The hook
A stone bridge from 1851 threading between free-standing sandstone pinnacles nearly two hundred metres above the Elbe, in a forest of rock towers that looks invented for a fairy tale.
01Why it's worth it
The Elbe Sandstone Mountains east of Dresden are a maze of eroded towers, ravines, and flat-topped mesas, and the Bastei is the spot where it all comes together. A slim seven-arch sandstone bridge, built in 1851 to replace a wooden one, hops between rock spires that rise 194 metres over the river, with viewpoints looking down on the Elbe curling through the forest far below. This is Saxon Switzerland, a national park and one of the birthplaces of free climbing, so the rock towers around you are laced with routes. The honest catch is that the Bastei is very well known and the bridge itself can be a slow shuffle by midday. The surrounding park is enormous and quiet the moment you walk into it.
02How to experience it
Arrive at or before sunrise, when mist often fills the valley below the bridge and the day-trippers haven't come. Don't stop at the bridge; drop down into the Schwedenlöcher ravine or across to the Neurathen rock castle, or walk up from the river village of Rathen to earn the view. The wider park rewards a couple of days of walking.