The long return, Tue, 30 Jun 2020 | written by Simon
Jemma and Simon at a Castle, Lake, Mountain, Park in Europe, Germany

Sächsische Schweiz is a huge, beautiful park encompassing some table mountains at the River Elbe Valley, full of fantastic rock formations and stunning sights. We arrived in mid-afternoon, parked and went to the first of the many attractions the park has to offer: the Bastei Bridge. It’s a stone bridge lodged in between the standing rocks at the top of the table mountain plateau, and it used to lead to a castle. Before crossing it, we had our immortal bread-cheese-tomato lunch with a fantastic view.

On the other side, we saw ruins of a castle placed somewhat precariously on the pinnacles of the rock formations which crown the mountain edge. Not much is left, but this might be even better, as you can really see how incredibly it was placed amongst the rocks.

We then followed a pictoresque path through the forest and to the bottom of the valley. Layers and layers of trees unfolded as we walked down the steep slopes, opening to a cute little village at the bottom. We stopped for a beer in a small inn by a stream. This was such a great spot, as it was really quiet and quaint, unlike the really touristy beer gardens and sausage kiosks close to the bridge. We felt like we were rewarded with being among the few people to walk all the way down the mountain.

We then followed the path up the other side of the cliff, by a beautiful small lake and a series of rock formations called the Swedish Holes, basically walking in narrow passages in between massive boulders. We explored some of the crevices in more detail and were really amused seeing other sightseers follow us there as well. This place felt so magical!

The beauty of it all made the walk to the top unexpectadly quick and easy, and just as we reached the plateau, Simon got a call with a potential job offer – what a day!