saxony walks

WELCOME TO SAXONY WALKS

Saxony Walks offers small group walking holidays in the Saxon Switzerland region of south-east Germany.

Germany with its long tradition of hiking and well maintained trails has an excellent reputation for walking holidays, but the extraordinary sandstone scenery of the Saxon Switzerland and the wonderful walks through the region are strangely almost unknown in the UK, although perhaps this has changed a little since it was featured on the BBC series German Wanderlust with Julia Bradbury. Saxony Walks would like to introduce British walkers to this special corner of Germany.

SAXON SWITZERLAND

The Saxon Switzerland is compact region in south-east Germany along the river Elbe between the city of  Dresden and the Czech Republic. It contains spectacular sandstone rock formations, gorges, table mountains, picturesque villages and small towns, castles and a dense network of footpaths including the 112 km long Malerweg (Painters’ Way), chosen as the most beautiful hiking trail  in Germany in 2007.  Much of the region lies within the Saxon Switzerland National Park.

There is also an excellent system of public transport, including a local train that runs along the left bank of the Elbe and pedestrian ferries across to the villages on the right bank. This enables walkers to undertake varied hikes and at the end of the day to swiftly return to ‘base camp’.

The wild and dramatic scenery was discovered by artists in the eighteenth century; indeed it was two Swiss teachers from the Art Academy in Dresden (Adrian Zingg and Anton Graff) who first named the region the Saxon Switzerland as it reminded them of the landscape of their homeland. The great German Romantic painter Casper David Friedrich was inspired by his walks through the Saxon Switzerland to paint the famous Wanderer above the Sea of Mist.

 .

And 200 years later walkers are inspired to follow in his footsteps!