Walk the enchanting Elbe Sandstone Mountains

GERMANY, SAXONY
History and Wonder - SAX1

I’ve seen much beauty of this type on my earlier travels through southern Germany, Switzerland, Salzburg and Silesia, but I have never come across fabulous rock landscapes such as these.  Carl Merkel, German philosopher, 1826. 

Tucked away by the Czech border, just an hour from Dresden, is Saxon Switzerland; one of Germany’s most unique and beautiful landscapes and a superb area for a walking holiday in Central Europe. It is a mountain range – also known as the Elbe Sandstone Mountains – full of bizarre rock formations, wild gorges, sheer cliffs and intriguing forests. To call it a mountain range is a bit misleading as the highest peak there, the Große Zschirnstein, is only 556 metres / 1,814 feet, but it gives a good indication of the diversity of this wonderfully rugged hiking country.   

For decades the area was isolated in a remote corner of eastern Germany but it is now a true haven for walkers and other outdoor enthusiasts. It offers 1,200 km / 720 miles of waymarked paths and walking trails, hundreds of miles of cycling routes, the mighty River Elbe, and a wealth of flora and fauna, with a large part of it protected as the Saxon Switzerland National Park.   

Take your walking boots and uncover some of the most picturesque landscapes in Europe, dotted with romantic fortresses, pretty villages, old mills and historical inns – all handcrafted with endless devotion and detail, and which, only now, seem to be awakening from a long slumber.