Angela and Roland's European Adventure: Saturday 27th August

Today we took a guided coach tour of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest and Berchetesgaden. We travelled across the old Austrian-German border to the foot of the Obersalzburg and then continued part way up the mountain to a bus terminal. Vehicles all have to stop at this point and only the special buses, run by DB Bahn, with high powered engines and brakes (hopefully) can take you up the next stage to the entrance tunnel to the brass lined elevator of the Eagle’s Nest. It’s a single track road with just one or two passing places and either spectacular, breath-taking views or a hideous sheer drop from top to bottom depending on your head for heights. My opinion (Angela) being the latter, on the odd occasion that I opened my eyes. Our tour guide for the first part of the tour, Michael, commented at the outset that we would have cause to be glad, as he was, that we had Otto driving for us and that we’d see what he meant later – and we did. He also said that they have no Disneyland in Germany as they have natural rollercoaster rides as we’d find out later – we did that too.

Michael was very knowledgeable and personable which is all you need in a tour guide. Unfortunately, he only came with us as far as the bus terminus. Our next tour guide, Walter, was German but spoke English with an Australian accent and was a dead ringer, in every respect, for Les Pattison.

We left the blazing heat of the mountainside, it’s 31 degrees C today, and entered the cool, damp walled tunnel that leads to the elevator. The elevator was lined with brass because Hitler was claustrophobic and the brass had a mirroring effect making it seem larger inside. The maximum allowed in the elevator when he was in it was six people. Today over thirty of us were crammed in to zoom up the 400 odd feet to the summit. Well at least there were no windows so no scary views.
One little boy was very disappointed and kept saying “but when will we see the nest?”