Oct 19 -- Saxon Switzerland

Today we took a break from city sightseeing and went hiking (sort of) at a German National Park called the Saxon Switzerland. It is not alpine, but lots of interesting sandstone formations, which actually reminded me of the Stone Forest, near Kunming, China. A very popular spot is called the Bastei Bridge, a foot bridge created in the 1800s as a tourist attraction.

Since it is Saturday, we had lots of local company enjoying the view as well and I suspect we were the only Americans within 10 miles. Only the parking toll collector spoke any English at all, so I got to practice my German -- without the book, no less.

Countryside on the way to the Saxon Switzerland Nat'l Park

We started out by seeing how Alice, the nav system, would handle our change of plans. I had mapquested a route and saw an easy one that drove us through the towns instead of the autobahn for the first part, and guessed that Alice would prefer the autobahn. I was right about that part, but we took the slow road, and Alice tried to get us to turn toward the A17 several times before she gave up and went with the program. We headed to Bad Schandau for the National Park Info Center, hoping to find a hiking map, trail head info, etc. Once we got to the village, we discovered that all the parking was chargeable and we did not have small enough coins to make that worthwhile, so I hopped out and went in on my own. The park staff managed to understand my German and we ended up with a road map of the whole area, but nothing like a good trail map.

At the Bastei area, the close parking area was full, so we got to walk an extra 1.5km past high fields and forest to the close parking area. It was noon when we arrived, so we went to a fancy restaurant there with a panoramic view for lunch and stumbled our way thru ordering. Although there was a menu in English (thank heavens -- I can look up the words otherwise, but its a lot slower), the waiter (a very sweet older gentleman) prompted me to use the German terms. The last two big meals I've had have been very interesting variations on turkey with fruit. Last night, I had pasta with turkey and a lemon-orange sauce: super yummy, and today I had turkey breast with cheese and a slice of pineapple, peach half, maraschino cherry, and cranberry garnish. I am going to have to try to recreate them when we get home!

Rock formations like the ones in Kunming

Now that we were full, it was time to hike. Mostly down to start, which was good -- gave the digestion process a head start, tho I did have some 'turkey revenge' going back up that made my legs felt like lead. The views out over the river were stunning, but the bridge itself was underwhelming. We walked across it without even realizing where we were. It was only later, when we came back, that we started to figure it out and then went out to the side trails (I was saving them for photo ops on the way back, figuring I could recover from turkey issues with the side trips) and saw what we had come to find.

Jim at the bridge before we realized it, with crowds on bridge

Lynn on the bridge

View down the Elbe River from the Bastei Overlook

This is the bridge...designed in the 1800s as a tourist attraction!

Then we hiked back to the car and let Alice to tell us how to get home. The rest of the evening was getting ready to head to Denmark, by way of Hannover, tomorrow.