Berchtesgaden

We said our goodbyes to the Aussies and made our way to Berchtesgaden (Ba-tis-garden). The drive was fortunately fairly uneventful. When we got off the autobahn and started driving on the main secondary roads we started to see the beginning of the Alps. To this point, our most enjoyable drive, the scenery was amazing. As you can imagine, there were lots of hills, and old blue didn’t take to them well. At times only being able to drive at 40km/h she managed to make it to the campsite located by Lake Konigsee, Germany’s largest Alpine lake. It was around 3pm when we arrived at the campsite and we decided to spend two days based on how much we needed to get done and what we wanted to see. Laundry was #1 on our list, and since we learnt our lesson at the Regensburg campsite, we bought the washer machine token as well (6 euros for both tokens). A young lady helped us decode the German instructions on the washer/dryer. Julie is translating this blog into French, and happens to be extremely behind. I believe she has up to Tournai, Belgium completed. That being said, it was Julie’s turn to use the laptop for productive reasons and get as far as the Fairy Tale road. Honestly, I can type quite a bit of useless stuff so I feel her pain, but laugh anyway. The backdrop we had at the campsite was stunning. A jagged mountain, a crystal clear spring and trees pretty much everywhere, the air is fresh but the air is extremely cold. This was our second time using the heater for the van, the first being the first night in Regensburg. The next day we intended to go for a hike but the weather turned sour and we were held up in the van. We have not been able to find affordable rain gear yet. The campground was located about 6km from the center of town, so on our last day we drove into town to find out about the Eagles nest. The Eagles nest is located on top of a mountain, only accessed by bus and an elevator. The tourist office was extremely helpful in showing us a route that is not as steep as the direct route. I enjoyed the bus ride up as it was the first time I was able to appreciate the scenery without worrying about driving too. I think Julie enjoyed not having to navigate too. We took many pictures and most of them are really great, but this is all because of the location and not because we are getting any better at taking pictures (though I have managed to keep the camera level lately). It was a bright sunny day with some clouds and up on the mountain top it was freezing. Can’t imagine why we decided to stay up there for two hours instead of 1 (our options), but maybe it was because of the 18euro price tag to get up. The elevator was large and was made to look like gold, the ride up is packed with people and the ride down isn’t. Watching how fast the clouds move and change shape was really fascinating for us. Within seconds a cloud could come in or move away. The building itself wasn’t all that impressive, but the fact it was built so high up makes it so. After the Eagles nest I tried to convince Julie to head into Salzburg on our way to Passau with no luck. Our time table is too tight and Julie doesn’t want to drive anywhere on our three year anniversary (she wants it to be a stress free day) and doesn’t want to be in Salzburg for it either. So it’s off to Passau.