Traveling with Ellen

At 5:45 am we are out the door of the Imlauder Pitter hotel in Salzburg and seated in a Mercedes 6 passenger SUV with our box breakfast in hand and the driver is heading to the Munich Airport. There were 10 of us, 2 SUVs, and I clocked our speed on one of their aitobahns at just around 198 km putting it at 113 mph.  It reminded me of driving from Denver to Custer SD at about 100 mph.  Howard asked me if we were flying.  I gave it a good try and so did our driver this morning.   175 km  from Salzburg to Munich airport, and we arrived at 7:10 am. The Hilton where we are staying tonight is between Terminal 1&2 allowing for ease tomorrow morning.  We were able to store our baggage and now while we wait for the world to wake up, we've had coffee and some of the box breakfast given to us.   We'll check in online for tomorrow's flight shortly and then take a taxi downtown.  Wayne is going to show me the Marianplatz, which appears to be a pe...

A view from the top of Berchtesgade Day 13 started with a 7:45 am bus ride to Berchtesgade.  We'll be in Germany going across the Austria German border to visit Hitler's retreat.  It's also been called the Eagles Nest.   Those that know me, know that I am Jewish and while I don't 'practice' the way others do, I was still raised as a Jew, went to Hebrew school and certainly associate myself as a Jew.  So, it was with mixed emotions that I visited this retreat of Hitler's.  It was a spooky feeling to know that sometime, almost 80 years ago, he walked the same paths that I did today as did other monsters, Hermann Goring, Martin Bormann etc.   Here's an aerial picture from a website since you can't get the full magnitude of it when you are up there. The property was turned back to the Austrian government when WW II ended and since 1952, has been run as a restaurant.  That being said, you can view the room and take in the views from on top.  ...