Honestly, I am not nostalgic. Far from it. Whenever people talk about the good old days, I only partially agree with their assessments. What I don't miss, for example, is typewriters, tape recorders, and rotisserie dial phones.

Now one thing I do miss about the past was how the tourist was pampered. Flying American Airlines back in the '70s or '80s was a treat. Okay, okay, so you couldn't explore all of your possibilities because you had no internet, but I did like the fact that whenever I booked a hotel room it was for one day, 24 hours. In the year 2020, I need to check out at 10 a.m. and I still have to kill time until I can check in at our next Airbnb at 4 p.m. This would present quite a dilemma if we were in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we are in Salzburg, near the Berchtesgadener National Park and some of the most gorgeous mountains in the world.

So the plan is to spend half a day at one of Germany's most popular destinations, the mother (or king, in this case) of all Alpine lakes, the Königssee. Sorry, Lake Constance, I love you, but this one wins due to the close, close proximity of the mountains. We cross the Austrian-German border, there are customs officials on the other side brandishing assault rifles. In the age of Covid-19, people take no chances here. 

Another nice thing about traveling in the year 2020 is the abundance of navigation systems. No more holding a map across the steering wheel (or with the human navigator riding shotgun) and wondering, Did we just take a wrong turn? Let's ask this guy here. So we arrive at our destination exactly when the GPS says so. One of the most famous pictures you'll find in a "Best of Germany" scrapbook will be the church of St. Bartholoma near Schönau in all of its glory. Anywhere else in Germany, this would be just another chapel, ho-hum. The fact that there is an Alpine lake in front of it and the mountains in back launches it to the top tier of tourist sites in Germany. We head over to the Jennerbahn, the cableway that will take us to the top of the Jenner, the mountain at the Königssee with the best panoramic views. 

The tickets aren't cheap. but they take you almost to the very top of the Jenner, about 1,700 meters altitude, or more than a mile. The folks at the cableway take no chances. A mask is obligatory, even among families occupying one car. Fine with me. With a view like that, I can be convinced to wear a spacesuit. We look at the cows below us. They hit the jackpot. If you're going to be a cow in this world, you could be on a factory farm or grazing in the Alps. Some of them are even lying in the sun, soaking up the rays. I half expect to find a cow with sunglasses and a cocktail.

Now to get to the top of the Jenner, we still have to hike a bit...and there's a queue, as it turns out. That, too, is travel in the year 2020. Too many people on the summit, wait your turn, and then do your selfies. We take our lunch at the restaurant once we're done with the summit. A helicopter dives in toward the restaurant for the tourists' pleasure and does a sharp bank toward the mountain before it disappears toward the valley. We take the ride down, again gawking at happy cows and the mountain summits. This place is a dream.

A good tip would be the Königssee if you have half a day to kill between Salzburg and Munich. If we'd had more time we would have saved the money and hiked to the summit, but okay. We needed to kill six hours, and we did that with style.