Eagles Nest

We got up early again today and headed over to the central train station to meet our tour bus-- a motor coach this time.  On our way, Robin made a funky left-hand turn due to some construction barricades and we ended up on the tram tracks... between 2 trams!  The conductor of the one facing us was just shaking his head.  He was probably thinking "...stupid Americans..."  We, on the other hand, her cracking up.  There was nothing else we could do but laugh.  Until the tram ahead of us moved, there was no way to get off the tracks!  Everyone on the trams was looking at us so weird as they passed...too funny!  I will always have that memory tucked away to laugh about!  (And, of course, to tease Robin about!!! )  We checked in to our tour and headed up to the Eagle's Nest, in the Alps.  When we got up to the top, you could see Salzburg, Austria in the distance!  It's crazy how everything is so close here!!  The Eagles Nest is where Hitler went with his top SS leaders to relax, but mostly to have privacy to plan all of their horrible schemes and war crimes!!  I can't believe the price tag of this place and the logistics of building it on such a location.  Many lost their lives in the construction!  I also can't believe the price tag of human loss and the loss of beautiful buildings and property that that man, that horrible excuse of a man caused this world!  It is inestimable the cost of what he did!  One of our guides said, "The mother of idiots is always pregnant."  Well this was definitely true for Hitler!  He wasn't even very smart... he really didn't know how to lead and army or to run a  country and take over other countries, for that matter.  He had to get other people who knew how to do that stuff and were just as evil as him to do it-- that were willing to do his dirty work!  All for power and control!  Sick men!!  The first picture below is the long hallway leading to the huge elevator up to the house.  We walked around this building-- which again, was awful Nazi architecture.  No beauty to it at all!  After we saw the building, we hiked up and around the property.  This is where we could see Salzburg-- one of the cities in Austria that Bill and I saw last summer!  Then we took the long elevator through the mountain back down, and got back on the special busses that took us down the mountain to the main town.  Allison and I went and got lunch and Robin went down into the bunkers that Hitler had built.  I included some of the pictures that she took while she was down there. When the Allied forces found these bunkers, they found enough food for 250 people to last for 6 months!  And the food was expensive, lavish food...they found wine, and cigarettes as well.  There were kitchens and bedrooms stocked with everything needed to be down there for that long!  We then got on our motor coach and headed back to Munich.  We walked around the shopping area outside the train station and Allison and Robin did some shopping.  I didn't find anything I wanted to buy, and was kind of tired and not in the mood to shop.  We got back to the hotel around 9 and packed up our bags. Yay, yay yay!!!!  I've never been so happy to pack!  We leave for the airport at 7am to catch our flight tomorrow.  I can't wait to get home!  The very last picture is a vase of flowers that one of Bill's clients brought by to our hotel-- each one of us got a vase of flowers!  She also brought some nice German chocolates and some DR.PEPPER!! Oh sweet nectar!  We played one last card game and enjoyed our room temperature Dr. Pepper.  (No way we were going to ask for ice!)  It was nice of Bill to send one last gift to our hotel!