Nature's Majesty

July 11th, 2015

We woke up a little sad to leave Salzburg, but knew that we still have more amazing places to see. We packed up and grabbed a bus to Berchtesgaden in southern Germany. On the bus ride over, the views just continued to get more stunning as we passed and we knew we were in for a treat. The town itself is a bit of a resort town so it was a little gimmicky but still worth the visit. We headed to the Eagle’s Nest that was Hitler’s resort home (although apparently he rarely went there). The only way up is a private bus and this took us up to the base, where we then had to take an elevator to the top. The building is located at over 6,000 feet. The views from the top were unbelievable. We hiked around a bit although we were both wearing flip-flops and not prepared for this at all. From the top we could see Lake Konigsee, which even from over 6,000 feet was emerald green!

After taking in as much of we could of the views we decided it was time to head for the lake. We grabbed a bus back toward the train station and asked the driver which bus to transfer to for the lake. He told us to just stay on and he would take us there. At first, we thought that meant he was changing the route, but when we got to the train station he had us duck down so nobody would see us as he headed out. It was such a funny sight to see us, and one local woman, trying to crouch in our seats. Lucky for us he did this as we made it to the lake just in time for one of the last boats heading to the other end of the lake! Again, it is hard to describe just how beautiful this place is. The water was emerald green and completely clear to the bottom.

We took an electric boat across while listening to our driver tell us about the lake, all in German. We will definitely be doing some research later. At one point, between the cliff walls, the boat stopped and the captain took out a trumpet to play a tune. The location made the song echo back to us and made the experience that much more personal. We rode to a village on the lake with a red-domed chapel, St. Bartholomew, and continued on to the end of the lake. The sun was shining through the mountains and the views on the ride became more stunning as we went on. When we made it to the end we only had a short time to take in all the sights as the last boat back was leaving within a half hour. We realized that we probably wouldn’t have made it out to the end of the lake if that bus driver didn’t let us stay on the bus. The entire lake and surrounding area is breathtaking and like the rest of our time in Salzburg, it felt like we were on the set of a movie. We could hear cowbells and could see that cows were grazing just across the lake. After a ten-minute walk we found ourselves at another lake, Obersee, where the mountains were reflected in the emerald green lake. People were swimming here, but we only had time to walk out a bit and for Chuck to enjoy the photographic opportunity before heading back. We got onto the last boat, and then had the slowest boat ride back to the main part of the lake.

Austria and southern Germany proved to be the most spectacular places, and we decided we probably could have spent an entire week just in these areas. But, until our next travels we are onto new cities!