Berchtesgadener Land

Miles: 6.97 Steps: 16137
Flights stairs: 17

We took a day trip out to an underground salt mine (Berchtesgaden Salt Mine) in the alps. We ended up actually crossing into Germany! It was fascinating taking the trip 165 meters underground to see how they mined in the past and are mining currently. It was also a new experience to be the only two English speaking people in the tour of 50! We had translating devices for the produced information, but when the guide spoke he did so in German, and then would run over to us and repeat himself in English. A few times before he did that, he would say something and the whole crowd would crack up laughing - we may have been unknowingly the butt of a joke or two.

In the evening we went up to Hohensalzburg Fortress. It was first built in 357 AD - and was altered and expanded on for hundreds of years. It also has the distinction of being a fortress that in all of history had never been conquered. Reaching it in the funicular you could see why - it was on such sheer cliffs and so high. During one battle the enemy had them pinned down for so long they almost ran out of food - they were down to a single cow. So they would paint the cow nightly different colors and parade it the next day where the enemy could see. They were fooled into thinking they had more food then they actually did, and gave up the fight and left.

I learned today that in WW2 over 46% of Salzburg was destroyed - coming from the US where modern wars haven’t been fought on our soil it’s hard to imagine losing so much.Read more