Salt Mine and Eagle's Nest

Today's tour is something different. We are off to explore one of the salt mines. Where they extracted the very substance that made Salzburg famous and its Prince extremely powerful and wealthy. Following that we will visit one example of Hitler's egotism, his "Eagle's Nest".
The drive to Berchtesgaden was through the beautiful mountains south of Salzburg. Arriving at the salt mine we first were given "miner's vestments" to put on over our own outer clothing to protect them. The seat  of the pants were padded. Later we would find out the reason for this.

Stylin' in our miner's garb

Movin' out on the train

But first we were taken to the "train" that would transport us deep into the mountain and inside a now expended vein of salt. Straddling the cars of the train and holding on to the person in front we took a long ride down a narrow tunnel on the narrow gauge rails until we finally came to a stop and dismounted. The rest of the tour would be on foot. Through a series of humorous movies we were introduced to the history of salt and how it was mined from the times of the Celts in 400 BC through the medieval times  to modern day. We were also informed on the many health benefits attributed to salt and why it was considered "white gold" in the past.

Now we know what the padding
was for! Hot seat!

 Two of the most fun parts of the tour were when we rode down the slides used in days gone by by the mines to get to the lower levels of the mine and the boat ride across the underground salt lake.

Is he for real??

Then there was the creepy part where we saw the ancient miner who had been trapped in the salt mine and his body perfectly preserved by the salt surrounding it. And this was just before we were to go to lunch! Exiting the mine we found many interesting salt related souvenirs in the gift shop. I would have loved to bring back one of the colorful large salt crystals but airline weight limits being what they are had to pass.

Our tour guide then took us to the Hofbrauhaus in Berchtesgaden for lunch, where we enjoyed typical Baverian fare for lunch washed down, of course, with that great German beer.

Then it was on to the Eagle's Nest. This was a gift to Hitler from Martin Bormann for his 50th birthday. It sits atop a 6000 foot mountain and took 13 months to construct at a cost of about 150 million Euros (2007 market value).It was to be a retreat for Hitler and a place to entertain visiting dignitaries.


But Hitler was afraid of heights and he only visited it about 14 times. Getting there requires taking a special bus from the base of the mountain up a very steep and winding road which interestingly only involves one hairpin turn. The road up and down is narrow and the two way traffic has to be closely coordinated as there is only one place were downward moving vehicles can pull over and allow upward bound buses to pass.We had a specific time and bus number assigned for both the up and down trips. The final 400 feet or so of the trip up is done by an elevator that was bored straight through the mountain rock. This is a huge bottle neck in both directions so it takes some planning and attention to make sure you are back down to where your downward bound bus is waiting without missing it.

View from Eagle's Nest

Clouds are moving in

Once up at the top the view is spectacular as long as the clouds don't start moving in. Once this happens the line for the elevator down quickly becomes pretty long. The ubiquitous hang gliders seemed to be everywhere at the top of this mountain. The clouds moving quickly up the mountain were a testament to the upward movement of air and the hang gliders certainly took advantage of it. My question was what do they do when the clouds totally obscure the top of the mountain. We didn't stay around long enough to find out.

Hang gliders every where

Dinner this night was in the hotel restaurant. It was our last dinner in Europe and was equally excellent as were all of the other arranged dinners.