Eagle's Nest

A few years back I watched a war series called Band of Brothers. It's about Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division in WWII. I loved it. I've actually watched it 3 times now. I think I inherited my Dad's love of wars. Not the actual love of blood and guts, just mostly the history. Anyhow, at the end of the series the company ended up in Salzburg and on to take over "Eagle's Nest." It's not too far from Salzburg in Bertesgaden, Germany. Just over the border of Austria. After I watched that episode I really wanted to go there. Well last weekend we did. We did a tour...the only tour I'll ever do because I hate tours, but this one was nice.

We had a lovely guide, she was an American woman who had lived in Germany for 20 yrs. So, Eagle's Nest was a gift given to Hitler by the NAZI party. It was built miraculously in 13 months by many slave labors. The road was built so it would be hidden. They had special buses geared with 3 back-up break systems to climb the 27% grade.

While we were waiting for our tour to leave Jared noticed this town...Schmuckenstein on the map. He thought it was funny. You must be a Schmuck to live there...har har.

That's Eagle's nest perched above at 6,000 feet.

First we went to the documentation center where we got to tour some of the Nazi Bunkers.

There were about 6 miles of tunnel. The S.S. soldiers lived in these bunkers. They had amazing air filtration systems for heating and keeping it from being damp and also protected from being gassed.

When the war ended, all of the locals stripped the bunkers for supplies to rebuild because it was the only thing that was untouched by the air raids. They couldn't take this humungous safe though.

Here is where a U-Boat engine was installed for power. When we walked in I thought we were going to get gassed because it felt like a gas chamber.

After we took the crazy bus ride up to the nest we had to walk through this tunnel into the mountain and go up a 41 sec. elevator ride which was equipped with mirrors to make it look bigger because Hitler was claustrophobic. He was also afraid of heights, which is why he only visited Eagle's Nest 14 times.

Now it's just a restaurant.

An elderly couple on our tour from Los Altos...the last city we lived in took our photo. The wife was staring at my sparkly ring and was wondering if we were on our honeymoon...well we kind of still are.

Views from the Nest.

I like this one.