Salzburg - Berchtesgaden. Day 10

see all photos »

The next day dawned clear but cold again. We took a bus up to Breschtgaden. Finding this bus was a trip in itself, we ran around like crazy and I regretted not learning German the most here – we spent an hour running around the subway station looking for the bus and it was just right across the street. The bus took us up a mountain where we checked out the Eagles Nest where Hitler vacationed and where the Third Reich basically began.

There was a boat ride for 15 euro per person but we took a rowboat for 5 euro both instead. Carlos rowed us across the lake; if it had been summer, he’d have dived in, the water was clear and clean.

Carlos rowed us across the lake; if it had been summer, he’d have dived in

Glaciers on top of the Mountain
see all photos »

Here we had some cheap food – a couple of meat patties with potatoes and veggies and I had some tea with rum. This helped with the cold but not for long. There was a tour of Hitler’s bunkers for 3 euro but we decided to pass and just check out the view from the outside. I did read about the tour, it was actually very interesting – explored the psychology behind the hate, and why people bought into the Hitler cult. This was an enjoyable day because of the altitude and the views – it was cloudy but we were low enough to see some of the sweeping panoramics of the fields and the little houses below. Paying to go up to Hitler’s actual Eagle’s Nest chalet would have cost us a lot more and we’d not have seen much more.

see all photos »

Afterwards we went back into Salzburg and shopped a little- didn’t buy anything, most of the shops were mall stores and pretty expensive. We got egg rolls from a little Chinese food stand, and had 1 euro scoop ice cream, and something called a “bosna” which was basically onions, sausage, and bread sprinkled with paprika and perhaps curry. We are surprised so far at the number of Chinese entrepreneurs we’ve seen and the number of Middle Eastern shopkeepers as well. In fact finding local food usually means eating something non-German – a doner kebab sandwich or something Chinese, or Italian food.

Konigsee Lake
see all photos »

Most of the locals have been nice, especially the older folks – they often stop to ask if we need help. It’s the employees in the ice cream shops who are rudest – one even wanted to charge us .50 euro more to eat our ice cream in the shop. We were going to get torte from her but after that we left. I understand some tourists can be annoying and rude, but one would think a town that makes so much money off foreigners would be more amenable. It’s sad that rudeness is no longer shocking and tourists have come to expect it