I Fought the Law (and the law won): Going to Eagle's Nest on the German/Austrian Border.

(NOTE: We're trying to see different things on this trip to Munich than we did on our last trip. You might want to check out our previous trip to Bavaria to see some of the big sites we won't be covering on this trip as well)


(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) I've had a couple of marvelous days with our rental car, doing 100mph on the fabulous autobahns of Germany. I'm spoiled. Now, we're stuck in a massive traffic jam that lasts from Munich to Salzburg.

Photo Courtesy K@rl at the German language Wikipedia

I see these signs along the autobahn as we approach the Austrian border. I correctly surmise that they mean there's a toll road ahead. With traffic crawling along at 5-10 mph, I have plenty of time to fish a selection of coins out of my pocket to pay when I reach a toll booth but I never see one before I exit.

We have crossed the border into Austria, I have to cut through a tiny corner of that country before I get back into Germany for today's destination.

Picture courtesy of Plani under CC 3.0 license

No toll booths, so I guess I didn't hit the toll road yet except...what's this? There are 20 cars parked along the shoulder of the off ramp. An officer of the Austrian Polizei peers at my windshield and motions me to join them.

He points to my windshield and says something in German. Noticing the puzzled look on my face, he ask's "sprechen sie English?"

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After answering affirmatively, he says "you do not have the toll sticker."

I tell him I don't know what he is talking about and he tells me to accompany him to a nearby van.  In the back of the van is another officer at a desk set up with a computer, phone, and a credit card machine.

The officer in the van tells me "you do not have the toll sticker on your windshield. That is how we pay tolls in Austria."

I tell him that I saw a sign about tolls, that I had money ready for it, but never saw a toll booth.
"You buy one at any gas station."

Again, I tell him I didn't know that and the sign on the autobahn did not make that clear.

"It's been the law for nineteen years, you should have known."

I inform him this is the first time I'd ever driven in Austria (not quite true, I drove through Innsbruck years ago into Italy but never exited the autobahn in Austria and still didn't know about this law). How was I supposed to know this?

He was unimpressed. "A hundred and twenty Euros...cash or credit?"

After quickly running my credit card, he went on to say "at least with this ticket, know that you can drive without buying a toll sticker through tomorrow."
Sigh...welcome to the world of the infamous Austrian toll trap.

A couple of miles later, we're back in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, following our GPS up an alpine road.  We're headed to Eagle's Nest, Hitler's retreat which was given to him as a 50th birthday present by the Nazi party.

This is different than Eagle's Nest, his alpine headquarters. That was bombed and purposely destroyed after the war and the site is now the 10th hole of a nearby golf course.

The retreat is perched high above, on top of the mountain. The Fuehrer was afraid of heights so he only went up a couple of times and mostly just left it alone.  Today, it's a restaurant and biergarten.

Our GPS announces we've arrived at our destination...a lonely gravel parking lot amidst green, grass covered slopes and spectacular, glacier-clad peaks. There's a quiet little pub here but I was thinking there'd be more people here.  Checking in, we find out this is another Eagle's Nest...a nearby pub that just happens to have the same name.

Getting the correct directions in the GPS, we set off to the other location after Letty snaps a few pics.

Across the valley, a couple of miles away, we come upon a much busier place with several, large, filled-to-the-brim parking lots. This isn't Eagle's Nest but the visitor's center and transportation depot.

I drop Letty and Tim off and head off to find a parking spot.  After a few false starts, I finally find one and get the family for the walk over to the bus station.  We purchase our tickets (not cheap, around $50 roundtrip for the three of us...that's just the bus ride) and wait 30 minutes for our allotted time.

You can also hike up...many people do...and the trail looks accessible enough for a wheelchair but it's a good three-hour hike up. You'd want to make sure you're in peak condition or have a lot of battery power for that option. The buses are municipal-type buses and have a ramp for wheelchair access at the back door.

We get on our assigned vehicle and are soon going up a very narrow, Cliffside road up the mountain. Not to worry, we're told, these are specially designed buses and specially trained drivers for this particular road. Well, we'll just breathe easier then...

We're still a thousand feet shy of the top when our bus pulls into the upper station. From here, you need to make a reservation for a time down before you proceed. Once your tickets are stamped with your return time (two hours is a sufficient amount of time for most people), you move on to a tunnel that takes you deep into the mountain.

It's damp and musty smelling and then you get to a brass elevator at the end which takes you the rest of the way up.

They really pack 'em in on that elevator but it's a short ride up where we exit in a hallway in the smallish building of the Eagle's Nest. There's a restaurant to the right, restrooms straight ahead, and the exit outside to the left. The path is just big enough for wheelchairs and soon it opens up to a larger open area on the mountain top where we can stretch out and claim a little more personal space for ourselves.

