Join me for a hike around the fascinating and beautiful saxon switzerland national park.
Saxon Switzerland is Germany’s only rock national park, and it is an easy 40mins train trip from Dresden. I took advantage of a long weekend in Dresden and some absolutely fabulous weather to go for a hike soon after sunrise and I was delighted to have the place to myself. If you google “Saxon Switzerland” or “Bastei Bridge” you will see how busy this place gets in the peak of summer. Other than a few lone hikers and a committed photographer (other than myself), I didn’t come across many people before 10am.
a bit more about the park
Saxon Switzerland is a really cool national park known for its famous high jagged rock formations. The park sits along the river Elbe and is composed of sandstone mountains. The famous Bastei bridge is 194m above the river and some of the mountains go up to 300m above sea level. You might be asking yourself why this area has the word Switzerland in it, given it is nowhere near the real Switzerland. Apparently it was named this way because it reminded two artists of their homeland back in the 18th century. The main park covers an area of 90 square kilometres and is part of a broader national area of 710 square kilometres, adjoining Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic.
The whole area is fascinating and has rock formations and landscapes unlike any I have seen anywhere. It must be one of the most unusual hiking locations in Germany and probably Europe. I loaded up my Hasselblad with a fresh roll of Kodak Gold 200 and used an extra film holder for black & white Fomapan 400.
A shot of the ferry that you need to take across the River Elbe to get to one of the main hiking spots. This was taken on my return.
A look out across the River Elbe soon after 7am. This shot does not capture how amazing the light was, although without a tripod I did my best shooting handheld at ISO 200.
One of the many walkways through this incredible hiking area.
The jagged rock formations of the Saxon Switzerland National Park, they are really something amazing to look at.
Some of my favourite shots of the day. Even though the big concrete slab goes right out over on of the big rock formations it is still very scary when you are on it because you feel like you are floating in mid air.
Really nice results from Kodak Gold 200 in these shots, even if my exposure was a bit off.
I am most disappointed about this shot, I was worrying too much about the sheer height that I didn’t spent enough time focusing on the exposure. A lack of tripod didn’t help either. The lighting was just superb, pity it doesn’t come across in this shot.
Various shots of Bastei bridge. More on this incredible 76m long bridge here.
Along the hike back there was this really cool small village area that had houses right along the rock formations. There was still quite a bit of snow around too, although I don’t think I got the exposure right on these and they are a bit dull.
Miscellaneous b&w shots on the walk back to the ferry.
overall observations
To say I enjoyed this trip is an understatement. Dresden is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in Germany and the Saxon Switzerland National Park is a close second in terms of natural beauty (and I say that being someone that lives near the Bavarian Alps). Having the place to myself and absolutely wonderful lighting also helped. I am really happy overall with Kodak Gold 200 and will be stocking more of it. I was disappointed with some of the shots but that is because I got the exposure wrong and had no tripod and it was just after sunrise, which can be very difficult lighting to shoot in. I think Kodak Portra 400 would have faired better in those high dynamic range scenarios. As always Fomapan 400 did not disappoint, it is fast becoming my go to film in both medium format and 4x5 sheet film (you just cannot go wrong with Fomapan 100 sheet film).
I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I did taking them. See you next time!
Neil
Some random phone snaps below.
