Konigsee,

Up early and a cloudy start but by 9 oclock the cloud had cleared to reveal a beautiful blue sky. Today we had intended to travel into Bavaria and visit the eagles nest. Hitlers mountain top retreat. Built as a tea house for our Adolfs private use by his admirers in 1943 as a birthday present for his 50th birthday. It sits on a mountain ledge at a height of 800 meters in the mountains surrounding Konigsee in the Bavarian alps. As it turms out 1943 to 1945 proved busy years for our young Adolf and he only actually managed to use it twice before buisness took a downturn and he shot himself (allegedly) in a bunker in Berlin in 1945.
We set out with every good intention of visiting "the nest" but as we approached Bavaria the clouds closed in and completely obscured the tops of the alps.  By the time we got to Bechestgarten the chances of seeing amything of note from young Adolfs mountain hideaway were slim and did not warrent the 11 euro charge of going up the mountain.
Instead we jumped on a bus to Konigsee (kings lake) and I am so glad we did. It was amazingly beautiful and the sun was shining. It is a deep water lake surrounded by the Alps and tree covered hills. You could see the nest through the brief breaks in the clouds and I doubt any veiw from the top could rival it.
We had decided to picnic today, a trick we learned from our Greek holidays, and one we will probrably use for the remainder of our travels here. Crispy struggles to find cheap, readily available gluten free food on our travels but a local Spar or Lidl are always able to supply suitable goods. Plus it is a lot cheaper when travelling for prolonged periods. So we had a lovely picnic by the lakeside before heading back to Salzburg.

A walk around the old town found us in the middle of a street festival. Im not sure what it was about but there were numerous beer tents and amazing food stalls selling everything from bratwurst to momos. Non of which Crispy could eat. We sat for a while under the castle drinking and listening to a German jazz band sing New orleans jazz in English. It was awful.... if the band had been sober then they would, more than likely, have been good but the beer was obviously taking its effect. One of the guys had a tuba and I cant help wondering what on gods earth makes someone think taking up the tuba is a good idea. What kid when asked as a child "what instrument would you like to learn" says "a tuba please".
Its big , heavy and you cant do a cool solo with it...... Ah well everyone to their own

Walked back along the river for the last time andvwe both agree Salzburg is wunderbar.

Tomorrow we head off to the train station to catch the Train for Vienna. Stage 2 of the grand tour. I hope its as good as Salzburg has been.

Bare and Crispy saying Auf weidersehen from Saltzburg