Salzburg - Day 3

On the third day, September 4th, we were taking a bit of a road trip.  We started off by heading towards the Eagle's Nest in Germany.

The only way up there is by a special bus.  The hill is too steep for a normal vehicle, they have special engines and breaks to make it up and down the hill.

It was sure a beautiful view on the way up!!!

Here we are headed into the tunnel to the golden elevator.

The boys inside the golden elevator heading up to the top of Eagle's Nest.

The boys at the top of the world!!!!  The Eagles Nest is 1834m high.  The Eagle's Nest was a present to Hitler from the political party, who, without any free will surrendered to the man who was going to bring down the world. In defiance, the building stands perched over a sheer rock wall. A road was cut into the mountain through the previously impassable terrain.

Michael always in the lead when it comes to climbing and monkeying around.  LOL

David at the edge of the world - or it sure looks like it.

David and Michael enjoying each other's company and the view.

Michael and I up top.  AJ decided he didn't want to climb up to where we were.

Such a handsome young man!!!  I love that smile!!! And not a bad background either.

Enjoying some time with my honey!!!

My super hero boys!!!

The family at the top.  The Eagle’s Nest was originally designed by Martin Bormann as a birthday present for Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday on behalf of the NSDAP (Nazi Party). In fact, Hitler seldom visited the Eagle’s Nest. In the end, Allied bombing at the end of World War II did not damage the Eagle’s Nest and thanks to the intervention of former Governor Jacob, the Eagle’s Nest was spared being blown up after the war.

Here you can see the building down in the background - it looks so small from up here.  AJ is all smiles because we are heading down to get some lunch.  :-)

Do you think the boys can take the normal way down?  Of course not - they have to take the off road, hard way.  Love my boys!!!

Check out our view for lunch!!!  Couldn't beat it!

David and I also enjoying our time on top of the mountain!

Here is a little better view of our table for lunch.  And yes of course, playing some cards before our lunch arrived.

My boys being silly, dancing away at the table.  :-)

The Eagle's Nest name in German.

This is one of the only original pieces left in the Eagle's Nest.

On the way down, did the boys stay on the path?!?  What do you think?  Nope, climbing wherever they can.

Some really pretty flowers on the way down.

After a great time, good lunch at the Eagle's Nest, we headed back into Austria to go to the salt mines.  The boys with one of the miners - looks like he has been here for awhile.

So going down into the mines is a little dirty and cold.  They give us wonderful outfits to wear down there.

Our photo they took before we headed down into the tunnels.

The four of us ready to go down into the mines!

This is the tunnel we were going to head deep, deep down into the mines.  This was our ride.

Heading into the 100 year tunnel.

This tunnel was dug by hand in the 17th century.  Pretty cool.

This is St Rupert's Chapel, even way below the earth they have churches.

Part of the fun in the mines were going down these slides!!!  One of the reasons I thought the boys would love this tour!

AJ standing on the border between Germany and Austria.  I think we crossed the border at least a dozen times this day.  LOL

Michael and David getting ready to head down one of the slides.

This is the old leaching plant in 1931.

Here we were able to taste the water before all the salt was taken out of it.  It was super, super salty, much saltier than the ocean.

You can see how small the tunnels were, David was close to ducking the whole way.  LOL

AJ on our boat ride across the underground lake.

It was pretty cool and they had changing colors throughout the lake.

It made everything look cool!

David and Michael enjoying the view.

AJ and David facing off - I think my vote is still for David.  LOL

My three wonderful boys!!!!

The boys decided on this slide they both wanted to go with Daddy!!!  Look at those big smiles!!!!

This is the deepest part of the tour, 670 feet underground.  It was amazing how cold it was down there.

It is amazing to think that they did all the mining with these types of lights back then.

This is one of the oldest tunnels - you can see that it has collapsed.

The boys standing on another border between Austria and Germany.

This is the hand pump from the 18th century.

It was really neat, they had three different videos to explain how the process worked and the history of this mine.

This is called the man preserved in the salt.  He was discovered in 1573 by celtic miners.  Once the man who was mummified came into oxygen he started to slowly decay.

This is an old mine car on the oldest track in Europe.

This was the cardinal who profited from the salt mines.  It made them lots and lots of money and kept the church going.

They had sliding parties back in the old days.  This one was from 1836.

This is white rock salt and is 98% pure.

Heading back up out of the mines.  We all had a great time and learned some interesting facts about how they harvest salt and use water to do the mining, then evaporate the water to get to the salt.

As we were heading back to our apartment, we saw a sign for a Rodalbahn, so we decided we had to try it out.  :-)  David and AJ heading up to the top.

Michael and I right behind.

You can see that we headed really far up.  And another wonderful view!

When we arrived at the top, the boys found a bunny.  Unfortunately they couldn't catch it.

David was the first to go!

Next was AJ.

Then Michael.  This was the first time that Michael drove by himself on a Rodalbahn.  After our fun there, we headed back to our apartment, parked the car and headed into town to find some dinner.

The boys were having a great  time sitting and playing Pokémon Go.  The table was a little small to pull out the cards on this one.

And what do we always get on our vacations?!?  Ice cream and Michael being a goof ball.  LOL

The boys and their ice cream - the restaurant was nice to let us sit there while the boys enjoyed their ice cream and David another beer.

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David was nice enough to take the whip cream off of my dessert.  he decided to use Michael's ice cream cone as a straw.  It was an end to a wonderful day!!!  We all had a great time in Salzburg and really enjoyed being there.  It is a beautiful town and we were sad to leave.