Day 12 - Monday June 20 - Bavarian Alps - Eagles Nest

Today we took an all day tour south of Munich to the Alps to see Hitler's Adlerhorst (Eagle's Nest) high atop the summit of Kehlstein. As a present, Martin Bormann gave it to Hitler, but it never got used very much by Hitler because he had a great fear of heights. It was not bombed by the Allies during WWII and the Americans took it over until 1960 when it was returned to private hands, whereupon it became a local tourist attraction with a restaurant. We did not eat there since the tour operator had arranged to stop and eat in Berchtesgarden which lies below the mountain summit. Berchtesgarden has become very much a tourist town sitting in the midst of the very scenic Alpine mountains. The view from the Eagle's Nest is spectacular --- as awesome as the Grand Canyon is in the U.S. Sitting on the German/Austrian border the 6000 foot high lookout lets you see villages and towns in both countries. On the return trip we passed through a bit of Austria before heading north back to Munich. We lucked out with the weather in that it was clear and warm (about 80 degrees). With no clouds we could see an ancient army fortication in Salzburg, Austria.