kuhstall rocks ~ kirnitzschtal valley ~ bad schandau ~ schmilka

the kuhstall (cowshed) rock formation was the next nice day trip from bad schandau through the kirnitzschtal valley with the historic tram (since 1898). our first short stop was the small lichtenhainer waterfall, then we walked to the kuhstall through a quite sad destroyed forest to the kuhstall rocks. 

tram since 1898

 lichtenhainer waterfall

 

last but not least, enjoy also few pictures from schmilka, the last saxon village at the elbe river before the czech border:

hotel helvetia in schmilka

more pictures here

good-bye saxon switzerland (sächsische schweiz), let's hope we see you again soon :-)
eof

bastei = top 1 destination in saxon switzerland

bastei is the no. 1 sightseeing destination in saxon switzerland. at least according google and its no. 1 search hit from trip advisor. our hosts also said bastei was the most important thing to see. even the parking place was really full on that rainy and untypical day for hiking: silvester 2017.

if you asked me or the best of all wives, we liked our first trip to falkenstein and schrammsteine rocks much better. not only because there were much fewer folks underway, we liked over stay and the view from the top of the schrammstein-plateau soooo much.

anyway, enjoy few pictures from bastei with the bastei bridge and the remaining of the medieval castle neurathen.

baste bridge (bastei-brücke)

elbe river in saxony (sachsen)

 castle neurathen (felsenburg neurathen)

beautiful sandstone rocks ...

good-bye, beautiful bastei bridge

just find more pictures here
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bad schandau - the gate to saxon switzerland

our next stop at our new year's trip to saxony was the spa city of bad schandau at elbe river (labe in czech language) in the saxon switzerland. 

we made our first experience with airbnb and yes, we will probably use this accommodation option more often as it is nice to have such a direct contact to locals who can tell a lot about the area and sightseeing highlights. of course, the 2nd part can google even better :-) 

schrammsteine

 ostrau is well located for the easy hiking tours to falkenstein rock (left) and the schrammsteine area (left)

saxon switzerland

on the top :-)

the 100+ years old historic elevator is a landmark of bad schandau (since 1905) 

view at bad schandau and river elbe from the elevator

happy 2018++

good-bye ostrau, falkenstein & schrammstein

more pictures here.

reichenbach im vogtland, saxony

reichenbach im vogtland, a small saxon city with huge industrial and theatre history was our 1st stop at the year's end trip to the national park saxon switzerland (sächsische schweiz).

all our stops were (separate blog posts will follow as soon as i will find the time to write them, i promise):
~~~

• reichenbach ~ read more in this blog post below :-)
• bad schandau / sächsische schweiz ~ the place we stayed for a week with beautiful (not too difficult) hiking trips all around 
• dresden + pillnitz ~ this time we have visited with friends the palace pillnitz and the eastern part of dresden (the bridge das blaue wunder, TV tower, loschwitz (schillerplatz, körnerplatz) ~ but yes, let's jump back few weeks, we have been to dresden in early november too and joined the night life and visited the old city center
• fortress königstein ~ huge saxon fortress build on the rocks of the saxon switzerland 
• bastei ~ the no. 1 sightseeing destination in saxon switzrland according to both, google and our hosts
• kuhstall (cowshed) ~ a nice trip from bad schandau through the kirnitschtal valley with the historic tram (since 1898) to the lichtenhainer waterfall & the kuhstall rock formation ~ schmilka: the last village before the czech border
• czech switzerland ~ hrensko, jindrichovice, marienfels .. coming soon .... ~ what about our last year's visit in the area? even if there was no snow, because of the frost and frozen humidity on the trees we could make amazing pictures :o)
• chemnitz ~ the industrial heart of saxonia

~~~
if you asked me, reichenbach which is located in saxonia in the western part of german ore mountains (erzgebirge) remembered me at the small mining cities in slovak ore mountains (slowakisches erzgebirge), especially at göllnitz (gelnica). but according to wikipedia it was famous for its sewing and weaving industry, later for metal working, paper industry and even the factories for the famous noble cars horch and audi (founded by august horch) were located here. did you know, that 'audi' is the latin translation of 'horch!', probably not :-). anyway, the most famous citizen of reichenbach was friederike caroline neuber ('neuberin'), 1697 - 1760, german actress and theatre director.

 

more pictures here

eof