Journey 7. Elbaradweg in pictures. Part 3.

Day three of our “Tour de Saxony” was a journey towards the so-called “Saxon Switzerland” (German: Sächsische Schweiz). I do envy the City of Dresden that only 40 km from its centre there are table mountains. What is more, the mountains are surrounded by a meandering River Elbe, which put together looks really picturesque, I must say. Of course, I am not the first to discover this region, it has been done long, long time ago. Saxon Switzerland is one of the German national parks as well as it lies on the so called “Painters’ Trail.”

We had a lousy weather of course – that’s what usually takes place during "long weekends" – you cannot “have a cake and eat a cake” I guess; time off and sunny weather are two things that exclude each other when it comes to “long weekends” (it does seem to be a rule because as I’m writing this English version of this post it is another “long may weekend” and it is raining cats and dogs). Coming back to point, yes, it was drizzly, cloudy and cold. We welcomed rare sunrays with shouts of joy. Unfortunately, the weather did not discourage crowds of tourists, including a number of Polish wanderers, from visiting the area. 

The plan for the day was to see with my own eyes Bastei rock formation and Bastei Bridge as well as Königstein Fortress. The latter was strongly recommended by my mother who visited the fortress about 30 years ago. Bastei goes as first. We left our car on a quite big parking, got rid of three Euro fare, jumped on our bikes (beforehand we put on all dry clothes we had) and rode in accordance to what roadsigns told us...and they directed us onto a very nice, flat as a table bike/pedestrian trail. It took us 10 minutes to get to our destination place. The trail has no major climbs, so even an amateur can ride/walk it. We did not pass too many pedestrians/bikers, tough. The majority gets to Bastei by bus, groups of tourists go by coach. It starts getting crowdier and crowdier just before Bastei. It seems to me I’m in Zakopane climbing on Morskie Oko. We decide to abandon our two-wheeled vehicles and continue on foot. Before the natural (and man-made: the bridge) wonders strike us, we walk past a well established tourist infrastructure and catering. On the way back I could not resist myself from buying a typical Radler and a Wurst. I love this folklore.

I hate crowds, really. I avoid places that are densely covered with tourists. While in Bastei, one has to accept this sad fact you are not alone to enjoy the impressive landscape of Elbe Sandstone Massif. Nevertheless, the views do compensate that.

Equally impressive is Königstein Fortress, which can be seen in the distance from Basei. At first I had not realized I was looking at the fortress – it looks like one of many table rocks. Anyway, that was the idea of its builders, some say, it is worth noting that the fortress was never conquered by an enemy. The same cannot be said about the town of Königstein located below the fortress. However, it wasn’t seized be humans but by the forces of nature –it was damaged by flood in 2002.

We leave our car and bicycles in a modern parking lot (not for free of course but what’s for free these days?). A small climb up the hill and we are under the rock on which the fortress was build and near the checkout. Tickets...10 Euro per person are rather expensive for Polish tourists but as it later turned out those were the money well spent. There are two ways to get into the fortress: one is a panorama lift elevator and the other is ...just a lift. As we’re not afraid of heights, we choose the former one.

Königstein fortress, it is not, as I imagined, a great castle. It is a series of buildings (various military buildings, church, housing for soldiers, casemates and even a wood), built on a rock and surrounded by a thick wall. It took us 3 hours to make tour around the fortress, and mind you, we did not enrer every single open exhibition. It wasn’t a very detailed tour as military stuff is not my cup of tea. Nevertheless, what I liked most was, a deep well located in Pump House. The well is 152 meters deep and is one of the deepest wells in Germany. The story about how it was made (or dug) was told by two gentlemen. I wish I knew German better, because I’d have understood their passionate story better. We had luck and came when a performance started. It consisted in lowering a bucket into the well. It lasted about 10 minutes and we could either peer into the well or observe the procedure on the screen. At the end, we were sprinkled with well water.

The end of the day in the Swiss Saxony is ... a kebab. Whenever I'm in Germany, I can’t deny myself a pleasure of eating it. I believe the best kebabs are sold in Germany, though I’ve never been to Turkey. We ate our kebabs in at the bank of Elbe River. The ships loaded with tourists were floating lazily while we were enjoying a "traditional" German dish, drinking beer and saying goodbye to Saxony. Until next time :) Auf Wiedersehen.

 
Core info:
-http://www.festung-koenigstein.de/
-http://www.germany.travel/en/leisure-and-recreation/walking/painters-trail.html