With the border going straight through the national park, one can easily do a two-country-hike.
The Czechs don’t call it Sächsische Schweiz though, for them its České Švýcarsko. Which is unpronouncable for Germans, so they call it Böhmische Schweiz. Plenty of Swisses.
Our apartment was surrounded on three sides by national park and also just a few kilometres from the border. Many reasons to leave the car where it was and start the hike at the doorstep.
Early on, we already caught a glimpse of the neighbouring country and the vastness of the national park.
Crossing the border also means crossing the Kirnitzsch, a tiny river that has carved a deep gorge over the millenia. Crossing the river itself was the easy part, thanks to some huge treetrunks that had fallen over it. Getting down to it and back up on the other side posed a considerably bigger challenge.
We got off the marked trail on the other side (i.e. got lost) and had to scramble through the forest for a while to find an official track again. Not the best thing to do in the protected core area of a national park…
Hiking on Czech side was – aside from the getting lost part – just as easy as on the other side of the border – well marked ways everywhere. It was very quiet over there though. We didn’t meet another person, while in Germany we came across other hikers every couple of minutes.
I very much like the vegetation in the area. Huge forests, the ground covered in pine needles – smells nice as well.
At some point we crossed back over the river (on a proper bridge this time) and left the forest in the late afternoon. The last bit of the hike led us through an agricultural area with cattle and sunflower fields.
Just as the day before, we took about 6h for the trip. With the added bonus of not having to take the care back home this time – we ended the walk on the doorstep where we had started it.
