Story and Photos by Monique Burns.
Feature Image: In Germany’s Saxon Switzerland National Park, the phantasmagorically shaped peaks of the Elbsandstone Mountains overlook the winding River Elbe, whose banks are home to wineries, porcelain shops, museums, and other attractions.
When Saxony’s rulers really wanted to let their hair down, they headed just outside Dresden to castles and country houses along the River Elbe. There they hunted in the open air, cultivated fine wines, and oversaw porcelain-making and various other artsy pursuits. Visitors to the Saxon Elblands can still enjoy the legacy of those fun-loving rulers. In Radebeul, I tasted sparkling wines while touring Schloss Wackerbarth, where one of August the Strong’s favorite courtiers built a lavish baroque estate. In Meissen, Saxony’s porcelain capital, I toured the famed Meissen Manufactory and explored Germany’s oldest castle, Schloss Albrechtsburg, where European porcelain—known as “white gold”—was first created.
Not far away, in the national park known as Saxon Switzerland, I gazed at sculpted sandstone peaks from the rock-bound Bastei Bridge, hiked through the rocky gorges of the Schwedenlöcher and rewarded myself with a long, leisurely lunch in the Berghotel Bastei’s Panorama Restaurant high above the River Elbe.
From Dresden, it’s easy getting to the Saxon Elblands by train or bus, bike or paddle-steamer. Surrounded by vineyards and hiking trails, Meissen is only a half-hour train or bus ride from Dresden. Founded in the 10th century, the “Cradle of Saxony” is popular for its hilltop castle and 13th-century Frauenkirche, plus newer attractions like the Wellenspiel wellness center. But the town is even more renowned for the Meissen Manufactory, birthplace of European porcelain. Even the town’s Frauenkirche church bells are made of Meissen porcelain, not to mention the statues in nearby St. Nicholas.
How porcelain came to be made in Meissen is a uniquely Saxon story. August the Strong, Saxony’s art-loving ruler, became absolutely besotted with Chinese porcelain. But porcelain-making was a closely guarded secret. Determined to make Europe’s very first porcelain, August imprisoned alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger in Meissen’s Schloss Albrechtsburg. In 1708, Böttger created high-quality porcelain using kaolin, a white, silicone-impregnated clay found in nearby mines. Two years later, the Meissen porcelain works opened in the castle.
Today’s Meissen Manufactory overlooks the Triebisch River, a stone’s throw from Albrechtsburg Castle. In the contemporary-style visitor center, I bought a ticket for a guided tour. Tickets are also available for the self-guided audio tour or, better yet, the reasonably priced combination tour of the Meissen Manufactory and Albrechtsburg Castle.
My visit started in the Demonstration Workshops, where I watched Meissen’s highly trained artisans painstakingly make, glaze, and paint porcelain tableware and figurines. From there, I headed to the Museum of Meissen Art to marvel at some of the 2,000 porcelain works ranging from a tiny thimble to an elaborate centerpiece made for King August III, August the Strong’s heir. I also saw Italian Commedia dell’Arte figurines like Harlequin, Colombina, and Dottore, monkey-orchestra figurines popular in early France, and gold-encrusted porcelain that Russian nobles favored. Also on display was ceremonial tableware designed for wealthy Jewish patrons to celebrate the Passover seder and other important holidays.
Centuries ago, Meissen commissioned artists to create Rose, Onion, and other now-legendary patterns. Today, at the recently established Meissen Art Campus, artists-in-residence are invited to create more innovative porcelain works. One such artist was the internationally known Frank Stella, who produced a huge white porcelain sculpture. Another was New Yorker-turned-Oregonian Chris Antemann, who created Baroque-style figurines socializing—in various stages of undress—at lavish porcelain dinner parties.
After visiting the porcelain works and the museum, I browsed through The Boutique and the Outlet, where you can buy porcelain cups, dishes, and figurines in traditional designs like the pink Roses and blue-and-white Onion patterns as well as contemporary designs. The Joaillerie stocks jewelry, housewares, and Meissen Couture, including silk ties and scarves, in popular patterns used for porcelain. And, if you’re looking for a souvenir or a book on porcelain-making, just browse through the well-stocked Museum Shop.
Before heading to Schloss Albrechtsburg to see even more historic porcelain displays, I stopped at Restaurant Meissen for late-morning coffee and pastries. Other diners were already enjoying hearty Saxon fare like Weiner schnitzel with red cabbage, washed down with glasses of Pilsner beer or Meissen’s own Schloss Proschwitz Goldriesling white wine.
