A Deutschland education

Helen Evers

My vacation in July started with the usual long flight to Western

Germany, the Rhineland and a small village on the Mosel River called

Treis-Karden.

The town is Treis on the southern side of the river, and when you

cross the bridge, you are in Karden.

The Saint Castor Dom is one of the churches in town that is more

than 800 years old. When they reinforced the old foundation, two

older foundations of churches were found beneath it. Karden is more

than 200 years old, and the area dates back to the Celts and Romans,

with a long Christian history. You can walk from Karden to Burg Eltz

castle, which is very famous and in great condition. The locals are

an elderly population overall, and very little English is spoken in

the small towns up and down the river.

Vineyards are on every hillside and wonderful wine-fests are held

throughout the summer, each town taking turns and producing their own

distinct wines. Parades, fireworks, local costumes, bands and dancing

all go on late into the night. No one dares to drive under the

influence after these celebrations, and in the morning, cars with

weary partygoers fast asleep are on both sides of the road next to

the Mosel River.

My guests for the third time were Maria Luise and Phillip Mueller.

She’s a native of the area and gave me an education on their daily

ways of life in a rural village. We set off on the Romantische

Strasse, the Romantic Road, starting in Tauberbishofsheim and ending

in the Alps. The countryside winds through quaint towns and changes

from meadows to agricultural land and forests. Castles and huge

churches are quite common to see.

The German people love to walk, and walk you will in towns such as

Rothenburg up the Tauber, completely surrounded by old walls that

acted as defense against intruders. Looking down into the trees and

meadows below, you can see they had quite the superior vantage point.

Next, we stopped at the salt mines in Berchtesgaden, where we had

a hair-raising experience sliding down slippery logs in miner’s

outfits to the bottom -- not once but twice. We slept in bed and

breakfast places, from farmhouses to regular homes. To find a Zimmer

frei, or free room, you only had to stop and ask the locals or look

for signs posted outside their residences. The accommodations were

excellent, the food delicious and the owners delightful people. They

loved asking about America.

The highlight of my trip was witnessing the experience of Adolf

Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, a mountain fortress, and the Kehlsteinhaus, as

the natives called it. It was here that Hitler came for respite from

his duties and here that he planned most of his war strategies.

Berchtesgadener Land is so awe-inspiring that it’s easy to see why

the highest-ranking German generals all had homes built there.

Pastures surround the Obersalzberg Mountain, and in 1939, Hitler

was presented with the Kehlsteinhaus as his 50th birthday gift. The

German Army at first compensated the farmers for their land, which

was known for being a Bavarian health resort, but later resorted to

confiscating what they wanted. In the midst of the construction of

this mammoth undertaking, 14 barracks were built for more than 6,000

workers, who labored 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cost of

building the Eagle’s Nest would be about 150 million Euros today, and

in July, our dollar was worth only 85 cents in Germany. I will let

the math majors figure that out.

You start out on a long, winding bus trip up the mountain. From

there, you walk through a leaky, marble tunnel that takes you to the

solid brass elevator up to the top.

From the top, you can see Austria, the Bavarian lake Konigssee and

hear cowbells from the meadows below. The fortress survived more than

300 bombs, which destroyed the town below, but missed Hitler’s home.

The mayor of the town convinced the Allies to save this masterpiece

of planning for future generations and in the ‘50s, it was turned

over to the German people. Tourists from all over the world come here

each year, not so much to see the buildings, but to savor the views

and the flowers and to only imagine how much horror could have been

dealt out in this amazing and spiritual land.

* HELEN EVERS is a resident of Costa Mesa.

* TRAVEL TALES runs on Thursdays. Have you, or someone you know,

gone on an interesting vacation? Tell us about your adventures in

about 400 words, accompanied by a couple of photos to choose from

that do not have the Daily Pilot in them, and send them to Travel

Tales, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; by e-mail to

[email protected]; or by fax to (949) 646-4170.