FROM HALLSTATT TO BERCHTESGADEN
I think it was at a New Year’s Eve party that we were chatting to our friends about one of their trips. The family had set off in a campervan and travelled the Hallstatt–Neuschwanstein route. They raved so much about what they’d seen that we decided to set off on our own trip.
We headed off over a long weekend in October and stayed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The town lies in southern Germany, on the Austrian border, and is a popular Bavarian ski resort. This was the view from our room:
The next morning we set off for Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze. We began the ascent on the 90-year-old rack railway from Grainau, which travels through a 4.5 km-long tunnel to reach the plateau. In the tunnel we watched themed documentaries on the screens. From there, the Gletscherbahn cable car took us up to the 2,962-metre-high summit in a matter of minutes. The view itself was enough to take our breath away. In the brilliant sunshine, the white snow glistened amongst the majestic mountains.
The Zugspitze was first mentioned in the 1500s, and its name appeared again just over 200 years later. It was first climbed by an Austrian soldier in the Bavarian army after the Napoleonic Wars, but it is thought that some of its peaks had already been conquered as early as the 1700s.
The mountain is home to Germany’s highest-altitude mountain hut – at 2,964 metres – the Münchner Haus, as well as a meteorological station and observatory. The old buildings have been expanded with futuristic new structures, including restaurants and viewing platforms offering every comfort to visitors. The gold-plated cross at the summit of the eastern peak was erected in 1851 and moved to its current location in 1882. It was later renovated and moved to the original museum.
On a clear day, we can see the mountains of four countries. We can also catch a glance of Lake Eibsee, which is surrounded by pine forests.
We hadn’t planned on doing any sport, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to go sledging. Just like little children, we slid carefree down a gentle slope, and it was hard to leave our new playground behind.
After the Zugspitze, our next stop was Neuschwanstein Castle, which inspired the castle featured at the start of Disney films.
The castle was originally called the New Hohenschwangau Castle, after Ludwig’s childhood home.
The idea for the building came from Maximilian II, but its realisation fell to his son, Louis II. The theatrical appearance is the work of Christian Jank, who was a set designer rather than an architect. The mixture of styles – Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Byzantine – concealed technological innovations: a heating and cooling system, electricity and steam engines.
We left our car in the village of Schwangau and, after climbing a steep slope from there, reached the castle. The building contains several impressive rooms and halls. It’s well worth seeing more than just the exterior of the castle.
If you’re looking for the best spot for taking photos, you should walk to the bridge spanning the Pöllat Gorge and waterfall – the Mary's Bridge (Marienbrücke). From here, there’s a magnificent panoramic view of the castle and the valley.
A short walk from Neuschwanstein Castle stands Hohenschwangau Castle, the childhood residence of Ludwig II. The building’s predecessor was Schwanstein (Schwangau) Fortress, which was built by a family of knights. The castle changed owners several times and had fallen into ruin by the 19th century. During a walk, Maximilian II discovered the beauty of the surrounding landscape and the ideal location of the former knight’s fortress. He had a Neo-Gothic building erected on the site, and Queen Maria had a garden laid out there featuring plants collected from the Alps.
After visiting the castles, we continued our historical tour and headed to Obersalzberg. This is the starting point of one of Germany’s architectural masterpieces: the 6.5-kilometre road to the Eagle’s Nest, designed by Albert Speer, which winds its way up a 27% gradient. At an altitude of 1,834 metres in the Bavarian Alps stood the house of the merchant Wachmann, which Martin Bormann gifted to Hitler on the 50th anniversary of his birthday. The Eagle’s Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) was rarely visited by the Führer; it served primarily for ceremonial purposes. The Allies assumed that Hitler and his inner circle were hiding somewhere in the Alps, which is why the Eagle’s Nest was also subjected to air attacks, but, interestingly, the building was not destroyed. The fireplace dominating the room reminds us of the past.
The building cannot be reached by car. Due to the difference in elevation, special RVO buses take tourists to the top of the mountain along the winding, narrow road. It’s quite a challenge to get up there! The serpentine road is closed from late autumn through to spring!
Even from the bus window, we could already guess what sort of panorama awaited us. Our surprise only continued when we realised our journey wasn’t over yet. After getting off the buses and passing through a 124-metre tunnel, we took the lift – which still retains its original copper cladding – up to the building. As impossible to conquer as the Eagle’s Nest would have been in the Middle Ages, so vulnerable did it become during the World War. Perhaps this is why Hitler considered it too risky to spend any length of time at this marvellous place.
Once you’ve explored the building inside and out, it’s well worth taking a stroll along the mountain ridge. The view is breathtaking! If you’d prefer something a bit more comfortable, you can enjoy a fresh coffee on the terrace of the restaurant, whilst breathing in the scent of history, the aroma of the coffee and the fresh Alpine air.
On a clear day, the backdrop looks as if it were the work of a painter’s imagination: the Alpine range, the villages nestled in the valley that seem so tiny, and the blue of Lake Königssee are a true masterpiece.
After Berchtesgaden, we stayed in Salzburg. As we were travelling on the following morning, we didn’t manage to explore the city in any great detail. As typical leisurely tourists, we simply strolled around the city centre and marvelled at Mozart’s birthplace.
The final stop on the trip was Hallstatt in Upper Austria. Perhaps many people first heard of it when it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and then made the front pages of the newspapers when a ‘replica’ was built in southern China. :-)
Yet the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The small village sits on the banks of picturesque Lake Hallstatt, like a jewellery box. Its main source of income these days is tourism, which has grown to such an extent that it is making the town almost unliveable. If time allows, it’s worth buying a ticket for the rack railway and heading up to the Skywalk viewing platform, which juts out over the valley. With a combined ticket, you can also visit the world’s oldest salt mine, from which you can slide down at the end of the tour. :-)
After Hallstatt, we set off for home. We agreed that this had been one of our most successful trips. We’d visited some beautiful landscapes – not far from our little country – and the weather had been kind to us too.
October, 2015