Speaking of German wines, my next stop was Schloss Wackerbarth, Germany’s second-oldest sparkling wine facility and a top producer of both red and white wines. A 10-minute train ride from Meissen took me south to the Radebeul Ost station, a short walk from the winery. Stepping through the contemporary entranceway of Schloss Wackerbarth’s modern visitor center, I entered a world of baroque splendor. Amid terraced hillsides, planted with Saxon grape varieties like Goldriesling, Müller-Thurgau, and Traminer, rose a handsome yellow-and-white belvedere with a red-tiled roof. Down below, the estate’s baroque manor nestled amid lush gardens.
In the early 1720s, one of August the Strong’s courtiers, Count von Wackerbarth—the same Dresden governor who commissioned that city’s landmark Frauenkirche—built a country getaway here. From the 1800s to the mid-1940s, Schloss Wackerbarth and its vineyards changed hands many times. In 1948, the Communist East Germans took control, establishing a sparkling wine facility in the late 1960s.
In the nearly 35 years since German Reunification in 1990, Schloss Wackerbarth has been extensively renovated and has added a gleaming new production plant, two baroque-style curling rinks, and a guesthouse for overnight visitors. Several guided tours, with tastings, are given year-round, including the basic Wine Tour, the Sparkling Wine Tour, and the Vineyard Hike through terraced vineyards. Special seasonal events featuring live music and fine wines include Weinsommer, early fall’s Federweisser Festival, and Wine & Light, with creative light sculptures brightening the long days of late fall and winter.
As my Schloss Wackerbarth tour guide proudly explained, the Saxon Wine Route—which can be followed by bike, train, paddle steamer, or car—stretches 34 miles along the River Elbe from Pirna, south of Dresden, to Diesbar-Suesslitz, northwest of Meissen. Though wine has been made in Saxony for about 850 years, it’s Europe’s smallest wine region, with about 1,200 acres in production.
As we gazed up at the wine-growing terraces, my guide explained that Saxony’s vineyards are Germany’s most northeasterly. However, the challenge of growing grapes at a chilly 51-degree latitude is mitigated by the Elbe Valley’s abundant sunshine, which vintners trap and retain using angled terraces with stone walls. Planting hardy local grape varieties like Elbling, Goldriesling, and Müller-Thurgau also aids winegrowers.
Strolling through cool underground production facilities, with gleaming steel tanks for fermenting white wines and oak barrels for aging red wines, I learned about virtually every aspect of Saxon wine-making. My tour ended with a tasting of three wines: A crisp Goldriesling that’s a uniquely Saxon cross between Riesling and Madeleine Royale grapes, an unusually dry late-harvest Riesling-Radebeuler Steinrücken Spätlese, and the delightfully heady August der Starke sparkling wine, made using the classic French méthode Champenoise and redolent of ripe peaches.
Visitors who book ahead can savor more wines over a meal of Saxon-Mediterranean cuisine in Schloss Wackerbarth’s elegant award-winning restaurant. Or you can simply purchase Schloss Wackerbarth vintages in the winery shop or online, and share the Saxon good life with friends and family.
Schloss Wackerbarth epitomizes the beauty of Saxony’s cultivated countryside. But, an hour south of Dresden, I discovered even more spectacular scenery in the wilds of Saxon Switzerland, a 36-square-mile national park straddling the German-Czech border. With phantasmagorically shaped sandstone mountains, Saxon Switzerland is popular with mountain and rock climbers, who have their pick of 14,000 routes over 1,100 free-standing peaks. More laid-back nature lovers can take in the mountain-crested woodland scenery while standing on the famous Bastei Bridge and other overlooks while hiking any of the more than 700 miles of trails or while lunching on Saxon specialties in the Berghotel Bastei’s contemporary-style Panorama Restaurant.
From Dresden, it’s an easy day trip to Saxon Switzerland via public transportation. Just follow my lead and take the S-Bahn S1 commuter train 20 minutes, in the Schöna direction, to Pirna, whose Market Square was immortalized by the 18th-century Italian painter Canaletto. From the Pirna train station, walk a couple blocks to the bus station and pick up Bus 237, in the Hocksteinschänke direction, for the 25-minute ride to Bastei. From the bus stop, the Bastei Bridge complex is a short horse-drawn wagon ride or a 10-minute walk.
