On the last full day of the student exchange, a bunch of students wanted to go on a trip into the nature outside of the city and went hiking in the Saxon Switzerland.

We started at 10 am with the train S1 from Dresden main station to the spa town Rathen. After our arrival we waited a few minutes to cross the Elbe with about 250 other tourists on the non motorized reaction ferry of Rathen.

Then, after we finally crossed the Elbe, we started hiking to the Bastei Bridge. It is a bridge linking the rocks of the Bastei formation and was initially build out of wood in the beginnings of 19th century. A few decades later as more and more tourists came there, it was rebuild out of sandstone and became on of the main attractions of the Saxon Switzerland.

The American students really like the trip and being in the woods. Andy - one of the American teachers pointed to the conifers and said:

“This forest smells like christmas”.

After reaching the Bastei Bridge and enjoying the sight from up there, we walked back to Rathen, and crossed the Elbe again to get back to the train station.

When we arrived at the other side of the Elbe, we used the time before our train departed for a picnic at the Elbe.