Berchtesgaden and the Koenigssee

Deep Alpine Lake Under The Watzmann Inside Berchtesgaden National Park, Crossed By Electric Boats To The St Bartholomae Chapel; The Eagle'S Nest And The Salzbergwerk Salt Mine Are Above The Valley · Schoenau am Koenigssee, Bavaria

The Koenigssee is a trough lake of about 7.7 km, up to roughly 190 m deep, held between rock walls in Germany's south-eastern corner inside Berchtesgaden National Park, the country's only national park in the Alps. Only electric passenger boats have been allowed on it since the early 1900s, so the crossing is almost silent: the boatman cuts the motor at the echo wall and plays a flugelhorn at the cliff, then runs on to St Bartholomae, the pilgrimage chapel with red onion domes under the Watzmann east face. The last stop at Salet opens the walk to the Obersee and the Roethbach falls. Above the valley sit the Jenner cable car, the working Salzbergwerk salt mine, and Obersalzberg, where the Nazi leadership built a second seat of government and where the Eagle's Nest and the Dokumentation Obersalzberg now stand. The honest caveats: the boat is slow and its timetable, not your legs, decides your day, and from mid-morning in summer the jetty is a queue. Salzburg is about an hour away in Austria.

The Koenigssee at Schoenau, inside Berchtesgaden National Park, in the Bavarian corner south of Salzburg, Schoenau am Koenigssee, Bavaria, Germany

The lake, the shore paths and the national park are open at all hours and free. Boats run most of the year from the jetty at Schoenau, frequently from roughly late April to October and on a much thinner winter timetable, and sailings can be cut short or stopped altogether in ice, storm or high water - confirm on the day. The Salet sailings and the Obersee path are a summer proposition; in winter many boats turn at St Bartholomae only. The Eagle's Nest road is bus-only and seasonal, roughly mid-May to October depending on snow. The Salzbergwerk and the Dokumentation Obersalzberg open most of the year with timed entry and a weekly closing day off season - confirm current times rather than trusting any printed hour.

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