Berchtesgaden

I am a restless traveller. There are not many places where I could stay for a week, let alone 2. Berchtesgaden

however is an exception to the rule, since I firmly believe I could easily spend a complete vacation here. First off, it’s very pretty. All the mountains, the stream, the cute town centre. And secondly, there’s tons to do. Lovely walks through the countryside, the very tacky saltmines, there’s the ketllehouse (eagle’s nest) the documentation centre of history geeks like me, there’s the koningssee where you can swim or take trips. And if you get bored of all that, Salzburg is only a 40 minute busride away and Munchen is 3 hours by train.

My personal favorite thing: getting up in the morning, stepping onto the balcony and watching the mountains wake up.

Wow…what a view from Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest location. You drive up to a parking lot…that’s half the battle. I was about to jump out of the car if the incline got any steeper! Then you board a bus that takes you to a location where you walk through a tunnel, get in an elevator and up to the top of the mountain you go. I didn’t visit any of the history part of it…I just enjoyed the view! Berchtesgaden is a small town at the bottom of the mountain. It has a lovely lake called Konigssee. We enjoyed a lovely dinner overlooking the lake and mountains.

In early Dec. there is a two day festival called Krumpas where giant Bayerisch men dress up as demons or haystacks with cowbells on their backs…. The demons have a whip made of braided twigs, and you run around the marienplatz getting chased and whipped by demons. They are “beating the demons out of you” before Christmas. I still jump a little when I hear a cow bell. I also was covered in bruises! Such a good time. Hang out by the gluhwine stands if you don’t want to get hit!

I’ve been to in a long time. The Königsee is remarkable, and St. Bartolomä makes for a great day trip with hikes ranging from the short and sweet to the strenuous. Hiked with my wife and friends up the east side of the Watzmann Alpine range to the Watzmannhaus, which was a rain-soaked adventure of sorts.

A longer blog entry of mine can be found here.