Nature!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Useful Websites

Photos from our Trip

Saxon Switzerland National Park 

Bastei Bridge at Wikipedia 

The Rest of the Castle Complex

St. Wenceslas Chapel

Stag Garden

The rest of the highlights of the Prague castle complex include St. Vitus cathedral and the Stag Gardens. St. Vitus cathedral is the resting place of many Princes and Saints of Bohemia. King Václav or Wenceslas has a chapel in his honor over his final resting place. He is the King from the Christmas hymn. The Stag Moat Gardens are in the old moat of the castle, and were named for the herds bred there. Now the area is a public garden with many walking paths.

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Ghost Palace

Vladislav Hall

The tour wound us through the humongous Old Royal Palace, but we must have seen 60 locked doors or roped off staircases prohibiting access. It would have been nice to see the castle in its entirety instead of the 4 sparsely staged rooms that were part of the tour. The rooms that were open were quite large and airy, but were not furnished very well. I can forgive this because of the many signs along the tour informing visitors that much of the castle was damaged or destroyed during a fire. Perhaps they have only opened the rooms that have been restored since that fire, but as it was several hundred years ago, I can’t imagine it could have withstood time so well without some other repairs since then. We visited the Vladislav Hall, a grand ballroom type area, where many ceremonies of state occurred, including knights’ tournaments. These were made possible due to the riding stairs; shallow steps up to Vladislav Hall, allowing people to enter on horseback. My favorite room was the Regional Land Registry Office where scrolls of the state were kept, though they burned during the fire of 1541. However, the ceilings and wall in this room retain the emblems and shields of the clerks who worked there.

Regional Land Registry Office

Locked Door. You Just KNOW there is a Library Back There.

Defenestration Room

We also visited the most famous room of the castle, along with 30 Germans. The tiny, cramped, hot, crowded room was the scene of the Defenestration of Prague, a barbaric act preceding the Thirty Years War. We cowered in the corner until the tour left, but they didn’t take their heat with them. In this tiny room, Protestant Lords threw Catholic agents of the crown out the window. Even more amazing, they survived the 70 foot fall. There have actually been 3 instances of defenestration in Prague, but the instance described above is the most famous. Apparently the Czech/Bohemian people really enjoy throwing their enemies out windows.

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#1 of Prague's Top Ten

287 Steps Later, We were Rewarded with the View

Saturday was Prague Castle day. I’m caliing it a ghost castle because the parts that we toured were no longer used by the state. Please let me elaborate. While it is still the seat of government, the modern rooms are not open for public viewing, so we confined ourselves to the older buildings. Prague Castle reminds me of a college campus a little bit. There are tons of buildings all falling under the Prague Castle moniker, representing a range of architectural styles across the centuries. This area is in all the guidebooks about Prague, and as a result, all the tourists come to visit. This makes it somewhat difficult to navigate the area, avoiding strollers, canes, and photographers. Add to this mayhem guided tours in every language imaginable, with tour guides yelling to be heard, and the tourists marching along behind them, most unwilling to let you walk past them in any direction. Madness I tell you! This really ruined the ambiance of many of the sights. It’s very hard to contemplate 14^th century life, when some woman is yelling in Spanish through a megaphone. 

Look! It's Prague

The castle was interesting, but I think it was a bit overrated. We ended up spending the entire day touring the buildings and grounds of the complex, but still didn’t manage to see all of it. We were bogged down in some of the buildings, and spent time in others, where the payoff wasn’t that great. The Castle offers 2 ticket options, the short tour, and the long tour. Ignore the names and the times expected to complete each tour, because it will take several hours to explore everything. We bought the long tour, and I think it is the better deal the difference in price between the 2 tickets is 100 crowns, and I highly recommend the Story of Prague Castle exhibition if only for the artifacts they keep there, including an actual grave. Unfortunately, this ticket does not include 2 things that seem awesome, the South Tower of St. Vitus cathedral, and the Treasure of St. Vitus Cathedral. We climbed the 287 spiral steps to the top, rewarded with a view of the entire city. We were not able to make it to the treasury of St. Vitus, but that would be something I’d love to see on another visit. We also weren't able to tour all of the gardens surrounding the castle–there were just too many to see. 

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Czech Beer that Isn’t Budweiser

On our beer tour, we visited 3 separate Czech microbreweries around Prague. Our guide was Anna, and she was cute and lots of fun. And not one of the breweries we visited was Budweiser. Budweiser has been brewed in the city of České Budějovice (or Budweis) since 1895. Apparently the American company Budweiser is a completely different brew. There have been legal battles over the name Budweiser, and Anheuser-Busch can only use the brand in North America. The Czech company retains rights to the brand everywhere else.

