We are now in Germany, just – about 20kms from the Czech border, at a little town called Bad Schandau. I’ve since discovered that Bad means spa – not bad, most disappointing, I had wondered what was so bad about it. Today we did something really mad I never thought I’d do – we went rock climbing at a place called Bastei. It was something Gus really wanted to do and you needed at least two people; and I’m here for new experiences so I thought “What the Hell”. The rock formations in the area are incredible. It’s part of a national park called ‘Saxon Switzerland’, apparently the phrase was coined by a visiting Swiss person.
I was assured I’d be perfectly safe with a rope tied around me all the way. Gus was belayed up first by the guide and then he belayed me up, with instructions from the guide. They even had a guy climb up beside us to take our photos and give instruction as we climbed. It was the most frightening thing I’ve ever done but what a rush getting to the top! I hadn’t thought about getting down again, that was even worse, especially going over the side to start with. Once back on solid ground my legs almost gave way from shaking; and we repaired to the nearest pub for a stiff drink or two...
The road that goes past our campsite has a tramline running down one side – when you’re driving up the road, you could easily have a tram come down the same side of the road as you and you have to get out of the way as well as avoiding oncoming vehicles – very tricky. It’s a reasonably busy road too.
The Elbe River runs through this area, it’s the second longest river in Europe after the Rhine. It’s 1100kms long and eventually ends up in the North Sea.
We stayed a second night in Bad Schandau and today drove to Dresden. On the way we stopped at a fortress called Konigstein Castle. There’s no castle there anymore but the fortress is still very much intact. Like a lot of other places we’ve visited that have been around for hundreds of years, it has been used for a lot of different purposes. Over recent times it’s been a prisoner of war camp, and a place to store precious artworks to keep them safe from the bombing in Dresden. It had amazing views from the top. I had a very amusing ‘conversation’ with an older German man. He asked me a question – probably thinking I would have more information as I was wearing an audiophone to tell me about the place in English. I just said “Sorry, English”. He then asked “London?” I said “No, New Zealand”. This pleased him enormously and he made a gesture like a small animal and said “Baa”. I said “Yes, lots of sheep”. He then rubbed his stomach and said “New Zealand lamb gut”. Just goes to prove – who needs a common language. Everyone seems to know about our sheep and our All Blacks, some of the younger ones also know we have snowboarding and surfing...
By the way, I hope none of my nearest and dearest believed for a minute that I really went rock climbing, what nonsense – I’d never do that in a million years!! (Gus didn’t do any climbing either; we just thought a bit of fiction might be fun)
I walked in the middle of this bridge watching them, no point taking any risks by getting too close to the edges :-)
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