Munich Sights

We left the Obersalzburg, finally, and drove on to Munich, staying at Camping Thalkirchen (where we had stayed in 1979) for three nights while we re-explored this beautiful city, using the very convenient bus/subway/tram system for transportation.

Yes, we are in the land of super-sized

pretzels

One of the twin domes of the Marienkirche;

the other was under scaffolding

Interior of the church; rather dull, I thought

The Augustiner, one of the older brewhouses

Street scene; the Starbucks dates from 1328...

Another...all this undoubtedly re-built;

Munich was fairly flattened by bombing in

1944-45

The very famous Rathaus

With its even more famous clock

The joust, at the critical moment

Followed by the dancing of the apprentices

or someone else

My attempt at going native ended successfully

Dokumentation Center

Very close to the Berghof and where Goering and Borman and Goebels all had houses, is the Dokumentation Center, which painstakingly documents the rise of Hitler and his party, their 12 years of rule, and all its ghastly effects. It was packed, and, as one might expect, a very quiet and somber place. It is mostly photographs and documents--letters, orders, diary entries, newspaper coverage, etc.--but very effective, I thought, in telling the whole horrible story.

It is a grisly place, but something you have to see and spend some time reflecting on. The cult of personality is never very far away, even in democracies.

Dokumentation Center

A painting of the Berghof; the "romantic,"  nature-loving 
Hitler was part of the story sold to the public

Evidence of the Hitler craze

Large map showing all the known concentration camps,  "murder factories," 
and other such places

Below, the Dokumentation Center connects to the maze of concrete bunkers 
and tunnels in the Obersalzburg; fortunately, the Alpine Redoubt never took place

Map of the tunnels and fortifications

It is a grisly place, but something you have to see and spend some time reflecting on. The cult of personality is never very far away, even in democracies.

A Gay Romp with Mark and Vicki at Berchtesgaden

"Germany was having trouble
What a sad, sad story
Needed a new leader to restore
Its former glory
Where, oh, where was he?
Where could that man be?
We looked around and then we found
The man for you and me
And now it's...
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay!
We're marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race!
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Rhineland's a fine land once more!
Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Watch out, Europe
We're going on tour!"

from "Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden," The Producers

Kehlsteinhaus, the Eagles Nest; Hitlers home, the

Berghof, was on the mountainside below;

Kehlsteinhaus was used only for state visits, and

only a few of those prior to the war; Hitler was

there only 14 times

The original brass elevator and much of the place (what

couldn't be carried off by looters) is intact

View from Kehlsteinhaus, Untersberg, Salzburg, etc.

Salzburg Fortress in the center; I promise this is the last

shot of it

Official sign; all the Nazi stuff has been removed

"Heinz, why don't you let the Fuehrer use

your binculars?" from the photo gallery

Eva's room, so-called sometimes

The conference room, now, of course, a restaurant

View from above

Us, squinting into the Bavarian sun, but still humming

"Germany was having trouble..." (the day's ear-worm)

Ascents of Jenner and Schneibstein in the Bavarian Alps

We were going to tour Berchtesgaden, the Dokumentation Center, and the Kehlsteinhaus. But the weather suggested another day hike for me in the Koenigsee area. I opted for a ride up onto the Jenner, a 74m ascent of it, and then a much longer climb up its neighbor, the Schneibstein. The trail up Schneibstein is what the Germans and Austrians call a kletterweg; part trail, part blazes over rough ground, elementary rock-climbing skills and experience required. I found it the most taxing trail I have done so far, though not particularly long.

Hobbit-sized cable car, and a very long ride up the
mountain

From the summit of Jenner, the Untersberg, and
to the right, in the distance, Salzburg; click to
enlarge and you'll see the Hohensalzburg Fortress

Summit cross of Jenner

Below, the fiord-like Koenigsee, and the south face
of Watzmann, the big mountain in the area

Starting my climb up Schneibstein, a vew of the
back-side of Goll; on its other side is the
Kehlsteinhaus, the Eagles Nest

Crossing into Austria; again

Exactly 1,000 feet below Schneibstein's summit

Schneibstein summit cross

Big mountains to the west

Watzmann from Schneibstein

Looking back down to Jenner

Rocks on the trail, worn down, polished, by many boots
over the years

Schneibstein from the saddle between it 

and Jenner

On the ride back down, I was treated to a tandem
parasail flying rings around the cable-car line

Closer-up

Traunstein and Herr Scheissschopper

Our next few days, after a fruitful visit to the huge Salzburg Mercedes dealership (advice about tires, oil, other matters), were spent near Traunstein, in Germany, where we had finally, at great length, and trouble, located an RV dealer (Grunaugl, mit two umlauts) and repair shop that would obtain for us and install a new macerator. Our previous macerator had expired; and, let me tell you that, in a rig like ours, and in a place like Europe, life without Mssr. Macerateur is very unpleasant. (The Germans were translating macerator as "toilet chopper"). Traunstein is perhaps half an hour from Salzburg. Fortunately, we were able to park free at the dealership, which has its own stellplatz.

The failed Scheissschopper

In Traunstein, we ran into a large monthly flea market...

ein floh markt

It was fun looking around at what ordinary people buy and

sell at such events; out of the ordinary, perhaps, I found an

original 1895 leather-bound, fully-intact illustrated edition

of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's Wagner book, for 25

euros; he was one of the earliest British Wagner idolizers;

also some traditional clothing, but the market closed before

we could collect more geld from the wall

We made our way next back into Salzburg, en route to

Berchtesgaden, and encountered a wedding procession

Austrian wedding security; note the earphones

We drove on through Berchtesgaden and

spent an afternoon nosing around cheesy

Koenigsee; marmot oil is a popular home

remedy (for what I don't want to think

about); Europeans everywhere seem

fascinated by marmots

And then found a lay-by, on a beautiful creek, between

The ancient toll-house on the German-

Austrian border

And the Untersberg

Vicki, who had by now had quite enough of Salzburg, felt she was being sucked back into it...this, the Obersalzburg, was our base of operations for a couple more days...and it was not our last return to Salzburg.  For possibly obscure reasons, we spent the evening watching The Producers, a film we love and live by. Possibly our only meaningful connection with Berchtesgaden.

Ascent of the Untersberg

The final trip on our Salzburger Cards, as the last seconds of our 72 hour limit expired, was the cable-car ride up the Untersberg, the bigger mountain that overlooks the valley and city

The Untersberg, from Hellbrunn gardens,

the day before

Cable-car up to nearly the top

View at the top: total white-out, cold, raining, windy; I was

going to walk to the summit for a day-hike, but quickly

came to my senses

From the station at the top: cables descending into the void

The Untersberg, from Salzburg outskirts, a few days later