Sunday July 23 – Monday July 31, 2023

Lisbeth and Mike’s summer holiday, walking in Saxon Switzerland in south east Germany, close to the Czech border. We arrived by plane at Prague from London and took the train down the river Vltava to Bad Schandau, just over the Germany border from Czech, where the river changes name to Elbe.

After a day looking around Bad Schandau, the first days walking was to Rathen. Our Day 2 started with 600 steps up the famous Bastei Bridge, on to Stad Wehlen where we crossed the Elbe and finally to the fortress town Konigstein. We started the third day by visiting the impressive fortress (bus up and down) and then set off for Gohrisch.

On our fourth day we took a “rest” which meant only walking 12 km, actually making a sneak start on the next day’s route. Day 5 took us via Papstein back to the Elbe and a ferry back to Bad Schandau. The last day was a walk up to the Lichtenhainer waterfall but the scenery on the way, the climbing and our fellow walkers were far more memorable.