Hillbilly travels: The Eagle's Nest -- Berchtesgaden, Germany

Sun 8^th June

Leaving Salzburg, we decided to detour to Berchtesgaden, Germany, a beautiful mountain town in the Bavarian Alps with a terrifying past.

Berchtesgaden was the heart and soul of the Nazis – i.e. the so called Third Reich paradise and pilgrimage point where Hitler spent most of World War II and where Nazi leaders such as Himmler and Goebbelshad holiday homes. The place was heavily bombed at the end of the war and then bulldozed to the ground by the city council in hopes of reclaiming the memory of what was once beautiful countryside and home to the original residents who mostly fled during the war.

Eagle's Nest - Hitler's holiday home in the Bavarian Alps

But one treasure that remains is Hitler's infamous Eagle's Nest: a cliff top fortress meant to be the last stand for the Nazis which clings to the summit of the Bavarian Alps, complete with a brass elevator in the middle of the mountain that delivers you straight into the foyer of Hitler's chilling kingdom.

Entrance to the tunnel and Eagle's Nest perched on the summit

Eagle's Nest was built as a 50^th birthday present for Hitler and used mostly as a propaganda tool for dignitary visitors. Getting to Eagle's Nest is no easy feat and a true marvel at German engineering. You feel completely safe dangling thousands of feet atop the mountain until you venture a few steps away from the terrace and realise one misstep could easily result in a 30 second plummet to your death. And then there's the view! Mountain villages dot the green valley below with monstrous knife-like peaks on every side – a view of how Hitler envisioned his perfect Germany.

Bevan in the infamous brass lift

Visiting this place as a foreign ambassador must have truly sent chills up their spines as they travelled the narrow road carved into the side of the mountain for 45 minutes, finally reaching a tunnel entrance buried into the cliff side. Two massive doors stationed with Nazi soldiers would have guarded the entrance, then you must walk straight into the heart of the mountain down a blackened tunnel with dim yellow lanterns until you reach a rock-walled room with a large domed roof. The doors of an elevator made completely of shining brass slide open and you're whisked in shining gold reflections up a narrow shaft to the summit where you finally set foot in the very home of the most personified version of the devil yet to set foot on this planet.

Walking in the tunnel

Then you look around and notice that everyone is drinking one litre steins of beer and realise you're standing at the entrance to a Hoffbrauhaus restaurant. The tourism industry sure has a sick sense of humour sometimes.