Off to Salsburg and Vienna

6/3 and heading to Salzburg.  Stopped in Ettal to visit a 13th century Benedictine Monastery built by the Holy Roman Emperor.  There are now 50 some monks living at the Monastery.  The monks make a delicious liqueur which we had to sample and buy.  Medicinal, you know.  As you can see it is a very ornate monastery as are most of the Catholic Churches in Bavaria and Austria.  Pictures 1 and 2

Salzburg was founded by the Celts around 1000B.C.  The area was very rich with salt mines which was used to preserve food.  Around 2 B.C. the Romans took over Salzburg.  The "salt roads" were developed by the Romans, much like the silk roads in China.  Salt was a precious commodity, worth its weight in gold.  The Holy Roman Empire, ruled by  Charlemagne, took over around 400 A.D..  The Hapsburgs took over in 1220 A.D. until the first WWI.  The Treaty of Versailles changed the Austrian empire forever.  Everyone wanted a piece of the action.  Don is reading "Salt A World History" by Mark Kurlansky.   It is a very beautiful city as show in picture 3.

6/4 we took a tour to Berchtesgaden, a Nazi mountaintop retreat, a complex bunker system and the Eagles Nest.  Starting in 1943 the Germans oversaw  Italian laborers (slaves) dig over 4 miles of tunnels through the mountains for the SS protection as the war was getting closer to their home.  They still thought they could win even though troops were asking Hitler to capitulate.  Hitlers home , Berghof, as well other SS housing was destroyed during Allied bombings. The Eagles Nest was not harmed because it was hard to spot.  It is a three room conference center.  Hitler visited the eagles nest only 14 times.  He was acrophobic and claustrophic . Picture 4 is in the tunnels and 5 is at the top of the Eagles Nest.

6/5 off to Vienna.  Today we turned in our little Clio and dependable GPS,  Inga..  The rest of our travels will be by trains.