At the Foot of the Eagles Nest

Our next stop, and where we are spending tonight, is Berchtesgaden, which is about as far south in Germany as you can get.  Berchtesgaden is tooled up for tourists like you wouldn't believe - it sits just north of a lovely national park that is apparently popular in both winter and summer.  Although the old town is nice enough, highlights of our visit have included a boat trip on the Koenigsee (a lake in the national park), the chance for Chad to convalesce a bit before we move on, and for me a long walk in the hills above town while Chad was partaking in the aforementioned convalescing.

The Koenigsee is a long, narrow lake up to 150 m deep.  Perched above it is the Eagles Nest, a tea house built for Hitler that he rarely actually visited because he was afraid of heights.  If you've seen the Band of Brothers mini-series, the Brothers took the Eagles Nest in the final episodes.  Unfortunately we couldn't go up because it's closed until mid-May (tourists are far and few between around here right now, especially non-German tourists, so it's easy to see why they don't bother having everything open).

The Koenigsee is apparently the cleanest lake in Germany with no private boats, and the main boats for taking people up and down the lake have electric motors.  A few shots from our boat ride:

St. Bartholomew's is the church at the end of the lake, first consecrated in the 1100's.  The lovely church standing there today has been around since the 1700's, though I imagine it's been painted since then.

Chad and I, despite his awful head cold, took a hike up toward the mountain beyond to see some glaciers.  We were actually headed for something called the Ice Chapel, but the trail was snowy and we could hear thunderous sounds as the snow above melted and streamed off the peaks, so we stopped short.

And had a bit of a rest lakeside at the bottom - I had to borrow Chad's hat due to the intense UV rays today.  We both came home with red faces!  But I am not complaining, as it was sweet to see the sun again and we've been lucky to have two nice days here.

When we got back, Chad stayed in to take more cold meds and rest up, while I decided to go explore Berchtesgaden a bit more.  There are all kinds of paths built into the cliffs and hillsides, which allowed me to trek up and get some great views.

On one steep trail in particular there were a number of bronzed-looking markers (a heart, some scales, a sun, an eagle), all inscribed in German.  I can't guarantee it, but I'm pretty sure that this one says "Yes, your heart will burst out of your chest if you don't stop climbing right now".  That's certainly what I was thinking.

Back to Munich tomorrow overnight and then off to Dusseldorf and Cologne, so probably no posts for a while!