There's an area south of Dresden on the Czech border that is known as Saxon Switzerland (and it continues beyond the border as Bohemian Switzerland). In this area, the Elbe snakes through an area of tall hills and rock formations. The bridge that you see above is called the Bastei, and is built very high into some of these rocks (305 m). 
The train takes just under an hour to get from our apartment to this area. We decided to come on an overcast Monday that Jacob had off from class, in the hopes of avoiding crowds. Still, the Bastei path is very popular, and there were plenty of visitors that day. 
As the path made its way higher and higher there were great lookout points along the way to see the surrounding countryside. I'm sure if it had been a clear day we could have seen much farther -- but it was still very impressive.
As we climbed up, I was especially surprised to see that the path was paved in many sections, with stairs and ramps up to the top... Although we were dressed more for hiking, there were lots of people along the path that looked like they were just out for a Sunday stroll. The Bastei itself added to this funny feeling of being very civilized in the midst of nature: there were stone seats built into the sides of the bridge, and nice lookout alcoves for optimal nature viewing.
One of my favorite parts of being up there was seeing the Elbe spread out below.
And then in no time at all we were back on the ground, on the other side of the river, waiting for the train home...
...telling each other, "we were just up there, looking down, seeing other ants like us."
1 comment:
You two look like you are having so much fun! Can't wait to see you!
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