German Swiss Czech
(View from old castle ramparts in the mountains: Sächsische Schweiz (near Bad Schandau / Dresden), Germany)
Hello again.
It has been rather a long time since I put anything up here, and I hope my return to form will not be a disappointment! To fill in the gaps, I have been occasionally dodging into parts of continental Europe and right this second, I am sitting in a friends flat in Stoke Newington, North East London*. I’m here on a business / pleasure trip for most of October – I shall expand on all that another day! Basically, I am still trotting about the world, even if it is closer to home than China.
For ease of understanding why I’m now relating elements of my recent German trip, I’ve updated the ‘about’ section to involve more of the western world, but I didn’t have the heart to change the picture. I’ll definitely be sticking some shots with people in soon, but I first saw these mountains with an air of complete surprise that they were in Europe, let alone the Czech borderlands of Southern Germany. I went on a short trip to the Sächsische Schweiz with a friend and his parents. The first word of that title is the area of Germany; Sachsen, and the second is easier to guess; Swiss. The German Switzerland. It looks slightly more like German Guilin to me, but it isn’t as catchy in German. This view reminded me of images I’ve seen of the Guilin province of China, though I’ve not been there – yet. The mountains are simply huge rocky outcrops creating a dramatic backdrop to many small towns and ancient fortifications. Where I was standing to take this picture made me feel rather queasy to say the least – many of the pathways were truly horrifying to me and I spent much of my time having mild palpitations or lightly trembling. It could have been the incessant cold drizzle though.
*Many thanks, Julien and Naemi! Your flat is heaven…
Yes, the abrupt rocky mountain may reminds one of Guilin.
The Chinese has a saying, Guilin’s mountain and water champion of the world. The mountains rise abruptly along the river bank, that is the
scenery, when you cruise the river.