Short German trips, Fri, 02 Apr 2021 | written by Jemma
Jemma and Simon at a Mountain in Europe, Germany

It’s Easter weekend and we have four whole days off work… perfect time to hit the road again and continue exploring Germany. We decided to head back to Saxony, as it is reasonably close to Berlin and convenient for a shorter trip.

We set off last night and found a random place to park along the Elbe river, East of Dresden. Equipped with hiking maps of the Sächisische Schweiz national park, lent us by Ania and Michal – thanks!! – Simon spent some time planning our routes for the next day.

This trip welcomes a new member to the Baron team – our camping kettle, which we have named Hans Gruber – why? well, why not? We felt such joy this morning to be able to boil water more quickly for our tea. And with our new thermos (unnamed, sorry) we could make tea to take on the road.

The first stop of the day was Bad Schandau. It was so nice to drive by Köningstein castle, and see the lane with the amazing view where we stopped last Summer. Maybe we will get a chance to stop there again as we’re leaving on Monday. Bad Schandau is a really cute town – very ‘chocolate box’ cute, especially with Easter decorations everywhere – lots of little colourful eggs hung on trees and bushes. The town sits by the Elbe river and in a valley. We walked up the hillside to get to some of the viewing platforms that look out over the town. Further up, there was what looked like a ruined castle tower, with steps allowing us to climb to the top and enjoy more views. They love viewing platforms here! And we had a moment of delightful solitude to enjoy here.

We headed back down the hillside – partly rambling-style, until we found the right path again, then went for a little stroll around the town. Bad Schandau is a spa town (hence the name). It has a therme complex, which we are absolutely planning to visit when it reopens after the pandemic, as appartently it is among the top 5 places in the world for a mud bath! Without any backtracking at all, we got back to the car and drove off to our next location.

We parked in Ostrau and began our hike up the moutain to the viewing spot at Schrammsteine. It was so glorious to be back in these moutains. We followed the paths in our maps, as well as veering off for some scrambling over boulders. The views were so breath-taking, and we had so many delightful tea stops. The route up to Schrammsteinaussicht had some very steep climbs, with the paths going in between the large fissure of the moutain. A lot of the path here had metal ladders and walkways to make the route accessible. Simon came up with this silly game that we couldn’t use our hand to climb the ladders, and we could only use our forearms to help us balance… But it was totally worth it, because with all the points we gathered in that game, we won the right to sit on the outer side of the barriers once we got to the top!… Ohh, we have such fun together! 😛

We arrived back at the van at about 7pm and drove off to look for a parking spot. This is a very van-y area, so many campers in car parks, but we wanted to find somewhere a bit more secluded and with a great view. We chose a spot next to a quiet road in Ostrau and right by the Skyview platform, which looks out towards Köningstein castle.