Family Trip to Eagle's Nest and Salzburg

This past weekend we drove down to Berchtesgaden and Salzburg for a mini vacation with Chris' parents and brother. It was a packed car ride, but we made it! After a typical German lunch at a Biergarten, we met up with our tour guide for an in-depth look at Hitler's Eagle's Nest and underground bunker.

We learned so many interesting Hitler facts on our tour. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Berchtesgaden was actually famous before Hitler made it infamous. It was a luxury destination for the rich and famous.
• Hitler wanted to be more German than the Germans (even though he was Austrian).
• Hitler built the German Army from 100,000 soldiers to 13 million soldiers.
• The Eagle's Nest was never mentioned in the German media, even though it was built using taxpayer money. If it had been built today, the Eagle's Nest would have cost $140 million to create.
• The Eagle's Nest was a 50th birthday present for Hitler. Hitler loved to drink tea, so they built him a tea room with a fantastic view.

Map of the extensive bunker

Graffiti from the day the French soldiers entered the bunker

An unfinished portion of the bunker

After the bunker, we took another bus up a very narrow and winding road leading up to the Eagle's Nest. The views were incredible!

The Eagle's nest sits at 6,017 feet above sea level, so the final ascent had us riding the original elevator up the last 106 feet. The elevator itself is pretty impressive. It's made of brass and can hold up to 46 people.

After the tour, we drove to Salzburg, Austria and checked into our hotel. After walking around looking for a good restaurant for dinner, we chose Istra Konoba. We were seated in the cellar and our waitress told us that they didn't have menus, we just had to pick how many courses we wanted. We ended up picking the mushroom pasta course and the main course (which was fish). We were all very surprised when the main course came out, and it was the entire bodies of the fish, head to tail!

Sunday morning we woke up and went out searching for locations used in the Sound of Music. Our first stop was Mirabell Gardens, where the final verse of "Do Re Mi" was filmed.

Next we wandered around the old town. It was such a beautiful day....the weather was perfect for sightseeing and picture taking.

I found a giant "pretzel" pastry at a market stand, so of course we had to try one!

We visited the cemetery that inspired the Sound of Music scene, when they are hiding from the Nazis.

It was a short, whirl-wind of a trip, but we all had a fantastic weekend!