First, we have lunch at the small biergarten outside where we lunch on sausages, mystery game meat,  and dumpling soup. As with most of the food here, it's very good and service is quick, efficient, and friendly.

Afterward, we can explore the mountain top, drinking in the stunning views of the surrounding alps.

The area around the building is accessible and offers a little roaming room for wheelchairs.

A trail winds up to a cross on a small peak nearby before continuing on for who-knows-how-far off into the distant ice-pocked peaks.  This part is not accessible but Letty and I walk up to the cross to get some of these pictures.

You do need to have your wits about you if you wander off the trail, the drops are vertical and long down to the valley floor below.

From up high next to the biergarten, you can look down on the golf course where Hitler's Alpine command post used to sit before it was bombed to oblivion.

When our allotted return time comes, we make our way back to the elevator, down to the tunnel, and catch the bus back down.

The traffic going back to Munich is no better than it was this morning and it starts to rain as we reach the outskirts of the city.  There's no more police drama, though, and we find our way home without too much problem.

We'll continue our exploration of Bavaria's main city after some rest.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

ACCESIBLE ATTRACTIONS: Salzburg, Austria

Our ratings are...
Fully Accessible - You can access all of the attraction, with no problem, in any type of wheelchair.

Mostly Accessible - You can access most of the attraction, and all of the important parts of it, with your wheelchair.

Partially Accessible - You can access a good deal of the attraction but some parts are inaccessible and some important parts you'll miss.

Inaccessible - Kind of speaks for itself, avoid if you're in a wheelchair.

Here's Salzburg, Austria...

Haupbahnhof - Fully Accessible. The town's train station is where you'll be deposited after a 75 minute train ride from Munich. The buses out front are accessible via the back door (good luck with getting the driver to help you) but be aware that everything you'll want to see is also within easy walking distance to the station.

Cathedral - Mostly Accessible. The church where Mozart was baptized and plied his trade as an organist is easily seen via a chair but restrooms will have to be found elsewhere.

Hohensalzburg - Partially Accessible. Looming on the hilltop, protecting the town, this giant castle is reached via a funicular. The train is accessible via a separate path, follow the ticket taker's directions, and a lift to the train platform. Security guards here are not known for their warmth, let them push the elevator buttons for you. At the top, only the outer perimeter (which includes the restaurant) is accessible to wheelchairs.

St. Peter's Cemetery - Mostly Accessible. The supposed hiding place for the Von Trapp family from the movie 'The Sound of Music' does hold some famous remains, such as Mozart's sister.

Mozart's Birthplace - Inaccessible.

Mozart Family Residence - Fully Accessible. The Mozart family home on the other side of the river from his birthplace is a very nice museum that chair users can take advantage of.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Bavaria, Germany - September 2009: Final Chapter

St. Peter's Cemetary, Salzburg Austria

We're heading down to the wire as we have another bountiful breakfast at the Vi Vadi Italian restaurant, which just happens to be attached to our nice Vi Vadi Hotel in Munich.

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Well fed and rested up, we head over to the Haupbanhof for our next adventure. We’re off for a day trip to Salzburg, Austria…home of Mozart and, perhaps better known as, the setting for the movie The Sound of Music.

The Train to Salzburg

The long train is at a far platform outside. Two cars, one at each end, are designated for wheelchairs. The closer one smells like the bathroom is leaking so we make the long trek to the other end where it is much nicer. It’s a 70 minute, very scenic ride.

We purchase Salzburg Card at the Tourist Information office at the Salzburg Haupbanhof. This gets us admission to most sites along with rides on the public transportation. It’s a short bus ride from there to the old city. A note: most of the buses are accessible but no driver we saw would move a muscle to help.

Salzburg Cathedral

After the ride, we make our way to the Mozart Plaza near the main cathedral, which has a ramp for accessibility. Inside is a huge sanctuary filled with priceless artwork with four organs surrounding the altar. As Mozart was the organist here for two years, his fingers have graced those keys. A brass baptismal near the entrance is where the baby Wolfgang Amadeus was baptized.

Behind the cathedral is a large fountain that turns out to be a horse wash. Like today’s car washes, except horsemen would use it to wash their steeds. A ramp leads in to make it easy for the horse. Just up the alley is an accessible funicular that takes you to the Hohensalzburg, a great 900 year-old fortress on top of the hill. A large terrace here grants you superb views of the city below. This, and an adjacent restaurant, are all that is accessible here. Many stairs lead into the castle itself.

The Horsewash

Back at the bottom, around the corner and up another alley is St. Peter’s cemetery, an absolutely gorgeous burial ground with a monastery built into the hillside. This is where the Von Trapp family hid from the Nazis in the movie, although it was actually a set built to look like this cemetery. In one of the niches on the hillside is buried Mozart’s sister. Out the other end of the cemetery is the Felsenreitschule Theater, famous in the movie as the place where Captain Von Trapp sang Edelweiss. Tours are available but usually you cannot see the interior. A market dominates the next street before you get to the Getreiedegasse, the main shopping street.

