Salt and Secrets

When you visit Salzburg, Austria, you visit Mozart's house and do the Sound of Music tour. We, however, visited a salt mine, because this tour had been on DC's "to do" list for over 40 years. I had never really thought of the relationship between salt and Salzburg, neither had I been to a mine, so I was interested.
We suited up in white overalls, for the purpose of protecting our clothing, and rode a moving bench into the tunnels. Our guide gave us information about salt mining, but we were more interested in the slides. The slide was really a chute going down a tunnel, and was great fun! We also enjoyed walking across the border between Austria and Germany while hundreds of feet underground. There was a underground lake with a boat to carry us across, and brine to taste. The tour was starting to seem like an amusement park ride, especially with the short movies, and 7 euro photo to buy at the gift shop.

Our next destination was not too far away, across the border in Germany. This place is called "Eagle's Nest", as it was Hitler's secret residence during WWII. The whole area was a favorite playground of his, and the Party built and gave the hill-top house to Hitler as a present on his 50th Birthday. I expected a larger complex, but the entrance was impressive. A wide tunnel led straight into the mountain, then a brass-plated elevator took us up to the house at the top. Once up the top, there are great views of the Alps, Germany and Austria.
Now, I had heard the stories of how Hitler had wanted to make this into a top secret underground system of tunnels and rooms,from which to rule the world.  I had paid my 16 euros, rode the bus from the car park, then ascended the elevator, just to find a house that is now functions as a restaurant. Don't get me wrong, I did appreciate the views, just as Hitler must have, but I was curious as to the top-secret part. Was there anything underground? Is there something there that the public don't have access to? Or were the stories just propaganda, myth, or plans that never got finished?

I believe there is nothing hiding underground. If there was, then someone would have turned it into a money making venture similar to the salt mines we toured earlier. People will pay quite a bit to visit something that has both Historical significance, and reveals some secret previously hidden deep underground.  There would be a train ride taking you down... who doesn't like a train ride? Then passageways leading to rooms staged with life-sized dummies of Hitler and other SS bigwigs. There would have to be a slide somewhere that took you down into a bunker, so that photos could be sold in the gift shop on the way out... maybe a maze! Perhaps I have been visiting too many sites on the tourist path recently.