Berchtesgaden And Eagle's Nest

On Friday, June 24, Gina and I traveled to Berchtesgadenland (above) and the infamous Eagle's Nest (below), Adolf Hitler's unique lair atop Mt. Kehlstein in the beautiful Bavarian Alps.

Tucked into the southern reaches of Germany on its border with Austria, the local legend claims that the angels responsible for locating God's natural wonders were startled by His orders to make haste and dropped them all around Berchtesgaden. Along the way, we motored past Lake Chiemsee, the largest lake in Bavaria.

Arriving in the alpine village after a two-hour bus ride, the tour proceeded immediately to special busses for the trip up the mountain.

The steep and dangerous road is closed to private traffic, and the only road that compares in my mind is the one up Pike's Peak. Once at the top, we entered a long tunnel (below) leading to a brass-encased elevator for the remaining ascent to the summit.

Built as a 50th birthday present to Der Furher, Eagle's Nest was completed in a span of 13 months by 3,000 laborers -- mostly Italians -- as a diplomatic meeting place. Of all the places in Germany that suffered from its association with Hitler, Berchtesgaden is perhaps the most tainted.

The German leader, who already had a small home in nearby Obersalzberg, had established a part-time headquarters and would bring the Nazi Party brass with him.

Though it was a mostly cloudy day, the view from the top of Mt. Kehlstein and Eagle's Nest was nonetheless impressive (below is the view of Konigssee, or King Lake).

Although the Allies flattened Hitler's Nazi headquarters at the imposing Berghof in Obersalzberg in the final days of WW II, Eagle's Nest was strangely spared. Our tour guide Bridgit noted that because of its obscure location, many children -- including her own mother -- was sent to Obersalzberg for protection from the Allied invaders.

At the base of Mt. Kehlstein below Hitler's mountaintop eyrie is the "Documentation Center," a museum that provides an incredibly thorough look at Hitler's initial appeal to the German people, his odd politics, the German resistance movement and Nazi death camps.

Gina and I toured the eerily elaborate underground bunker system (below). I wondered what it must have been like to wait out an Allied bombing raid in these bizarre catacombs.

In an odd twist of irony, Der Furher reportedly suffered from vertigo and rarely visited Eagle's Nest.

You'd think that Martin Bormann -- the key Hitler henchman who engineered the building of Eagle's Nest -- would have checked in with his boss before going to all the trouble.