Picspam: Saxon Switzerland in the fog

[dieastra]

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.

Comments

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

Really pretty pics - especially the trees coming out of the rocks!

Stacey

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

One really wonders how it can grow up there!
This is why something the rocks are destroyed and falling down I guess. Due to roots and/or ice in winter.

[geekslave.livejournal.com]

Definitely a mystery!

Stacey

[topum.livejournal.com]

This is spectacular.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Told you so! Maybe, with all your travels, you come near this area one day. Have a look for yourself.

I am really impressed by that tree growing sideways from the rock. Such determination!

[hiddleasaurus.livejournal.com]

Great pictures! I would love to see that place someday. :)

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I hope you will! This is only a small bit of the whole National Park.

Harry and Lucy took Bern? Noooo! :(

[heather mccrillis (from livejournal.com)]

Nice to see they've put convenient branches on that mountain for folks to hang around should someone like Harkness would drop in. #safetysoonerorlater

[sharp2799.livejournal.com]

Breathtaking.

[alphaflyer.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous. I was thinking halfway through scrolling that it had a Caspar David Friedrich feel -- and then, bingo! Thanks for sharing!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Yes, he and other painters were the first walking there. And carrying the easils and everything. And back then there were not walkways like there are now. This all started with the painters, and then the people loved the pictures and started to go there, and it was the beginning of tourism.

It all started in 1764. Some Swiss painters said it looked like home and this is why it is called Saxon Switzerland.

[arashinoookami]

Wow, so pretty! The rocks look like something out of the Avatar movie.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I haven't seen the Avatar movie, but Hollywood actually films a lot in my neck of the wood so you can see it in many movies.

This is just one example (it's over the border in Czech Republic though): http://www.cztip.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Pravcicka-brana.jpg

In one of the Narnia movies you could see them walk over that bridge. It's actually a computer fake, as it is closed, they are afraid of it breaking.

Also, I once did this post about something from my home-city Dresden: http://dieastra.livejournal.com/129427.html

[arashinoookami]

Wow, that stone arch is amazing!

[celeste9]

Ooh, these pictures are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I'm happy you like them! Sometimes it's easy to take things granted that are always there, so it is nice to see them with "tourist" eyes and to share with my friends.

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, awesome! :) I love the crooked trees and the photo with Elba through wet twigs. Really neat composition! And the Painter's walk is a wonderful idea.

There's also a model I need to show you
*perks ears" Oh?

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I thought you might like them ;) It was really very mystical. Maybe I should try to paint one of those crooked trees. I haven't painted in ages. Might be a good motif. And thanks for the compliment on the other picture! I really tried for artsy this time. Too bad this was still with my old camera, I think my new one would make even better pictures. Time to go back I guess!

I finally found the model! I have been up there so often recently with different friends, I didn't remember where to look. I'll do a proper post about the fortress yet, but here is the model so you have an idea what it looked like:

(http://s137.photobucket.com/user/DieAstra/media/Dresden%202014/P4270021%20600%20x%20450.jpg.html)

[aletheiafelinea.livejournal.com]

Wow, a lot of work here! I like how the rocks are made, neat idea with layers. :)

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is a really good idea and probably something I should borrow for more action figure pictures!
I love how people can play with models and get even paid for. I also yet need to post the pictures from the miniature park that had buildings from all over the world - including the Eiffel Tower, Liberty Statue, White House and lots more.

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

How nice to be there without all the tourists! Sounds like it got a bit scary at the end, before your bus came!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

It made indeed a huge difference! As if you were alone in the world. I've never been there at this time of the year. My mother would have been too afraid of slipping on wet leaves etc. and break a leg. You have to be a bit careful. When searching google, you can also find gorgeous pictures in the winter, covered with snow. It looks different with each season and daytime.

Sometimes it's nice to remember in what a beautiful place I live, and not take it for granted!

I was thinking at the end about alternatives. We could have stayed the night in the hotel I guess, but it is an expensive high end one. I also could have called my father to come and get us by car, but it would have taken at least an hour. And the restaurant we had been in actually closed at 5 PM.

But while we were standing at the bus stop, a young girl came, who works in that restaurant, and she said she takes this bus every evening, so we relaxed a bit after that. Also I am sure it is nice for the bus driver if someone actually wants to ride and he doesn't drive there for nothing!

[fueschgast]

Wow, such prettiness!

I had no idea there's a Windows wallpaper of the bridge!

That photo above "I wonder how they can even survive up there?" looks so familiar. From a Caspar David Friedrich painting maybe? Or maybe it just reminds me of his style.

Ha, and then you mention the guy. I didn't remember that they have signs with infos on paintings of the view there.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

I think this is the only painting at the Bastei. It's when you go to the other view platform, which is a bit to the side, and from where you have a good look at the Bastei Bridge, which is also the usual postcard look. The "Malerweg" is actually at the other side of the Elbe. It takes several days if you want to walk the whole thing: http://www.saechsische-schweiz.de/malerweg.html?utm_source=mw&utm_medium=301&utm_campaign=1

Just imagine, when these guys were going there for paintings, they did not have the comfortable walk ways like we do! And they carried all the easels and other stuff.

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

Those are beautiful.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[malice-n-wonder.livejournal.com]

Wow! These are gorgeous!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really happy with how they came out.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

Beautiful place and beautiful photos. The tree that grew from the rock and it's meters and meters over the ground looks amazing. So this is where film crews go when they need a scene with a car on a tree, over a cliff!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

You definitely could print a calendar with these pictures! It was amazing for me as this is not the kind of year we usually go there.

So this is where film crews go when they need a scene with a car on a tree, over a cliff!

I really don't think they would get a car up there ;) It's way up the mountain, and while you can drive up by car or bus, you still have to walk a bit to go to the bridge and in the former fortress it is only steel stairs and walkways where you can look through. My friend is afraid of heights and refused to go on there.

But they have recently filmed a movie indeed in Saxon Switzerland. I think it was a movie version of "The Marksman". I just remember reading a report how difficult it was filming there and getting all the equipment up. And they even added more trees to make the wood more dark and moody. So there are fake trees between the real trees ;) I have to watch this when it comes out.

Also Hollywood has found what a beautiful landscape we have and have filmed several movies already.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

I know, I was only joking ;) Those places on tv look like there aren't such places in the real life - "how could a tree grow like that?" - and yet they exist!

And they even added more trees to make the wood more dark and moody. So there are fake trees between the real trees ;)
When I was on a trip to CERN in Geneva, the woman who worked there told us the producers of "Angels and Demons" came there to see if they could film there (there's a bit in the beginning of the film when antimatter gets stolen from CERN). They looked around and said the place doesn't look spectacular enough, and they'll build their own sets. And they did. So much for keeping things real ;)

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Those places on tv look like there aren't such places in the real life - "how could a tree grow like that?" - and yet they exist!

Ah, that is true! And it always makes for great tension, when you worry if it will fall down or not. The slightest shift can make the difference.

and they'll build their own sets. And they did. So much for keeping things real ;)

Heh, great story! I guess we all have come to expect how such places are supposed to look, from seeing it in movies and TV all the time. So the real thing might be rather boring indeed!

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

And it always makes for great tension, when you worry if it will fall down or not. The slightest shift can make the difference.
Yes, very Hollywood-style.

I guess we all have come to expect how such places are supposed to look, from seeing it in movies and TV all the time.
"Things that try to look like things often do look more like things than things." - Terry Pratchett :)

[niviene.livejournal.com]

These are incredibly beautiful...really love the fog! Makes me want to visit some day just to see/experience it for myself :)