Famous since 1824, when the first wooden span opened, the Bastei Bridge, now entirely stone, is surrounded by several contemporary-style buildings. The four-star Berghotel Bastei has 64 rooms, a restaurant and a spa, and a double room with a terrace for just under $150. Comfy single rooms are even less expensive. A few steps away, at the hotel’s Panorama Restaurant, with big picture windows perched above the River Elbe, I enjoyed a long, relaxing lunch of fried perch, boiled potatoes, and red cabbage topped off with a locally made white wine.
Short trails lead to the Bastei Bridge and other overlooks outside the restaurant. Made famous by German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich and German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Richter, the 250-foot-long bridge sits atop a row of toothy rocks. With seven arches spanning a 130-foot-deep ravine, the bridge provides fabulous vantage points over the Elbsandstone Mountains on one side and the River Elbe on the other. Just beyond, mountains and rocks form a protective bastion around the ruins of 12th-century Neurathen Castle.
To experience Saxon Switzerland first-hand, I brought along a small backpack, a water bottle, and my trusty Helly Hansen hiking boots, which had already seen action in the far-off Arctic. Though Saxon Switzerland’s famous 70-mile Malerweg, or Painter’s Way, takes several days, there are many short trails near the Bastei Bridge. One of the most popular is the 1 ½ to 2-hour hike along the Schwedenlöcher, offering some of Europe’s most stunning mountain and forest views. From the Berghotel Bastei, the route to the trail is an easy 20-minute stroll along a flat, tree-shaded path.
When I reached the Schwedenlöcher’s trailhead, the route seemed to drop straight down for miles into a narrow, rock-bound gully. Though I had hiked a fair number of trails in Maine, New Hampshire, and New York, as well as in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland and other parts of Europe, gazing into that sheer rock-girt abyss spooked me. I actually felt myself gulp like a character in a comic strip. Yikes! Was this the moderately easy hike I had signed on for?
As hikers returned back up the trail the same way they’d gone, I stalled, making small talk. “How was it?” I asked. They smiled. “Not too bad,” they answered. Having hiked in Europe before, where residents are so sure-footed that you find everyone from toddlers in diapers to grandmothers in long skirts up in the mountains, I knew that “not too bad” for Europeans can translate into “really tough” for Americans.
After stalling for about 10 minutes, I finally took a deep breath and started my descent of the Schwedenlöcher. Though the boulder-littered trail looked treacherous, I soon discovered that steps carved into the rock, along with handrails and small metal bridges, made it navigable. Still, given all the Schwedenlöcher’s twists and turns—not to mention the huge boulders, sharp rocks, and fallen trees—I kept telling myself to stay focused. And I pretty much did—except for that one spot where I stumbled over a sharp moss-covered rock, taking a chunk out of the rubber toe of my hiking boot but luckily leaving me intact.
After an hour of threading through the Schwedenlöcher’s precipitous rockfield, I soon reached the valley floor where the trail flattened out. I enjoyed a relaxing nature walk for the next 30 or 40 minutes. Strolling along the shores of the peaceful green Amselsee, a favorite lake of boaters and anglers, I passed the rustic waterside Forellen Räucherei, a local eatery known for smoked trout and grilled sausages. Before long, I found myself in the center of Rathen, a little spa town with more than a dozen hotels, including two four-star waterfront establishments run by the well-regarded Steiger Hotels chain: the Hotel Elbschlösschen, with elegant rooms and balconies, and the Hotel Rathener Hof, known for its wellness offerings, including a spa with several different pools and saunas.
At the river’s edge, I gave the boatman a euro for the five-minute Elbe crossing aboard the old-fashioned cable ferry. Then, I took a 10-minute walk to the Rathen train station for the 22-mile train ride back to Dresden. Back in my hotel room, I quickly showered, packed my trusty carry-on, and headed to the Dresden Hauptbahnhof. There I caught a high-speed Intercity-Express (ICE) train for the two and a half hour journey west to the state of Thuringia and the storied city of Weimar. Once home to such German luminaries as Renaissance man Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, Weimar would soon become my home away from home.
IF YOU GO: Germany’s national carrier, Lufthansa, has frequent flights to Berlin from major U.S. cities. For train travel between Berlin, Dresden, and other cities in Saxony and Thuringia, purchase the German Rail Pass. For regional train/bus/ferry/biking information, contact the Upper Elbe Transport Association. The following sites might also be helpful: Schloss Albrechtsburg, Meissen Manufactory, Schloss Wackerbarth, Saxon Switzerland National Park, Berghotel Bastei, Forellen Räucherei, Hotel Elbschlössen and Hotel Rathener Hof. For general information, log on to Dresden Elblands, Visit Saxony and Germany Travel.