Elbsandsteingebirge

Holidays in Germany, holidays dahoam, holidays at all? This year it is not easy to find a secure travel destination after all. The risk that the region you have chosen becomes a „region at risk“ over night is quite high. Therefore I travel to the Saxon Switzerland this autumn. It is a lovely spot with great rock formations, very good food, nice small towns and relaxed residents.

There are five hiking tours planned. Starting point is the city of Pirna, close to Dresden. From here it is easy to reach any interesting access to a walking path by urban railway or bus. Also the well-known hike „Malerweg“ and other less known trails such as the path along the Saxon wine route start here.

Wild rock world
Our first tour leads us to Schmilka. The village iss mall but nice and known for its organic producuts. Our tour to the „Großer Winterberg“ and the „Ida-Grotte“ starts here in the national park of the Saxon Switzerland. The hike includes many beautiful views on the landscape and provides us with a first impression over the fascinating rock formations oft he region.

Rained off
Our second tour was unfortunately rained off. We start at Königstein und walk in the direction of Leupoldishain and reach at first the Nikolsdorfer Wände and afterwards the so called labyrinth at Langenhennersdorf. The labyrinth reminds me of the rock cities at Czechia. We spend our lunch break at this magnificient environment with still dry weather. On our way back we planned to pass by the so called „Quirl“, a table mountain. Well, it starts raining that heavily that we decide to go straight back to Königstein.

The Wehlener eight
The „Wehlener eight“ that’s how our tour guide calls his third tour. This time we start at „Stadt Wehlen“. We reach our starting point by urban railway and ferry boat. We walk through the forest and finally reach the „Uttewalder Grund“ and the „Teufelsschlucht“. That is a really nice place. And we are lucky though when the sun broke through the clouds.

We finalize our tour with coffee and Eierschegge with egg liqueur and cream. I allow myself another small walking tour from Stadt Wehlen back to Pirna on the cycle path close to the river Elbe – great!

Panoramic tour on the Großer Zschirnstein
It is our fourth tour. As we cannot walk in the Bohemian part of the Saxon Switzerland due to the Corona restrictions we climb the Großer Zschirnstein instead. The tour starts at Schöna close to the Czech border. We walk through the wood onto the Großer Zschirnstein and enjoy the marvellous view on parts of the Saxon Switzerland. We are once again lucky, the weather is fine and sunny up there.

Kuhstall, Himmelsleiter, Falkenstein and Luchsgehege
Our last walking tour starts at the Lichtenhainer Wasserfall, also the Kirnitzschtalbahn stops there. Once again we walk through the forest up to the well-known rock gate „Kuhstall“ and the beautiful „Himmelsleiter“. After this climbing tour we continue in the direction of Falkenstein, a rock for climbing. We meet a cute young dog there. After our lunch break we leave for Ostrau where we wonder at the „Sending Villen“ made of wood. They were build by a millionaire called Sending who intended to turn Ostrau into a special health resort.

At the end of our hiking tour we reach the lynx compound above Bad Schandau and admire the beautiful animal that is definitely at the wrong place. I take a look from the viewing plattform onto Bad Schandau, then we return to the village for some coffee and cake.

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