Day 192: Friday 26 September – Bavaria: Bad Reichenhall, by Ken

Dawn brought another cool, grey day with light rain. It was impossible to believe it was only a matter of weeks ago we were in Turkey where it was too hot to sleep indoors.

While still not 100%, Jane was feeling much better than yesterday. We decide to have another go at getting to Bad Reichenhall to visit the Alte Saline, the old royal saltworks that is now a museum. Jane drove, a sure sign she was feeling a lot better. We found we were less than 3km from the town when we turned back yesterday. Just before we reached the Alte Seine we passed a woolshop that really brightened Jane’s spirits.

On The Road To Bad Reichenhall

Alte Saline Bad Reichenall

We parked close to the very imposing saltworks building just as its clock was striking 10:00, the museum’s opening time. There was a tour of the machinery of the old saltworks starting at 10:15, it was in German but we were given a printed English translation of what the guide would be saying. We whiled away the time looking at various salt products on sale and displays of how packaging had changed over the years. The cashier came to talk to us having asked where we were from. He had visited New Zealand and told us about all the places he had visited as well as giving us some tips on places to see locally.

There were about a dozen people in our tour group, all German speakers. Our guide arrived, a very bubbly young woman who spoke very fast, cracking lots of jokes that had the rest of the party laughing. A woman knowing we spoke English translated some of the guides opening comments, the woman was born in Germany but emigrated to Canada in 1941. While she hadn’t spoken German in a long time she had a good grasp of the language.

Our Guide

Our tour started in a machine hall where two 13 metre diameter top action water wheels drove ten lift pumps drawing up brine from shafts below. The wheels have been operating day and night for 150 years, water driving the wheels was channeled from the Latten mountains. A bell driven by a mechanism connected to each wheel sounded with each revolution, this was to let the operator know all was running smoothly.  Brine had been extracted from the shafts from 1260 onwards, at that time men standing on ladders lifted the brine to ground level in leather buckets. From 1438 a mechanical chain bucket was used. One of the shafts was drilled as recently as 1931 and the brine, which has a salt content of 24%, is used for therapeutic purposes in the spa next door.

One Of The Two Top Action Water Wheels

Water Wheel Bell

We then descended about 15 metres underground via a flight of marble steps in a narrow gallery. We were shown the Grabenbach gallery with a covered channel of fresh water that runs for 2km under the town of Bad Reichenhall. The channel was originally dug in the open between 1524 and 1538 to collect water from fresh water springs to mix with Brine to reduce salt content.

Grabenbach Gallery

We continued through an underground passageway to a chamber housing the Karl Thodor Wasserrad (water wheel). This bottom action wheel, driven by water in the Grabenbach channel, converts the circular motion to horizontal to drive a brine pump on the Karl Theodor spring 103 metres away via a larchwood and cast iron system of rods. Remarkably, the pump has operated non-stop since 1796.

Karl Thodor Wasserrad

We walked along the gallery housing the rod system to see the pump in action above the Karl Theodor spring. It’s an ingenious mechanism that lifts 40 m³ of brine by 6m each day. We were told the salt content of the brine had fallen over the years and is now only used for refining purposes and to feed a fountain in the spa gardens. There was a marble plaque dedicated to Karl Theodor, King of Bavaria, in the chamber housing the brine pump. Theodor was responsible for the development of the salt mines in the area between 1791 and 1793. A large proportion of Bavarian state income was derived from salt mining.

Larchwood Rod Linkage (left) Between Water Wheel And Pump

Pump Driven By The Karl Thodor Wasserrad

We backtracked a short way along the gallery to a natural grotto formed when rock salt was leached out. The grotto houses ground water reservoirs which overflow into the Grabenbach channel.

Water Reservoirs In Grotto

We then ascend into a chamber beneath the two large water wheels where our tour had started. It was explained this is where all the salt springs converge and the pumps driven by the two large wheels raise up to 900 m³ of brine to above ground level every day.

Some Of The Pumps Driven By One Of The Large Water Wheels

Our tour ended there and our guide escorted us to an exhibition describing the history of salt mining in the area. An interesting piece of history was while the salt works had plenty of brine, it began to run short of the wood used to evaporate the water from the brine. A left field solution was developed whereby the brine was pumped via a canal to Rosenheim where there were plenty of forests.

I really enjoyed the visit, particularly seeing how German ingenuity and engineering skills got brine to the surface and the salt works. Jane was less impressed.

