A Climb to 2016 in Saxon Switzerland

Climber's paradise is good for photogs, too. — Climber’s paradise is good for photogs, too.

Spending the time after Christmas with friends and leaving home for some nice travel destination has a long tradition with me. This time we decided to discover East Germany’s Saxon Switzerland in winter. (fyi: this is where free climbing was invented) This area is famous for its sandstone table mountains and very popular for climbers from all over the world. Since I am a bit afraid of height, I decided not to climb these rocks and to use the touristy paths instead to get on top. Finally my goal was to take some nice photographs.

When we arrived the first day at the small town of Sebnitz at the Czech border, right after checking-in at the hotel we went to see a friend and his wife who live there. But only half a beer later sunset started and we where told to go to some nice place with a great view over the area.

Hills of Saxony Switzerland at sunset. Table mountains can be seen in the background.

View to the famous landscape of Saxon Switzerland — Two famous landmarks in Saxon Switzerland are the table rocks of Lilienstein (right) and Königstein (left) with its ancient mountain top fortress, which has been unconquered until these days.

Later that night on our way back to the hotel we stopped at the castle of Stolpen, which sits on a basalt mountain, walked around the high walls of the complex and took some nice night shots. After returning to our hotel we met again with our local friend and chatted over a few beers until way after midnight.

Fortress Stolpen at night — Night view to the fortress of Stolpen which was famous for being the prison to Duchess Cosel, the mistress of Saxony’s ruler August (“the Robust” with insider reference to my ol’ friend Minge) for over almost half a century.

Next day we prepared for a long hike around the Bielatal. First we took the Southeast rim of the valley to change to the other side in the afternoon and walk back to our car. The deep standing winter sun produced a nice colourful and punchy light and made some nice photos possible.

Hercules Needles are a paradise for climbers. Alltogether there are more than 1,000 Rocks with more than 20,000 climbing routes in that region.

View down the Biela valley where almost all of the natural environment seems to be untouched for the last decades.

Ancient ruin which stands now almost inmidst of the forest.

Only these pine trees have the guts to grow on top of the sandstone rocks.

For the night we went to the city of Dresden to visit the ancient christmas market, for having some mulled wine and the compulsory christmas market Bratwurst. Later we strolled around the historic city which was still illuminated in christmas fashion. I could not resist to photograph Dresden at night again.

Dresdens rebuilt Frauenkirche (Church of the Lady), which is a huge building. Due to the new interior furniture it sometimes smells like a furniture department store 🙂

Dresden's historic downtown still in christmas mode. — Dresden’s historic downtown still in christmas mode.

Panorama of the old city of Dresden at night.

The morning of New Year’s Eve started freezing and stormy. Again we decided to explore one Rock and thus we ended up at the Zirkelstein (Circular Stone). After reaching the top the wind was that heavy, that taking sharp photographs was like gambling. But we withstood these nasty conditions and did our very best to deliver at least some good images.

Zirkelstein looks like some Giant has lost a pebble in the plains. It takes about 45 mins to get to the top via some stairs and metal ladders. My experience if you forget your gloves in the car: climbing can be painful since the rails of the ladders are ice cold 🙁

180° Panorama from Zirkelstein taken while freezing winds tried to blow us down from the rock. (click to enlarge)

Since discovering this rock just took us part of the day, we got the idea to visit one of the most touristy spots of that area – the famous rock formation of the Bastei (The Bastion) right at the banks of the river Elbe. Who should be there at this late afternoon when everyone prepares for partying at night? Finally we ended up with several thousands of other visitors who must have thought the same 🙂 .

View from The Bastei downstream river Elbe.

The Bastei (right) and the ancient castle on top of the rocks (left) where filled with tourists.

For celebrating New Year’s Eve we went back to Dresden and met at an open air beergarden near the famous “Blue Wonder’s” Bridge, where we had lots of fun and a wonderful view on the venue’s fireworks down on the riverside. From that party no photographs exist anymore.

Next morning we met again with our local friends for a hike to the famous sandstone arch of Prebitzschtor on the Czech side which is already Bohemian Switzerland (this is where some takes of the “Cronicles of Narnia” have been shot). Since we started late and because of some snow over night we arrived too late and unfortunately could not make it to see this attraction. Instead of this we had a great winter walk through snow covered forests followed by yummy food in a regional restaurant.

On the last day of this short vacation again some sandstone rocks waited for us. First we went to the Labyrith which is a huge collection of sandstones with caves and paths and trees inbetween. It can get really loud from time to time because this enormous area is used as the world’s largest outdoor children’s playground. A great place to learn climbing or to play hide and seek.

The Labyrinth is a huge area of giant sandstone rocks laying around, creating paths and caves. Ideal to learn climbing and a great outdoor playground for tough kids at any weather.

Our last destination was the rock formation of Papststein (Pope Stone). I counted / estimated about 500 steps of wood, stone and steel and enjoyed a great view over the winter landscape. One highlight was the little rustic restaurant on top of the rock where we had really great garlic noodles.

branches with icy cover — Constantly changing weather with freezing temperatures caused everything on the top of the rocks to have some kind of icy cover.

We finished our vacation as we started: with a visit at our friends’ home sitting in front of their fireplace and having some great dinner.

(Info for photogs: Many of the landscape images needed to be HDRed due to the heavy contrast produced by the low winter sun)