This morning we went to Konigsee lake and then headed for Kehlsteinhaus, the mountaintop home built for Hitler, also known as the Eagle’s Nest. Unless you want to spend the day hiking, the way to get to Kehlsteinhaus is to take a bus up the mind-boggling Kehlstein road to the upper parking lot, where you walk through a tunnel to the center of the mountain and then board an elevator for the rest of the ascent. Personally, I don’t like hiking to peaks that people can get to by easier means (what’s the point?), so we took the bus and elevator.

I was wanting a good panoramic view of the Alps and the spectacular view from Kehlsteinhaus was exactly what I was hoping for.

After lunch, the four of us borrowed bikes from Haus Gertrude (heck of a deal–2 bedroom apartment, free bikes, etc) for an afternoon ride. We decided to venture down to Salzburg, and our afternoon ride turned into a 3 1/2 hour trek as we got somewhat off-course for awhile and ended up riding on some treacherously narrow highway shoulders. We made it safely there eventually and enjoyed a picturesque ride down the river and a nice dinner before taking the train back to Bayerisch Gmain.

Konigsee.

Kehlsteinhaus - The Eagle’s Nest.

On thing that impressed me about the Alps, is the greenness. Whereas the Rockies that I’m used to are covered with jagged boulders, the Alps are surrounded by smooth rolling hills with lush grash kept neatly trimmed by sheep.

Konigsee from Kehlstein.

Salzburg.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 7th, 2005 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Travel, Outdoors, Photo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.