed only about an hour and then booked onto an earlier return bus. Once we got below the clouds we got to see the views we were missing:

When we arrived back at the bottom we started our drive to Berlin. Our accommodation for the next two nights was the Meineinger Hotel just outside Berlin airport as it was cheap, had parking and had a train straight into Berlin. We arrived around 7pm and picked up some food from the shop next door and waited in the shared kitchen for a chance to cook. There were a couple of younger guys who were making noodles and using all of the burners and most of the space. They took almost an hour to finish cooking and then slowly started to wash all the pots.  Kris offered to do the wash up for them (as she  and I were about 20x faster) and we finally got to eat around 9.

We had an early-ish night, ready for our last full day of holidays.