After the museum Jane wanted to visit the wool shop we had seen earlier, I didn’t, so we agreed to meet back at Smarty in an hour. I spent the time exploring the town. A food market was being held in the main square, a wedding had just taken place in the Town Hall on one corner of the square and the newly weds emerged as I was passing.

Bad Reichenhall Street

Bad Reichenau Mural

Bad Reichenau Wedding

Jane beat me to Smarty and was waiting patiently when I got back. I told her about the market and we walked back there for Jane to have a look and to buy some bread.

Jane Waiting Patiently

From Bad Reichenhall we drove to the nearby hilltop village of Anger which was rather disappointing although it did have a magnificent church and some rather fine houses.

Anger Church

Anger House

We returned to Mabel for lunch after which we took her to the camper service point to fill with fresh water. We were very surprised there was a charge for that - €1 would buy us 80 to 100 litres. But it didn’t, €2 wasn’t enough to fill Mabel’s 135 litre tank.

We made yet another trip to McDonalds for our €1 coffees and free wi-fi.

Back at Mabel I cooked riso with tuna and sun dried tomatoes for our dinner.

Day 191: Thursday 25 September – Bavaria: A Quietish Day, by Ken

It rained overnight, it was still raining and cold and grey when we got up. It was cold in Mabel but that was soon rectified by firing up the heating. Campingplatz Grafenlehen charges for electricity so we only used gas for heating. That was on the basis that we assumed Mabel’s gas tanks would need to be empty when she is shipped home, so we might as well use the gas rather than vent it off later. The gauge on one tank had read empty for a while now but still continued to deliver gas, the other showed full.

Jane was feeling less than ideal and went back to bed for a while. When she got up she felt well enough to go out so at just after 9:00 we set off in Smarty heading for the spa town of Bad Reichenhall where we wanted to visit the Alte Saline saltworks. By then the rain had stopped and there were patches of blue sky visible through the clouds.

Jane became quieter and quieter as I drove. Just before we got to Bad Reichenhall I asked if she was OK, she wasn’t and we turned around and headed back to Mabel. Jane went back to bed, I caught up with the blog. It wasn’t much of a morning outside, cool with rain on and off.

For lunch I opened one of the tins of Croatian grah (bean) soup. This one had the same spicy sauce as previously, this time with pieces of pork, some of which were more fat than meat. We ate that with a toasted slice of the very heavy bread bought yesterday. It was a very good lunch, apart from the fat, that is.

The afternoon was a repeat of the morning, Jane was feeling better but spent most of the time in bed which we both agreed is one of the most comfortable and cosiest we have slept in. We are not sure why that is because the mattresses are nothing special and they sit on board. Possibly, it’s something to do with the space – low ceiling and walls on three and a bit sides.

Mid afternoon we took Smarty to MccDonalds for coffee, but mainly to use the wi-fi. As expected when I checked my email MSD were not happy with their form I returned the other day. They wanted it countersigned but have lowered their sights to ‘the local teacher, police officer, postman, shopkeeper or someone of some standing to witness your form’. Apart from not having any means of printing the form I had serious doubts about my ability to convey what was required in German should I be able to find someone of ‘some standing’. I struggled to think why MSD felt a witness was important, after all the details I had provided could be a complete fabrication. All they would have is some certainty I had signed it. I felt a phone call coming on, but that could wait until next week.

Jane had lots of stuff to do on line so I walked back to Mabel, leaving her to do her stuff.

While we had been reluctant to accept the end of our trip wasn’t that far away, there were arrangements needing to be put in place if we are to get Mabel and Smarty on a ship back to New Zealand. Smarty was just about sorted out, I was waiting for confirmation from Elite that they were confident they could do their bit for Mabel in the week before she is shipped. That left her cruise control problem to be rectified. While helpful, the Guildford dealer couldn’t do it because Mabel was too big for his workshop and Thames, the Slough Fiat service agent they recommended to me hadn’t returned my call from last Friday. I moved to Plan C and called the Fiat service agent in Coventry. They were very helpful, they will look at Mabel on 16 October when we are en-route to Ireland and if the problem can’t be fixed then we have another window of opportunity when we are back in the Midlands in November.

For dinner we had the remainder of the chili con carne I cooked on Monday. We spent a quiet evening reading. Jane was feelng a lot better after our quiet day.

