Picspam: Saxon Switzerland in the fog
I've shown you pictures of this beautiful landscape that's only about half an hour by train away from Dresden, in Summertime before. But these pictures - specially posted for my new friend topum - show the same place in December 2014, on a very rainy and foggy day. It made for beautiful pictures, the kind that you can find in calendars. Please have a look under the cut! Enjoy!
The way up! Usually I take my friends up by bus and we walk down, but we had missed the bus and it was the last one for the day. We went up rather late, it already was about 3 PM. We met some people coming down. In Summer it is full of tourists up there because of the easy access, but at this time of the year we were almost alone and it was really like in a fairytale!
That's the river Elbe down there. During many millions of years it carved its way through the sandstones. You arrive by train at the other side and then have to use a small ferry.
What you see here used to be a medieval fortress, all the way up on top of the rock. Nothing much is left of it, but you can still see the holes where the wooden beams used to be, and the fountain and some other things built from stone. You can walk around and there are plates with explanations everywhere. There's also a model I need to show you yet aletheiafelinea!
The next picture shows the "Bastei bridge". One of the first touristy spots, built in 1851. Even Microsoft has chosen it for one of its background pictures in Windows. We're famous!!!
Look how this tree has grown from the rock! Amazing.
I wonder how they can even survive up there?
This is a famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich. There is a so called "Painter's walk" where along the way they have plates with paintings, exactly at the spot they were painted. You can see how much the trees have grown since:
I just showed you the previous picture to show what you WOULD see here ;)
But then all of a sudden the fog cleared away:
Here's the rest of the story. My timetable had told me that at 6 PM the last bus would be going down and I was determined to get it. We warmed up a little in the restaurant up there, and then went to the station. By then it was pitch black. The station was a bit away from the restaurant and the hotel. There was one lonely lantern but otherwise we were in the middle of the black wood. I've never seen it so dark before. If that bus hadn't come there was no way we would be able to go down again, not seeing where we went. But luckily, it came ;) That was quite an adventure.
The way up! Usually I take my friends up by bus and we walk down, but we had missed the bus and it was the last one for the day. We went up rather late, it already was about 3 PM. We met some people coming down. In Summer it is full of tourists up there because of the easy access, but at this time of the year we were almost alone and it was really like in a fairytale!
That's the river Elbe down there. During many millions of years it carved its way through the sandstones. You arrive by train at the other side and then have to use a small ferry.
What you see here used to be a medieval fortress, all the way up on top of the rock. Nothing much is left of it, but you can still see the holes where the wooden beams used to be, and the fountain and some other things built from stone. You can walk around and there are plates with explanations everywhere. There's also a model I need to show you yet aletheiafelinea!
The next picture shows the "Bastei bridge". One of the first touristy spots, built in 1851. Even Microsoft has chosen it for one of its background pictures in Windows. We're famous!!!
Look how this tree has grown from the rock! Amazing.
I wonder how they can even survive up there?
This is a famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich. There is a so called "Painter's walk" where along the way they have plates with paintings, exactly at the spot they were painted. You can see how much the trees have grown since:
I just showed you the previous picture to show what you WOULD see here ;)
But then all of a sudden the fog cleared away:
Here's the rest of the story. My timetable had told me that at 6 PM the last bus would be going down and I was determined to get it. We warmed up a little in the restaurant up there, and then went to the station. By then it was pitch black. The station was a bit away from the restaurant and the hotel. There was one lonely lantern but otherwise we were in the middle of the black wood. I've never seen it so dark before. If that bus hadn't come there was no way we would be able to go down again, not seeing where we went. But luckily, it came ;) That was quite an adventure.
