Part 2   The holiday gets underway

After a long and exciting journey which began in the bustling market town of Oswestry, the tired but elated the school party arrived at Konigsee, a small quiet village nestling on the shores of the lake with the same name, high up in the Bavarian mountains close to the border with Austria.

Hotel / lakeside 

Never-the-less, we were still full of excited chatter, and over coffee and sandwiches we bombarded John Tilley, the leader of our school party, with questions about our holiday itinerary.

Prior to the start of the school trip I had researched the area so I asked JFT whether a visit to Adolph Hitler's Eagle's Nest was on his agenda. Arguing that because it was a nearby popular tourist attraction of recent wartime significance I pressed my case that perhaps he should make it a priority if only from a historic perspective.

Hitler's Eagle's Nest

Several other boys in the party echoed my sentiments, adding that as John was a senior History Master at Oswestry School, he of all people should recognise the historic importance of the building.

The mountain top retreat was built out of Nazi Party funds during 1937 / 1938 as a surprise 50th Birthday present for Hitler, and although not personally fond of heights, he used it to entertain and impress friends, important international figures, and high ranking members of The Nazi Party.

The History Master said that despite a packed schedule of planned excursions he would consider including a visit to The Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest) depending on our behaviour, making it clear to us that we were all ambassadors for Oswestry School and, as such, should conduct ourselves accordingly at all times.

This would be put to the test sooner than he had anticipated when Anglo - German relations became somewhat strained in a local restaurant.  

Before finally turning in for the night several of us made a quick tour of the village where we spotted a small log kiosk advertising soft drinks and ice creams which became the focal point of attraction in the days to come. The following morning, batteries fully recharged by a good night's sleep, we awoke raring to go, and set off on the first of many interesting excursions which took us on a breathtakingly beautiful journey by chairlift to the summit of the Jenner mountains, some 7,000 ft high. As we soared ever higher over the dramatic scenery below, the Kehlsteinhaus, Hitler's Eagle's Nest, came into view on one of the opposing peaks.

  View from the Jenner Mountain.

Having reached the summit of The Jenner our party went for an enjoyable walk and there, high up in the mountains, we crossed into Austria.

During this stimulating walk, JFT made most of the fact that we had seen Hitler's mountain retreat, albeit from a distance, but we protested that there was so much more to be learned from a separate visit to the site itself!  JFT remained disappointingly non - committal, but the subject would crop up again later.

Extract from The Oswestrian Magazine.

The next day, following our chair lift adventure, we were off on our travels again, this time by coach for a full day in Austria, taking in views overlooking the Grossglockner glacier which is situated on Austria's highest mountain. I became captivated by the sheer beauty of the mountain scenery and later regretted taking an excessive number of photographs, some of which can be seen below.

 En route to Grossglockner Mountain.

View of the glacier, and cirque. 

My friends Don Berry and Tony Burton pose for a photo-shoot beside the glacier.

The school party relaxing at a viewing point.

During our return journey to Konigsee we stopped off for a while at Zell -am -Zee where some of us went for a swim under the watchful eye of Mr Tilley.

Zell - am - Zee.

The next day was to be a free day when we were able to explore the area more fully, and during the morning an excited Jimmy " Sharps " Sharples dragged me off to see who he had spotted at the ice cream cabin. The person who had caught the eye, and stolen the heart, of Jimmy the " romantic " was a very pretty Austrian girl who ran the log cabin. I can not recall how many ice creams Jimmy bought during our stay in Konigsee, but suffice to say he spent much of his spare time wooing the young lady, and later when he ran out of cash for ice creams, he spent a fair amount of my money too. I do have to admit that the girl was very easy on the eye, and could understand why Jimmy fell for her, but he was teased mercilessly by all of us in our group.

At one point John Tilley called us all together to explain that we had been invited to go for lunch at a popular local venue. It transpired that a restaurant owner known to JFT from previous independent visits to the area had invited him to bring our school party to his establishment to savour the delights of his special cuisine. The idea was that we were to experience the Bavarian equivalent of our typically British fish and chip treat. 

The restaurateur was all smiles as we sat down for lunch in his busy establishment, and he told us expansively that his speciality was German sausages, which he knew we would enjoy, as looking around the crowded room nearly every plate bore evidence of their obvious popularity.

Bratwurst sausages

Sadly, both for us and the manager, the unappealing, pallid - looking greyish - white sausages did not live up to our expectations' taste-wise, and, despite exhortations from our leader to tuck in and clear our plates, most of us refused to do so, and most of the food remained untouched. JFT became angry, accusing us of being an embarrassment to The School, himself, and the manager, who had gone to great pains to please our party. 

Needless to say that when the manager came over to our table to enquire how much we had enjoyed his treat, the beaming smile quickly disappeared to be replaced by a scowl and grimace.

At that very moment I was transported back to the School House dining room just one year earlier. None of us liked the woody swedes / turnips which were regularly served up at lunch times, and if Headmaster Williamson was absent for lunch we would pile them up like a pyramid on a plate and send them back into the kitchens via the hatch in the corner of the dining room. On one memorable occasion it was my duty week on, coincidentally, the corner table of 10 or 12 boys, and just as I was carrying the pyramid of unwanted food over to the hatch, in walked the headmaster from his study entrance. 

The serving hatch is behind, and to the right of the photographer.

Halting me dead in my tracks, he ordered me back to our table where he redistributed the swedes to us all, hanging about until every plate was clean. Most of the food on my plate left the dining room secreted in my socks to be disposed of on the lower paddock, whilst other boys found equally ingenious methods of disposal.

Meanwhile, back to the Bavarian restaurant.

Following a brief conversation with Mr Tilley the manager left the room and we left the restaurant in disgrace. Apparently the restaurant owner had politely requested JFT and his party to exit his establishment immediately.  

Back in Konigsee John Tilley was still angry with us, and it was then that he told us that as a consequence of our behaviour there would be no visit to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. He might have thought that, but one or two of us had other ideas which would be acted upon later in the holiday.

Our next trip was a full tour of Lake Konigsee, which is described below in a report taken from The Oswestrian Magazine.

A day on the lake

More interesting excursions would follow which I will recount in the final part of my article, and a small group of rebellious Lancastrians hatch a plot to walk in the footsteps of History.

The END