If you were looking for a holiday by the seaside...
...well, you're a hundred million years too late
The oceans of the Cretaceous period have evolved into the romantic scenery of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Painter Caspar David Friedrich was here two hundred years ago. Is it time you visited too? The oceans are long gone, but romanticism remains.
Set your mind on a far away place, gaze in admiration as you are treated to unparalleled nature and let your senses run wild - in the forests, mountains and gorges of Saxon Switzerland.
Indulge in the tranquility of a break in the midst of a lush, green landscape. Soak up the beauty of wild-flower meadows in a region that cannot fail to enhance your awareness of the gifts that nature has to offer.
Once upon a time there was an ocean here...
The Elbe Sandstone Mountains lie in the far Southeast of Germany, only 30 kilometres from Dresden, between the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) and the Lusatia Mountains (Lausitzer Bergland). They extend from the town of Pirna across the Czech border to the town of Decin in Bohemia. The German part is known as Saxon Switzerland and covers 368 square kilometres of stunning landscape. During the Cretaceous period, between 1,444 and 66 million years ago, a stretch of sea covered the land where today you will find gorges, mesas and rock towers in abundance. The region was formed when rivers flowing from the peaks of the Ore mountains deposited sediment and seashells as the waters flowed to the sea. Technically speaking the Elbe Sandstone Mountains are not mountains at all. The landscape was formed by erosion, from water and wind, which created the region's distinctive features; sandstone blocks, u-shaped valleys and vertical walls, which descend in several steps and are broken up into spurs and rock towers.
Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland from another point of view
Weather in 
