Berchtesgaden, Germany

We began our week long summer road trip through Austria and Slovenia in the beautiful southern Bavarian Alps!  Our first stop was the town of Berchtesgaden, located in a funny little cutout part of Germany south of Salzburg, Austria.  

It's a tradition to take a family selfie as we leave for our week long trip!

This was SO funny.  Todd was taking pictures of the pretty landscape as we approached the Alps in southern Germany and he inadvertently snapped a pic of a guy in a red shirt peeing on the side of the road.  For the record, this is totally legal here.  I see guys peeing on the side of the road at least several times a month!  I've never seen a woman do it though!

The Alps are always so beautiful!  (Sorry for the car reflection). 

Europe is so funny.  They sometimes send you down some of the most bizarre streets to get to your destination.  This was a one lane road but not a one way street! What!?!

We got to our campsite and set up the tent first thing (because it was first come, first serve and they recommended getting their early).  That left us the afternoon to explore the Eagles Nest! (Known in Germany as the Kehlsteinhaus).  We stayed at the Camping Resort Allweglehen.  It was pretty nice- the facilities were great, the restaurant was nice and they had a great pool.  But the weather did not really cooperate for us, which wasn't the resorts fault.  More on this later...

The Eagle's Nest is not hard to get to.  You can either make a pretty strenuous hike to the top, or you can take a bus from the base parking lot.  It's pretty easy and even in the heart of the summer, it wasn't insanely crowded although parking is pretty difficult to come by. Also, it's not open in the wintertime because the bus can't get up the snowy roads (and the rock walls crumble due to the snow and ice, causing damage to the road that needs to be cleaned up in the spring), so you have to go between mid May and mid October. 

Once you take the 15-20 minute bus ride to the top, you find a tunnel that leads you to the elevator which leads you to the "Tea House at Kehlstein."  The sign outside of the tunnel says, "The year 1938 over the tunnel entrance refers to its completion date.  The leaders of the Nazi regime used the Tea House at Kehlstein, as the Kehlstein House was labeled by contemporaries, for private parties of top Nazi officials and special events not open to the public. The Kehlstein road, the elevator as well as the Tea House were finished in the fall of 1938."  Twelve workers lost their lives in the construction of the Eagle's Nest.

Grant is a little blurry but this was a cool pic down the tunnel. Grant is blurry because he NEVER. STOPS. MOVING.

Everyone says don't go to the Eagle's Nest unless you have a mostly clear day. I mean, I don't think there's every been a totally clear day in Germany!  But if there isn't a threat of rain and some sun is in the forecast, then it should be ok!  The views you are rewarded with are incredible!

Even these two thought it was pretty cool.

Looking down at the windy road that gets you from the parking lot up to the base of the Eagle's Nest. 

There are beautiful views of the Königsee.

Edelweiss flower and cross at the summit of the Kehlstein.

It always amuses me that birds fly up this high.  You see them at the summit of every mountain.

You can continue to do some easy hiking at the top, although I chose not to because I was wearing Toms!

My goodness, he is silly.  It looks like he's sitting in front of a floor to ceiling wall picture!

Me and the Dad and the Alps. Good thing he has long arms!

A panorama of Grant at the Eagle's Nest, high above the valleys in southern Germany.

Contemplating those clouds on the right. Maybe kind of having a King of the World moment.

 Looking down at Mommy who can't climb the slipper rocks because she wore the wrong shoes. 

Daddy and the kids hiked up, though. This part seemed a bit difficult for the kids.

The entire Eagle's Nest isn't very big. It's actually just a restaurant and a biergarten now, but you can still go in and view some of the rooms.

Heading back down to the Kehlsteinhaus after our brief little hike.

I spy a Biergarten.  Let's go!

A couple of helles with a couple of cute kids at 1834 meters.

Beer for adults, ice cream for kids.  It's a win-win situation!

 One more panorama before heading inside.  We were super fortunate for good weather (more on that to come!)

The Kehlstein House sits at just over 6,000 feet and was original a 50th birthday present from the Nazi Party to Hitler.  He only visited a few times, but his lady friend Eva Braun came here many times.  Everything here is still in it's original state.  Directly from the website, it reminds us, "This building is one of the few undamaged monuments of the Hitler era which has resulted in giving it a prominence that it does not perhaps deserve though it might seem to provoke.  Berchtesgaden has outlasted its political importance. It must however not be forgotten that the Eagle’s Nest was a part of an idyllic setting, that was intended to overshadow all the horrors of those years. Today however it still offers a magnificent and unique view of the surrounding countryside and also the opportunity to remember and learn about the inhuman dictatorship it served."  This is something everyone in America needs to be reminded of in our current state of affairs.  The proceeds all go to charitable causes so that something good can come out of this reminder of a terrible era.

This was once used as a sun terrace.

My family in the sun terrace.

The biggest rooms are currently being used as dining rooms.

In this overflow dining room, there is a marble fireplace which was a gift to Hitler from Mussolini.  You can see damage to the upper part of the fireplace which was a result of allied soldiers chipping away at it for some souvenirs. 

The inside of the Mussolini fireplace.

This is the main dining area.  As I mentioned, the Eagle's Nest was rarely visited by Hitler, but Eva Braun spent more time here.  In fact, her sister Gretl had her 1944 wedding reception here.  (Hitler later had her husband murdered after he was found preparing to flee Germany - although there's some debate about that.  The last bunker witness said Hitler only requested that her husband be stripped of all of his rankings, not murdered). 

We took the brass elevator down and walked down the 400 foot (plus) tunnel.

A nearly empty tunnel.  It was chilly and damp in here.

Looking back up at the Eagle's Nest, with the tunnel to show you the scale of how high the building is.  The tunnel is the same length as the length of the elevator lift (124 meters). 

These two on the right were slobbering all over each other and Natalie though this was really funny. Todd is pretending to point to the Eagle's Nest.  Boy, aren't they great actors!

She has the sweetest profile. Also, the views from the bus were amazing, but too scary for me so I let Nat have the window seat!

We went back to the campsite and the kids wanted to take a picture inside of the tent. This is when we were all still dry. 

Although the pool was heated, you know it's not heated enough for me!  But Todd and the kids had fun!  I spent the entire time fighting off a wasp that wanted my drink as I tried to relax with my few minutes of peace and quiet.

We brought a small fold-up charcoal grill with us that we were really excited to use.  But of course, just as dinner time rolled around, so did the thunderstorms.  So we made our way up to the restaurant.

Ha!  Todd's face is so classic.  We have to eat at the restaurant (which we were trying to avoid doing to save money), and we were being bombarded by yellowjacket wasps, which Natalie is terrified of and freaks out by screaming and crying if one even comes near her.  Hence Todd's face.

The rain started as we were eating dinner.  Good thing they've got a former meteorologist to alert them to these things!

After dinner of course, the rain temporarily stopped.  But we did have a lovely evening view of the mountains and the clouds.  And a lovely view of this cutie!

This couple.  They were super nice.  But this is just SO funny and foreign to me.  They set up their tiny little tent, pulled out a couple of chairs and started reading.  Meanwhile, the Griswold's have a big tent, four chairs, a grill, a charcoal heater, a table, massive amounts of food and drinks, bags galore...  Ah, the simple life of the young, childless couple!

And then... the rain began.  And it continued ALL. NIGHT. LONG. It didn't just sprinkle. It POURED.  So much that the tent started leaking..........