Day 190: Wednesday 24 September – Bavaria: The Eagle’s Nest, by Ken

As usual, it was still dark when we got up, from what little we could see we were surrounded by a heavy mist . The outside temperature read just 1°. Dawn confirmed there was indeed a heavy mist filling the valley, it felt cold and damp outside.

Jane took Smarty to visit McDonalds for a coffee, but mainly to use their wi-fi. While she was gone I could see the sky above Mabel’s skylight changing colour from grey through a much lighter grey which then started to clear and give glimpses of blue sky above. It had all the makings of a fine autumn day.

It was just after 10:00 when we set off in Smarty. By then the mist had gone and the sun was shining from a clear blue sky. We drove through Berchtesgaden and then took the road up to Obersalzberg where we parked in the car park for the Eagle’s Nest situated several hundred metres above us. Jane was worried it might be cold on the mountain and decided to take her puffer jacket, I went for my light waterproof, just to keep the wind out.

On The Road To Berchtesgaden

We visited a souvenir shop near the car park. Jane was keen to buy an ornately decorated stein as a souvenir, but it was €70, far too much to spend on an ornament.

The only way of reaching the Eagle’s Nest is to take a bus from the parking area at Obersalzberg. We walked over to the bus terminus to buy tickets, four or five buses were waiting there. A timetable showed buses ran every 25 minutes. With typical German efficiency our bus ticket not only showed the number of the bus we should take, but also its departure time. We were allotted Bus No 2 departing at 11:50. That was over 40 minutes away, there was some real warmth in the day and we used up some of that time walking back to Smarty to leave our jackets there.

Our very smart red Mercedes bus set a cracking pace as it climbed the steep road up the Kehistein mountain. The road was just wide enough for the bus and on the way up we passed three or four buses that had been coming down stopped in a passing place. A recorded message told us the journey was 7km, it climbed 800 metres and would take approximately 20 minutes. We would be passing through seven tunnels and around just one hairpin bend. It also asked that we booked the time of our return trip when we left the bus. The recommendation was two hours at the Eagle’s Nest would be about right. More German efficiency.

Initially the road climbed through a pine forest. Once above the tree line we had magnificent views down into the valley below. To the south we could see Lake Königsee and to the north the valley opened out to a broad plain with Salzberg in the distance.

View From Bus On The Way Up To The Eagle's Nest

We left the bus at the turnaround at the top of the road. It was a lot cooler there, Jane immediately felt cold and wished she had brought her puffer jacket with her. We dutifully booked a 14:20 return trip. We then walked something over 100 metres along a granite block lined tunnel and turned sharp right into a circular domed area where we waited for a lift to take us up to the Eagle’s Nest itself. The lift was the original with walls and ceiling clad in brass, it took us up 130 metres to a hall where we had the choice of turning left and out onto the terrace, or right to the restaurant. We chose right and entered what had originally been the dining room beyond which was what had been the larger reception hall.

We sat in the dining room. Our waiter was on Ritilin, or something similar. He greeted us as he dashed pass towards the kitchen, emerged a few seconds later with dishes rushing past again to deliver them. Then he was back for our drinks order which he returned with in a few seconds before dashing off to seat some new arrivals. ‘Frenetic‘ is about the only way of describing him. He was constantly on the move taking and delivering orders, totting up bills in his head, whipping out change, clearing tables, making sure people were happy with their meals and generally being a good waiter. Our meals arrived within just a few minutes of placing our orders, Jane’s roast pork – three large slices about 10mm thick, a potato dumpling and sauerkraut. My home made potato soup arrived with what looked like a willy poking out of the liquid. Sometime afterwards the waiter passed by at speed asking if everything was OK but was well out of earshot by the time we could respond, he just never stopped. When we asked for the bill, he asked what we had ordered, totted the prices up in his head and scribbled the total on a piece of paper saying “That includes tax, the tip is up to you” and was gone again.

Eagle's Nest Dining Room

Soup And Willy For Lunch

We walked outside onto the terrace which was packed with tables filled by people eating lunch in the sunshine. Jane was sorry we hadn’t eaten out there, but she had felt cold when we got off the bus. We walked up a path that took us to the summit of Mount Kehistein stopping numerous times along the way to take in the views of the valley below and the mountains above capped with a light dusting of snow. By the time we had covered just part of the way to the summit Jane was feeling hot and had to take her Icebreaker off.

