We decided to do the Eagles Nest first. We had to catch a bus to one spot and another bus afterwards. The second bus is on a road that only buses can travel on. The Eagles Nest, known as Kehlstemhaus to the Germans (I forgot to mention-we are in Germany for the day, not Austria) The Eagles Nest was given to Hitler for his 50th birthday. It was a get away place high above on a mountain top with a spectacular view. There really wasn't much to see in a way of historical stuff. The building is used as a restaurant. What is interesting about the place is the way to get there. As I said we took the second bus to the top which is at 5600 feet. It had beautiful views on the way up of the village below and of the mountains in front of us.
Once the bus dropped us off we walked through a tunnel in the middle of the mountain and then we took an elevator to the top which was 400 feet up. The elevator was quite large. It probably could hold 30 people. The walls of the elevator were brass.
It only took 13 months to build this in the years 1937-38. This included the roads, all the tunnels through the mountain and the elevator shaft through the mountain, besides the building. The building has a three foot thick foundation.
As I said, there wasn't much to see except the view. There are hiking trails there but we didn't know that before. I think they could do a little more with it. I probably could have walked up there for the view and saved the money.
We took the bus back down and got off at a bus stop before the train station. We were going to walk to Salzbergwerk, which is a salt mine. The walk was about fifteen minutes. This was a neat tour. The first thing we had to do was put miner's clothes on; pants, shirt, and a leather apron that goes on your backside. We then took a train through the tunnel. The train was a padded seat and you sit astride with everyone behind you. When we got off the train, we had to take a wooded chute down. It was steep, like a ride at an amusement park. From here out tour began. One complaint I have is that the guide spoke in German and then he played a tape in English for the English speaking people and a tape in Italian for an Italian group. While we were listening to that the group moved on.
We got another ride down another chute. I don't know how deep we were in the mountain. There was a video in German, but we had headsets in English. They had been mining this area since 1517. Salt is also called "white gold". It was very precious in those days and could be used as money. The night watchman in Rothenburg explained that to us before. He also told us that the word "salary" comes from the Latin word meaning salt-or something like that. We also had a two minute ride in a boat that crosses the brine. This is where they mix water with the sediment from the mountains. It was quite fun and I enjoyed it more than Eagles Nest.
Laurie and I walked back to the train station. The train that normally goes to Salzburg had to stop at an earlier stop than Salzburg. They were doing work on the rails, I guess. So we had to get off and wait for another train. The next train was only another 10 minutes, but it was overcrowded and hot.
As we were trying to get to the campsite, we hopped on the correct bus, but it was going the wrong way. We hopped off after a few stops and ran across the street to get the bus that was coming down the street. We made it back safe and sound.
August 18, 2003
Laurie and I got to the train station a little before 9:00. We were going to take the 9:53 train to Innsbruck. As we were waiting I noticed that a train came in and said it was going to Innsbruck. Originally that train was suppose to stop at 8:59. It was 10 minutes late. So we decided to hop on it.
We got to Innsbruck a little after 11:00. We stopped at the information office at the train station. We got a list of places to stay at. I think this was the first time we didn't have reservations before hand. There were a few places that looked reasonable.
As Laurie waited at the information center, I went to go check out a Zimmer. A Zimmer is like a B & B. I had a little trouble finding it because it was in an apartment building. I rang the buzzer to the place I thought was the zimmer. The woman told me that she was full. I then tried calling another Zimmer and that was full.
I went back to the information office. We decided to let the information office find us a place. They charge 3 euros, but it is worth it. They found us a guesthouse called Innsbruck. It wasn't far from there and it was close to everything.
We found it and it was very nice. It's four star compared to our tent. Of course it is twice the price. We decided that since we are staying three nights it would be nice to have a nice place. Now it wouldn't be four star to most people's standards, but we were happy.
The bathroom and shower are down the hall. It is great to have a full size bathroom all to yourself and a towel to dry off. How I can enjoy the simple things in life. We are on the third floor, no elevator, but we do have a TV. The TV even has a few English channels. The place is on a very small lane with a very narrow sidewalk. The door goes right out in the sidewalk. If I made one extra step I would have been hit if a car came. The buses barely fit going up the lane.
After we settled in and had a bite to eat we decided to go to Swaroski Kristallwelten. Swaroski is the company that makes beautiful cut glass figurines, The Kristallwelten is their museum. We took the bus there. It was about 12 miles away. The museum was not very busy and they had about six rooms with artistic displays using lights, sounds, and crystals. It is not really what I expected. At the end, like any museum, there was the gift store. They had products displayed, but it was so crowded it was hard to look. I know in Innsbruck there is a three story build filled with Swaroski. Their stuff is beautiful, but expensive. Outside the museum there is a large play area for the kids. It was not worth visitng.
We decided to try to find the train to take back so we could save on the bus fare. It took about 25 minutes to get there and then we had to wait about half an hour for the train.
