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| A Hiker Casting a Shadow |
There isn’t a whole lot out there on the internet about
Bastei Bridge–a lot of the same stuff over and over again. I’ll do my best to
avoid digital redundancies. Along the Elbe and the Czech-German border are two national
parks referred to as Saxon Switzerland. This area earned that moniker when
Swiss visitors wrote home about the area, describing it as Switzerland in
Saxony, and the name stuck. There is a similar park in the Czech Republic,
Bohemian Switzerland, just across the border, and there are border crossings
for hikers. However, that kind of hike is more than we bargained for, so we
didn’t walk to a different country on this trip.
Saxon Switzerland is characterized by large sandstone rock
spires, eroding slowly from wind and water. The area is a hiker’s paradise with
the eroding rocks providing plentiful hand and foot holds, though we didn’t
climb the rocks ourselves. This park is unique in that it seems you can go anywhere
and climb anything. I don’t know if the climbers need any kind of permit, but
it really seems like a free-for-all, with people hiking, camping, and
backpacking through the park. We saw tons of climbers that day, and if I knew
how to climb, I would be tempted to join them, because I bet the view from the
top was amazing.
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| See if you can find us in this Picture |
We had a full day of nature planned, necessitating an early wake-up,
and an early departure from the hotel. We arrived at the Nationalparkregion
Sächsische Schweiz around 9am. I was unable to find any helpful information
about getting to the park via car. Lots of information about arriving by bus
from the nearby towns of Pirna or Rathen, or hiking up from the river, but the
web was surprising devoid of parking information. Like our previous attempts at
GPS navigation, the system was being decidedly unhelpful, but there are plenty
of signs and the road is well marked. We were pleasantly surprised to find 2
parking lots along the road towards the Bastei Bridge, the main attraction of
the national park. The lots are for both cars and buses and are 3 euro for the
first 3 hours and 5.50 euro for anything over 3 hours. The first lot is farther
from the park, about a 40 min walk (if you believe their signs), while the
second lot is much closer, about 10 min, though I think we made in 5. When we
left around noon, our lot was almost full, though there were still plenty of
spaces. However, the lower lot had cars queuing up to get park. While arriving
early is the best way of ensuring a decent parking spot, I recommend checking
the closer lot before waiting in line at the farther lot.
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| The Elbe River through the Fog at Saxon Switzerland National Park |
When we first arrived, a lot of the area in the river valley
was still shrouded in fog, with the stones casting eerie shapes through the
gloom. The area used to part of an ocean millions of years ago, and it’s not
hard to imagine the stones as decor on the ocean floor. As the morning
progressed, the fog burned off, revealing more of the strange beauty that is
Saxon Switzerland Park.
The Bastei Bridge is a 160 year old bridge connecting some
of the stone peaks, and enabling none-climbing visitors to tour the area. The
stone bridge was built in 1851 and is almost a near match for the rocks around
it. I thought the bridge was natural when looking at photographs.
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| The Bastei Bridge |
The park is also home to the ruins of Neurathen Castle. The
castle was wooden and built among the rocks. It’s hard to imagine what
possessed people to build a castle on these rocks. The river is far below, and
it seems an almost inhospitable place to live. The ruins are subtle as well,
consisting mostly of carved niches into the stone and a couple rounded rocks
for manning the catapults, so it can be difficult to imagine a castle or fortress
dominating the skyline here. The area where the castle used to sit is fenced
off, obstructing the view. If you want to see the view of the bridge and valley
on the other side of the castle ruins, you must to enter the enclosure. The
price isn’t high, only 1.50 euro, but it does seem a bit of a gimmick. However,
I think the views are worth this nominal cost, and I highly recommend paying to
tour the area.
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