Looking North - Bodensee Just Visible Middle Left

Busy Sky Over The Eagle's Nest

Looking East Valley Opening Up Towards Salzburg

Looking Down Towards The Eagle's Nest

There were several black birds gliding and soaring around us. I was pretty convinced they were eagles, Jane thought they were crows. Some research is needed to find out what they were, but we noticed signs for Black Eagle beer on our way back to the Eagle’s nest. We stopped at a stall where I bought a book documenting the history of the Eagle’s nest.

Black Eagle?

The 14:20 bus was actually 5 buses that left in convoy spot on time. Back at Obersalzberg we walked down to ‘Dokumentation Obersalzberg’ a museum dealing with the history of Obersalzberg and National Socialism. The captions to the very good displays were all in German and, consequently, we understood little of them. However, at various points around the museum were multi-lingual pamphlets with selected translations of what we were seeing.

Obersalzberg was a mountain village that had been popular with tourists from the second half of the 19^th century onwards. Hitler holidayed there from 1923. In 1928 he lived in a rented house in the village which he purchased in 1933. Between then and 1936 it was enlarged significantly and named the Berghof.

Bormann set about driving out the original inhabitants of the area, initially by purchasing their properties, but subsequently by threatening them and their families with imprisonment in concentration camps if they didn’t sign to say they had given up their property voluntarily. Indeed, one resident spent 2 years in Dachau.  Bormann created the ‘Führersperrgebeit’ (the Führer’s off-limits area) fencing off a large area of the mountainside to keep intruders out. It was the second seat of government outside Berlin, a place where important political decisions were made and a backdrop for propaganda. Between 1943 and 1945 the SS constructed an elaborate bunker complex fearing the area would be where the Third Reich’s last stand would take place.

Inter-alia, the museum covered the key figures in Hitler’s regime, genocide, resistance and the Second World War in big picture terms. The photographs of concentration camp victims and mass executions were particularly harrowing. There was some good stuff on Churchill’s May 1940 speech “I have nothing to offer but blood, tears, toil and sweat” and “You ask what is our aim: I can answer with one word: Victory, Victory at all costs, Victory in spite of all terrors, Victory however long and hard the road might be”. Stirring stuff and we could almost hear him speaking.

There were some very good maps of Europe dealing with the chronology of the war starting with Germany expanding in all directions followed by the Russians stopping the advance on Moscow and then driving German troops back. As other fronts opened up, so Germany’s conquests were liberated and, finally, of course, Germany was left with less than it started with.

Next we visited the bunker complex over which the museum had been built. It was an enormous undertaking on a number of levels of which only the upper was open to the public. Designed to withstand a siege, it had all the facilities required to live underground for a long while, including an early example of air conditioning. One of the bunker’s rooms played a video of contemporary footage produced in WWII. It started with the rise of Hitler and Germany’s early successes including its advances on Poland, Russia, etc. and the Blitz but soon moved on to the darker side, particularly the persecution of Jews followed by the turning of the tide as the allies gained the upper hand. It was another quite harrowing feature, but well balanced.

Bunker Corridor

Another Bunker Corridor

The last exhibit we visited in the museum was another video, this one featured eye-witness accounts of life in Ubersalzberg before, during and after the Nazis. It had clearly been a happy place where farmers eked out a living, but that all changed when Hitler moved there attracting lots of visitors wanting to catch a glimpse of the Fuhrer. After that there were first hand accounts of Bormann clearing the residents out and turning the mountain into a Nazi enclave. Some of the speakers spoke, understandably, with real feeling about that. The video finished with an account of the 1945 RAF raid that destroyed virtually everything in the area except the Eagle’s Nest. We could have stayed longer in the museum, but had to leave when it closed at 17:00.

Our plan had been to fit in a visit somewhere else, but we hadn’t appreciated how much of the day the Eagle’s Nest and museum would take. We set a course back to Mabel, dropping in to a Tanglemann supermarket on the way for supplies. It was very impressive, particularly the fruit and veg which looked perfect.

We stopped off at MccDonalds close to the camping ground to use their free wi-fi to check email, etc. The deposit for our accommodation in Goa that we transferred through internet banking a couple of weeks ago, hadn’t reached the account in Goa. The recipient seemed pretty laid back about it suggesting such things take time in India. We agreed to leave things until the beginning of next week when I would get BNZ to trace the payment if it hadn’t turned up by then.

After our lunch out we had a light evening meal of toast made from a new loaf even denser than that we bought in Austria on Monday with dips and cheese.