The few hours I had to explore the Saxon Switzerland National Park in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany was not nearly enough. I had only enough time to see this one overlook area and to take a fast hike down through a gorge to the village that you can barely see in the distance on the upper-right-hand side of the shot above. Hopefully I’ll be able to return someday and really spend some quality time. It’s truly a beautiful area.

The gorge hike was amazing but I would strongly suggest to anyone thinking of visiting — do it the way I did and hike DOWN. I believe someone said there were something like 900 or 1000 stairs and my only amazement at that number is that it seems way too small. It was even more amazing to see so many people hiking UP. Insanity! The gorge would sometimes be a fairly wide valley and then occasionally narrow to a crack in the rock that you had to turn sideways to get through. A great hike, but be prepared for those stairs.