Saxon Switzerland National Park, Germany Sep 7, 2025
We caught a morning train from Berlin down to Bad Schandau, a small spa town in the Elbe valley in eastern Saxony. From there we made our way to Camping und Pension Ostrauer Mühle in the Kirnitzschtal valley, right on the Malerweg. Supposedly one of the oldest campsites in Germany. We pitched our tents and spent the afternoon on a loop hike through Saxon Switzerland, which is Germany's only rock national park — eroded Cretaceous sandstone, towers and gorges and flat-topped table mountains in the Elbe Sandstone range. Next morning we did a different trail before packing up. Then a suicide on the rail line cancelled our train back, we sprinted for the last Flixbus of the day, and finally dragged into Berlin around 11 PM. Wrecked. Sandstone pinnacles still stuck in my head.