When Our Tour Ended, We were Presented with Beer Diplomas

As part of our beer tour, we got a handy map of Prague with all the microbreweries and beer pubs labeled. We visited 2 breweries on the list and 1 that was opened only a few months ago; U Valśů, U Medvídků, and Pivovar. Along the way, we learned some fun facts about Czech beer, like the fact that Pilsners were invented in the Czech Republic, in the city of Plzen.

Following the tour, we decided to bop into the Old Town Hall for a moment. The Old Town Hall in Prague houses the Astronomical Clock. This clock has myriad information is actually a little confusing to decipher. It tells time 3 different ways, the position of the sun, the month, and the day of the year. The clock was built in 1410 and is the oldest working Astronomical Clock. For a small fee, you can climb to the top of the clock tower, and look down upon the square. Since the clock tower is open until 10pm, we decided to climb it before dinner.

The View from the Top

The Astronomical Clock at Night

After our climb, we finally got some dinner. At this point in the evening, after drinking 4 beers and having not eaten since lunch, we were a little tipsy. We chose a restaurant right at the base of the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square called El Toro Negro. We were able to eat outside, in a biergarten of sorts, and our meal was delicious. All it was missing was shots of tequila! I’m kidding about needing the shots, but not about the missing tequila. On that very day, the Czech government passed a law prohibiting the sale of hard liquor over 20%. We got to kick of prohibition abstinence style. Lest you immediately flash back to the 1920s speakeasy-bootleg era, this bill was passed for the public safety. Apparently, someone decided to sell alcohol laced with methanol, and people who were drinking the poisoned alcohol were dying. Here is a news video about the issue. Furthermore, the Czech Republic has stopped shipping liquor throughout the EU, at the EU’s request. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/09/18/pkg-sesay-czech-booze-ban.cnn?iref=allsearch Fortunately, we only had plans to drink beer, and were perfectly safe from the methanol poisoning.

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Czech Out our Prague-ress!

While Joe and I waited for the living-in-Germany-long-term paperwork to clear all the government offices, I busied myself with various crafting projects and research on European travel. I have compiled, and am still in the process of finishing, a list of destinations across the continent that I feel would be fun to visit. Furthermore, I’ve researched the sights found in the cities we’ll be traveling to, and copied down their opening hours and websites. I gathered my information using guidebooks from my local library and then conducted further research online. This has made our traveling easier. Before when we wanted to take a trip, I cast about for an idea on where to go, and then spend hours researching what to do once we got there. Now, I’ve narrowed down the time I have to spend on the internet before we travel.

On September 14 we drove up to Prague, in the Czech Republic, for the weekend. The drive was only about 3 hours from Regensburg and part of it included the autobahn, so Joe enjoyed driving fast. Before we reached the border we needed to pick up a vignette. You place these little stickers on your windshield, and you are permitted to drive in the country. Since our trip was short we only bought the 10-day pass, but there were options for 3 months and 1 year as well. These stickers are available both at gas stations near the border and at the border crossing itself. The Czech Republic is part of the European Union so our passports weren’t checked and our vehicle wasn’t searched, we just drove right under the vignette scanner (like EZ-pass in the states) and continued on our way. Being prone to usefulness, I fell asleep. Wait, I meant uselessness. When I woke up, we were almost in Prague. As we got closer to the center of the city, the highway became crowded with more and more billboards. I don’t mean billboards every 100ft or so, I mean so many billboards it became difficult to distinguish the ads from the signs. From one spot on the highway, we could see 20 or so billboards at once, plus traditional road signs. It’s very overwhelming to be bombarded with so much advertising when trying to find your way in a strange city, though I imagine it’s probably overwhelming at all times.

Beer Tour Brochure!

During the drive, when I wasn’t sleeping, we spent some time with our European phrase book. This book is pocket sized, and we bought it before we arrived because it has almost all the European languages in it. There were a couple times were Joe asked me to look up a word, but I couldn’t find it, because as it turns out the book is mostly concerned with food, identifying it, obtaining it, and eating it. There were also a few handy phrases for getting by, like do you have a fax machine? And where is the nearest phone booth? We settled on learning these phrases to help us: Mluvite anglicky, pronounced mlooveeteh anglitsky, means do you speak English? Dobrý den, pronounced dobree den, is good day. Ahoj, pronounced ahoy, means hello and is incidentally my favorite Czech word. Joe had trouble with every phrase except ahoy, but he claims it’s because he didn’t have the opportunity to read the phrases like I did.

After a couple (possibly illegal) u-turns and some vague directions from our British GPS system we arrived at our hotel, the Best Western Bila Labut, which means white swan. The woman behind the front desk was very helpful and spoke fluent English, so unfortunately we didn’t have an opportunity to use the Czech phrases we had been practicing in the car. There was also a brochure stand. I love brochures! They make my job easy. Since we arrived near to 6pm, all of the attractions I had bookmarked for our visit were already closed, but the brochures identified a beer tour starting at 6:30 and decided that touring microbreweries would be a great way to start the weekend.