Before you go on, there is an accessible restroom in the marketplace, ask one of the workers in the restaurant next door for the key. The last thing we see here is Mozart’s birthplace, which is not accessible. Back across the river is Mozart’s family house that is accessible but by the time we got here, we only had 15 minutes to see inside before closing. That’s ok because it was very hot in there.

On the way back to the station, we see Mirabelle gardens where the movie Maria Von Trapp taught the children how to sing…think “doe, a deer…a female deer…”

It’s a quick bus ride from here back to the station and then back to Munich.

In the morning, I pick up a station wagon from the Hertz desk at the Haupbanhof. The destination for today is Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II’s fairy tale castle near the border of Austria. Think of Cinderella’s castle at Disneyland, it was modeled after this castle.

Tours for the disabled are offered at closing time (6pm) every Wednesday. Advance reservations are a must and the disabled guest gets a 1 Euro discount and an attendant goes along for free. Any extra people need to take the regular tour.

Since we have all day to get there, we hit the autobahn trying to make it to Lichtenstein for lunch. Once outside of the city, the speed limits stop and we try to make a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour. Like back home, however, there is always some knucklehead that wants to jump in front of you in the left lane going fifty.

We do get a bit lost trying to find the right road to Vaduz and end up in a small town in Switzerland instead. We have a picnic lunch there before doubling back to Schwangau, home of Nueschwanstein.

Although I don’t like or understand the restrictions set in place for disabled visitors, one benefit is that disabled visitors are the only people allowed to drive their car up to the castle. We park within 10 feet of the meeting place for the disabled tour. Since three of us cannot go on that tour, the ticket office down below books us on the last mainstream tour of the day. My mom, finding out that there are over 300 stairs on the tour, volunteers to go on the step-free tour with Tim.

We wait in the castle courtyard for our appointed time, while Tim and my mom wait by the car. Finally, our tour group is called and in we go.

Neuschwanstein

Ludwig worked on this castle for two decades, bankrupting his country’s treasury in doing so. He had finished 6 rooms inside before he was declared insane and deposed. The next day, the former king and his psychiatrist were found floating face down in a lake. A few days after his death, the castle was opened to tourists and has been one of the top attractions in Bavaria ever since.

The half hour tour takes you through those six rooms. Imagine our surprise, after climbing all those stairs, to see Tim and my mom with their group in the first room.

Each room is lavish. The throne room has a golden brass chandelier with inlaid Bavarian glass jewels with an empty spot for the throne that was never delivered. A theater/ballroom leads to a faux cave, complete with stalagmites and stalagtites. In the king’s bedroom, a porcelain swan faucet pours water from a spring 150 feet up the mountainside.

The two tours are identical, with the exception that the normal tour also gets to see the kitchen and is routed through two(!) gift shops on the way out.

We get a bit lost on the way back and end up back in Munich well after dark.

Since we have the car till the end of the trip, the next day is another day trip, this time to the northern Italian town of Bolzano for lunch and to see Otzi.

It’s around a two hour drive on the autobahn...which turns into the autostrada in Italy...over the Brenner pass through the alps. Into the center of Bolzano, we turn into an underground car park and make our way to the central plaza where we dine on pasta, pizza, and shrimp.

A couple of blocks away is the Archaeological Museum and the home of Otzi. Back in 1991, a couple were hiking in the nearby mountains and saw a body at the edge of a melting glacier. The authorities were called, because it looked like an avalanche victim was uncovered by the spring thaw. The body was taken to the local examiner where it was discovered that this was actually a 5,300 year old body.

Today, the museum focuses on different types of mummies, with its main attraction being that 5,300 year old found in the mountains...Otzi.

There are many human and animal remains on display here with various types of mummification methods. It is completely wheelchair accessible and there is even an in-floor lift that raises you and your chair up so you can see into the vault where Otzi’s body is stored. If this all sounds a bit morbid, it’s not. It’s just another very interesting museum that lacks any sense of the macabre at all.

One more drive back to Munich, and one more chance to get lost, which we do when the autobahn ends and I can’t find a sign pointing us back to our neighborhood. A Best Western hotel is nearby and the desk clerk helpfully points me in the right direction.

Our last day is spent wandering again around the center of Munich, taking in the surfers and naked people of the Englisher Garden; spending another lunch hour in the beer garden of the Viktualienmarkt; seeing the devil’s footprint in the Frauenkirche (Munich’s cathedral and tallest building); the puppets of the Glockenspiel, and of course, having one more lingering dinner under the chestnut trees of the Augustinerkellar beer garden before going home.

Copyright 2009 - Darryl Musick

All Rights Reserved