Poor Pat had driven up such a steep hill from last night, we couldn't
just drive back down it this morning without exploring the mountains
above us!! With no clue whether there were any walking tracks on our
road, we continued along it for another couple of km's before we found
a small car park. With a few cars already there, it was a good sign
that there were walking tracks - not that we had any idea where it
would lead.
Our tracked climbed for an hour until it met a road, that can only be
described as a feat of engineering. It snaked in close to the
Cliffside burrowing through them when necessary. Every few minutes we
met a convoy of buses going up or down and we would scramble to get
away from the very hot exhaust fumes. They were obviously working to a
schedule because there was no way two buses could pass each other
halfway.
With all these bus loads of people, there must be something worth
seeing at the top - so onwards we went, now getting above the forest
our view of the valley below and the mountains across the valley gave
a great excuse for plenty of photo stops.
Finally we made it to the bus parking area, perched on the side of our
mountain with hundreds of tourists who had taken the easy way up. It
was only now we were able to find out what we had walked up for (apart
from the view of course) - perched on the peak above us was Hitler's
"Eagles Nest". A building built for him in 1937/38 as a present from
a local official.
The view from top was amazing - looking down onto both Germany and
Austria, among other things we could see Salzburg to the north, while
every other direction was filled with huge peaks rising up above us! 5
or 6 paragliders completed this unbelievable setting.
A leisurely afternoon taking it all in before we returned to the van
(this time we'd had to keep him in the shade all day long:-), and
headed back to Austria and the lakeside town of Zell am See.
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