Trip miles 1,275
+18 daytime
The chance spotting of a Wohnbmobile Stellplatz at Bad
Reichenhall gave us a wonderful base for three days to explore this beautiful
corner of Germany. The Berchtesgaden National Park is framed by six mountain
ranges, including the Watzmann (2713m) Germany’s second highest mountain.
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| Our home at Bad Reichenhall |
Bad Reichenhall is an historic spa town built on the
fortunes of its salt mines. The streets are wide and gracious and boast mainly
luxury hotels and (yet more) orthopaedic kliniks. It also has a fabulous bar
and eatery where we were immediately treated as locals on finding it on our
first evening foray into town, and to which we returned after every tremendous
day of sight-seeing!
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| The Salzburg Linie train venturing deep into the mountains |
Up and out soon after the hooting Semmelvan arrived with
fresh bread at the Stellplatz at 8.30 we used the clean, fast and reliable
local train service to explore the national park. The tracks wound through
picturesque farming villages now filling up with chic weekend homes of wealthy
Salzburgers and some Munichers and featured every modern comfort – wooden balconies,
solar panels, under floor heating, glass panelled rooms onto the view and wide and
expensively tiled garden terraces. Fantastic!
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| Obersalzburgbahn cable car |
Our first venture was by foot from Berchtsgaden to take a
ride on the Obersalzburgbahn cable car up to just under 1000m. From there we
wandered along a snowy hiking path to the area’s big historical attraction the
Dokumentation Zentrum, which details the history of the idyllic mountain
community in the early 20th century when it found itself the
unwelcome home of the Nazi’s in the south.
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| A snowy walk from the cable car across the mountainside |
The exhibition explained how centuries old farming
families were initially bought and then bullied out of their homes to make way
for Borrman’s bulldozers and the building of a complete complex for the
so-called ‘Nazi elite’. A striking documentary featured original footage of the
farms and then the compound and specifically Hitler’s self-designed own Berghof
as filmed by his mistress Eva Braun.
A late addition to the complex was a huge network of
bunkers which mirrored the life above ground and was intended to continue
Hitler’s ‘government’ should he be forced underground. We wandered around a
small corner of the huge 14km subterranean system.
Waiting for a bus down the icy mountainside we got
chatting to Mark, who had tried to visit the bunker system at the nearby Zum
Turkum Hotel – once home to a local switchboard of more than 1000 connections
and the powerhouse of the Nazi telecommunications system. The hotel had changed
hands and so tours were closed but the new owners hoped to start them again
soon – another example of how open German communities are about their dark
past.
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| Leber kase, kraut and chips! |
Stopping at the fabulous Schwabenbrau pub on the way back
to Bertha we planned a German treat for dinner – leber kase! Literally
translated as liver cheese this traditional meal is actually pork wurst
meatloaf, which we served with some obligatory white cabbage kraut, and then
added some oven fries and a good dollop of strong mustard senf. Washed down
with a good cheap Chilean plonk (£1.90 for Cab Sauv) - this may not sound particularly
appetising but it was actually delicious!
On Jo’s birthday we spent a fabulous day cycling and
hiking around Koningsee at 630m Germany’s highest lake and beautifully emerald
green and ringed by mountains. At the picturesque lookout point at Malerwinkel we
were joined by two jovial Austrian brothers who broke into a spontaneous
mountain song. Their lovely melodic voices pitched and bounced together off the
towering walls of the fiord-like mountains and they ended their celebration of
the moment with a round of yodelling. A real treat!
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| View of Koningsee from Malerwinkel overlook |
Pushing the bikes up the steep wooded pathway to the top of the mountain we then flew down the other side in an exhilarating, brake-frying flash, stopping momentarily at an inviting stream to greedily gulp down the pure water and cool the tyres.
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| Sipping the pure fresh mountain water |
The cable car up to Jenner at 1802 meters was closed as
was the bus and elevator route up the mountain side to ‘Kehlsteinhaus’,
Hitler’s Eagles Nest, built at 1837m as an official 50th birthday present ‘to
the Furhrer from the people’ but which he hardly visited as he was afraid of heights
and probably attack by the RAF which actually never regarded the site as worth
bombing. It is now a restaurant but until mid-May remains ‘geschlossen’ - closed.
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| Hitler's Eagles Nest at the top of the Kehlstein mountai |
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| Does this really need a caption? |
We contented ourselves with the view of Eagles Nest from
sunny Berchtesgaden down below and then partook of a MaccyD’s cheeky birthday
fillet of fish treat in probably the best located McDonalds in the world,
ever. We pedalled back to catch our
train, bumping again into Mark at the station. He advised us to visit Werfen
across the border in Austria to see the historic medieval Schloss which
featured heavily in ‘Where Eagles Dare’.
A terrific tip, thank you Mark!
On our third day we took the bikes and pedalled around
the fast-flowing River Salzach and its wide green plains to visit local
villages and admire onion-domed churches. At Marzoll we found a very sweet pink
and turreted castle and neighbouring domed church and in nearby horse riding
centre Turk, we stopped for coffee at the village shop – a wonderful store of
fresh vegetables, bakery and a delicatessen array of meats and cheeses. The
village shop!
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| Schloss Marzoll |
Back at Bad Reichenall and discovering that the town’s
cable car which would have afforded a fabulous view of Bertha at her riverside
camp was ‘geschlossen’ we discovered a new burst of energy and set off on an
11km route around the Salachsee, a lake created to stem the flow of the Salach
through the town. A sunny bank of lively and photogenic frogs caught our
attention!
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| A posing frog! |
Having carted the bikes more than 1000 miles already it
was good to clock up some miles on them and over two days we totalled more than
30 on them, so not bad going on tyres and legs!
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| The journey home to Bertha |
