This morning started off a little cloudy so I decided to do some indoor stuff. I visited Mozart’s birthplace and got to see some cool things like his violin and piano and also listen to some of his great music. Then of course I had to get a church visit in so I went to the cathedral. And as you’ll see in the first pic I guess since I’ve been to so many churches on this trip the color guard with their swords were there to welcome me! Lol
Actually I again stumbled on to another local festival (which was tied in to yesterday’s carnival) which was St Rupert’s Day. He came to Salzburg as a Christian Missionary and pretty much established the city so today was a holiday to him. There were people all dressed in various local garb as well as a ton of priests (OK, you had to have heard the heavens shaking then!) marching into the church while the local band played. (And again I have videos for those that want them.) It was quite the spectacle! I took a pic of the highest ranking priest carrying the rod who I assume is a Cardinal or Bishop. (I kinda think he’s giving me the side eye with a little smile wondering what the heck I was doing there! Lol)
But my favorite pic of this group was the guy wearing the dress on the horse. And he was playing a trumpet. Gotta love it!
I then had planned to visit the palace which is connected to the cathedral so I also got a cool shot from the organ loft looking down on the mass where I just watched all these people march in for. The European traditions are really interesting.
I then took a bus for about 45 minutes back across the German border to a little town called Berchtesgaden. This was the highlight of my day (yes, even better than the guy wearing a dress on the horse!) since I joined a tour group to visit Hitler’s secret hideaway in the Alps called “Eagle’s Nest”. This tour group did such a great job of explaining all the history as well as all the Nazi’s that built houses there to be close to Hitler. The whole area was called Obersalzberg and had been taken over by the Nazi’s to keep the curious onlookers away once they heard Hitler had a place there. He finished writing his book, Mein Kampf, there as well as planned some of the war prep there. I learned that Hitler was afraid of heights and since this place was 6,000 feet high, he only visited it 14 times. They gave it to him for his 50th birthday in 1939.
It’s so high up it actually snowed while we were up there and the views were incredible. There’s also a massive bunker system built throughout the complex but was only used once in April 1945 when the British Royal Air Force bombed the Obersalzberg complex flat but missed the difficult to target Eagle’s Nest. By that time, since it was near the end of the war, Hitler was back in Berlin where as the Russian troops were ready to take over the city, he and his mistress Eva Braun (who he actually married two days before) committed suicide together.
To get to the Eagle’s Nest we had to take this all brass elevator that was the original one that Hitler rode in. They even said he was claustrophobic so since this was the only way to get up there, that was another reason he didn’t visit often. So after getting there I decided to hike up a little further to the peak so of course I had to ham it up with my “king of the world” pose!
Hope everyone had a great Monday!
Jeff
The Wandering Italian 