Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018

Dave dropped me off at the airport for my uneventful flight to Chicago where I had a six hour layover.  The Kavanaugh/Ford senate hearing was on tv in the United Lounge so I watched that spectacle to kill the time.

The overnight flight to Munich went fast but as usual I still hold my perfect record of never sleeping on a plane.  I was good and tired as the taxi took me to the hotel and as boring as it sounds I slept for a few hours. They are 6 hours ahead of NY time so I was jet lagged.  Getting there a day before the tour started I really couldn’t identify any fellow travelers.  There was a shopping mall next door so I walked the aisles and had dinner.

Next morning I thought of taking a day tour to a castle in nearby Salzburg but it would get back too late for me to meet and have dinner with my tour group.  I went to the hotel clerk and asked him to get me a taxi into downtown Munich to join in a hop-on-hop-off tour.  The clerk insisted that I take the subway because it would be about 80 Euros cheaper. I explained that I am allergic to mass transit but he patiently showed me how to get on the train and go straight downtown, no connecting trains.  Very reluctantly I managed to buy my ticket at the machine and get on the correct train.  It was a piece of cake and took me directly to the tour bus.  Quite proud of myself I am!

Munich is a beautiful, rebuilt city.  It was heavily bombed during the war but they have put it back together trying to make it look as it did.  Thankfully they didn’t modernize it or do that dreadful cold war architecture.  The city, the roadways, the subways, the stores are fastidiously neat and clean.  The tour took us all through the downtown area but avoiding the Oktoberfest section  of town.  As 6 million partying, beer drinkers invade the city this time of year, that was probably a good idea.

 

I managed to find the correct train back to the hotel in time to meet my fellow travelers.  There are about 18 of us.  Our tour guide, Eva, is from Hungary and speaks very good English.  There are two Vietnam vets doing this trip with their sons; I think that is pretty cool.  A couple from Kansas City, a couple of 80 something veterans from New Mexico.  One is 88 and looks like a pitbull.  He still does Senior Olympics and is tough as nails.  I nicknamed him Patton.  There is another lady traveling alone who grew up in Syracuse but now lives in Arizona and another couple from Baton Rouge who have kind of adopted me.  Really super people.  He is totally into this WW2 thing. I thought I was bad but he has built a detailed accurate replica model of the Reichstag and Hitler’s bunker.  He has hand typed the whole transcript of the Nuremburg trial and has a great collection of vintage war posters among many other pieces of memorabilia.  I told him there might be a support group for him??

Sunday, Sept. 30th

We had breakfast then took a two hour bus ride to Berchstasgaden; the town where Hitler’s Nest is. Not a big bus fan but I loved the ride through the impeccably neat Bavarian countryside.  Soon we saw the Alps rising ahead of us.  Fantastic sunny day as we climbed up the mountain.

Before we got there we stopped at a little inn where you could go into one of the underground bunker systems that connected the so called cottages of the Nazi big shots.  When Hitler’s secretary and second in command, Martin Borman, decided they should build this amazing place for Hitler as a surprise birthday gift, he immediately started buying up all the land in the area.   Farmers and homeowners reluctantly sold to him but the owner of this one inn said no.  Since you don’t say no to the Nazis he was thrown into a concentraion camp to think about it.  He thought about it and sold it to Borman at well below market price.

The bunker was kinda creepy and moldy and pretty much original. It even had a kennel for Adolf’s beloved German shepards.

On up the mountain we had to change transportation for the rest of the way up to  a more roadworthy vehicle as it is quite the climb.  I can’t imagine how 1940’s vehicles made it up there.  They had really big cayunes in those days.  The view up was breathtaking and it was a really clear day. Eva says she has been there in the fog and that’s a real disappointment for visitors.

We walked through the entrance to the famous gold plated elevator that took the little dictator up to his surprise gift.  He was driven in his Mercedes but we had to hoof it.

The walkway is still original and is in fantastic condition.  They really build things well in Germany.  This whole project only  took a year and a half and that included building the road up the mountain. Strangely it wasn’t forced labor for this project.

I was happy to hear that Hitler had severe fear of heights and was very claustrophobic and didn’t really apprecite this gift or go there that often.  His minions, Goering, Himmler and Goebbels built cottages on the property but those were demolished after the war.  The Germans do not want shrines standing to these devils.

The elevator is indeed gold plated and beautiful.  We got to the top and there it was, still in great condition and now a restaurant!

The fireplace was a gift from Mussolini.  An American GI ripped a piece of it off when they discovered the place and its probably in someone’s  attic now.

The building was smaller than I imagined it would be but beautifully built.  He didn’t deserve it.  His mistress, who he hid from the people, Eva Braun, spent lots of time there.  She was never allowed to attend Nazi social events with him or be seen in public.  Hitler thought he was more exciting to his people as a bachelor.

We spent about an hour there and I was pleased that there was no gift shop full of Hitler’s Nest t shirts or magnets or the likes.  I was wondering how the Germans handled these places and so far I think they are doing an excellent job.  The younger generation, who weren’t even alive during the Third Reich are dealing with the past in a very upfront, respectful way and taking responsibility for something  that they were not a part of.  Having spent much of my  life reading and reading and reading about this time and place it was a personal thrill to visit there.  Thanks honey.

By the way, the innkeeper who wouldn’t sell to Borman and ended up in the concentration camp is the only landowner who got his property back after the war.  He had records and proof of ownership but his neighbors assumed it was hopeless and had thrown away their records and could never provide proof of ownership, therefore never getting their property back. His family still owns the inn to this day.

Tomorrow: rain and Dachau concentration camp.