Before we head off today I have to mention a great restaurant we went to last night, Angusta. The speciality of the house is Irish beef and it has fantastic steaks. Although placed unusually in a sort of industrial estate the restaurant itself is very nice both outside and inside. A nice atmosphere, good staff and great food. I think it confirms what I always suspected all our very best beef is exported and we can never get anything this good at home! Today we decide to head to Berchestgarden, a fair trip of about an hour from St Gilgen. This was Hitler's retreat given to him by the party for his 50th birthday. The Eagles Nest on the summit of the 1800m mountain was mostly ceremonial, used for meeting with visiting guests like presidents and diplomats, but the engineering to build it was amazing. It cost about 30m DM at the time, expensive for then. An elevator takes you 124m up to the manor inside the mountain. To get to the elevator is a 124m tunnel into the mountain side. The panoramic views from the summit are amazing. The manor has now been converted to a restaurant. All the surrounding facilities were destroyed during or just after the war to deter them becoming shrines to the Nazi cause, luckily is was decided to save the Eagles Nest.
Next we decided to take in Hallstatt on our way home. Initially we got a fright when Helga (the name we gave our car sat nav) took us up the narrowest of passes over a ridge to get to the main roads but after a lovely drive of about an hour we got to this "must see" village on the side of a lake. All in all another great day
