Germany’s Saxony is home to the beautiful Elbe Valley. Beautiful nature, castles, palaces, active recreation – there is something for everyone. We have selected for you some places worth visiting. Perfect for the weekend. Or better yet, for a week ;)
Here are some interesting ideas for outings whether from Dresden or at least from nearby Czech Switzerland. Most of our suggestions are castles, ruins or palaces, but the Elbe Valley also offers active recreation such as hiking trails among rock towns, canoeing or biking. You can take a historic steamboat ride on the Elbe River or go on the Saxon Wine Route. We simply didn’t have enough time for everything, but we already know that we will be back here for longer. We will pack our bikes, maybe tents and spend an active family weekend…. maybe a week or even two!
How did we move around the site? Mainly by car – this is the fastest and easiest way, although you have to reckon with paid parking lots. Well, and we recommend rigidly adhering to speed limits. Stiffly… just came to us a fine for exceeding the speed limit by 3 (in words: three!) km/h in a built-up area…. so caution!
Of course, many places can be reached whether by bus or even train, and we especially recommend going to Moritzburg by steam train, which is already an attraction in itself! We write more about this below.
We spent the night outside of Dresden, at the Goldener Anker Hotel in Radebeul. It is a smaller, more family-oriented and traditional hotel, located right on the Elbe River. It can be a good starting point if you plan to do a lot of driving in the valley or even if you plan to explore the valley by bicycle.
Table of contents
What is worth seeing in the Dresden area?
However, let’s get to the specifics.
Königstein Fortress
It is a fortress on a hill that is closer to the Czech border than to Dresden, but it will take no more than an hour to get there by car from the Saxon capital.
Königstein sits at an altitude of 250 meters and reigns over the Elbe River stretching below. The views from the top are amazing, and for these views alone, it is worth climbing the mountain. We specifically write climb, because the ascent itself is either by permit or by bus if you go with an organized tour.
We parked at the foot of the hill in a paid parking lot and climbed the hill on our own power. It is also possible to go up by special trains that run from the parking lot all the way to the top, but many people choose to ascend on foot. In general, there is no pain, the route is easy, although with the stroller we chose to enter by the asphalt road, which must be walked carefully due to the modest, because modest, but nevertheless car traffic.
A city within a city awaits at the top, with more than 50 buildings! You can spend several hours here, given that there are several exhibitions here. We, first thing, went for a walk along the walls to enjoy the wonderful views along with the meandering Elbe River and the trains gliding by below.
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It was hard for us to go on when every step another amazing view emerged from behind the walls. Also worth noting is the Polish coat of arms above the fortress’ entrance gate.
Finally, we were left with a tour of the various rooms, including. armory, well house (with an illuminated, 150-meter-deep well), Magdalene Castle with barrel cellar, George Castle, church or commandant’s house. Many of them offer special large A3 cards with information and interesting facts about specific places, which can also be found in Polish.
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Entrance tickets cost 10 euros per adult, in low season (from November) the price drops to 8 euros.
Bastei
Bastei is another must-see on the map. Here, too, we can admire the Elbe River from above, but we move among unique rock formations, across a stone bridge and remnants of what remains of what was once Neurathen Castle here.
However, before you reach the bridge, you have to leave your car in a paid parking lot and march about 10-15 minutes to the stores and restaurants located here. Only from here do we enter the piers, terraces, bridges and paths from which we can admire the entire area. There are some stairs to climb, it can be narrow at times, and it is impossible to walk the entire route with a stroller. Anyway, the stroller is more of a hindrance here than a help.
The stone bridge here is one of the most distinctive places in Saxony, and it was this view that made us want to reach the Bastei (or bastion). However, it is important to know that the bridge has little to do with the castle located here in the 12th century. All that’s left of the castle is a carved-out staircase and where the chambers used to be, and the aforementioned bridge was built in the mid-19th century for tourist purposes.
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Today, the Bastei are terraces and viewpoints among the rocks, along with restaurants and all the tourist facilities.
Entrance to the aforementioned bridge is free, but there is a part on which you walk and you have to pay a dizzying…. 2 Euros! Per person. We are talking about the place where the aforementioned Neurathen Castle once stood. As we mentioned the remains are few, but for this you can give a show of your imagination :) Unfortunately, with children you need to be very careful here – it can be narrow, cramped and dangerous.
We also recommend you to walk to the Ferdinandstein rock, it is from here that you can best capture the stone bridge. It is a popular place and the upstairs can be quite cramped.
Moritzburg Palace
Before about the Moritzburg Palace, a few words about the commute, because for a third of our team, it was the drive that was the biggest attraction :)
As we mentioned at the beginning of the post, we decided to go to Moritzburg on a narrow-gauge train pulled by a steam locomotive. We took off from Radebeul Ost station, where we looked in vain for a ticket office with ticket sales. We naively circled around the brick building located here, and only someone took pity on us and directed us straight to the train.
Tickets are purchased in the carriage, from the train attendant, and you can only pay in cash.
It’s worth being a little early to get good seats, as this is a fairly popular tourist attraction and it’s hard to get seats a few minutes before departure. And you can sit either in covered or uncovered carriages. We drove one way indoors, because it was still chilly in the morning, but on the way back, when the weather improved we eagerly felt the wind in our hair (stink a little too, but with less eagerness) ;-)))
From the station, there is still about a 1.5 kilometer walk to the palace itself, which will take about 20 minutes. This is important to know how much time you need on the way back to catch the train :)
Moritzburg is a picturesque hunting lodge on the water. We were very lucky, as the perfect weather and autumn surroundings added to the charm of the whole place. It is a place almost taken out of a fairy tale, perfect for romantic photo shoots and drone shots.
The palace was built in 1546 on behalf of Prince Moritz von Sachsen, after whom the palace was named. Later, by order of Augustus II the Strong, a park was added and the facilities were rebuilt to become a Baroque hunting palace. As in other sites in the Elbe Valley, you will also find a Polish accent – above the main entrance is a cartouche with the coat of arms of Poland.
Also attracting attention are the numerous antlers mounted on the front of the palace, by the way, inside there is an entire hall with distorted antlers (Monströsensaal). The interior of the palace can be toured for an additional fee, and visitors can enjoy a porcelain exhibition and a baroque exhibition.
We recommend taking a walk in the palace park and around the pond, where you can admire both birds such as swans and ducks, although the most impressive is the palace itself and its reflection in the water :)
Although Meissen may be associated mainly with porcelain (and rightly so), even if you’re not interested in the Porcelain Manufactory Museum located here, it’s worth coming at least for half a day to climb the Castle Hill or walk the streets of the Old Town.
Unfortunately, at the very thought of entering the Porcelain Museum with a running two-year-old passed us with shivers of fear and we had visions of breaking exhibits, so we let go of the museum itself ;-) Instead, we climbed the hill where there is a late Gothic Albrechtsburg Castle – Germany’s oldest castle building (!!) and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The company’s products include St. John’s and St. Donata.
There is also an observation deck overlooking the Elbe Valley and you can have a delicious lunch overlooking the Old Town.
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When writing about Meissen, however, it would be a sin to overlook the city’s porcelain history. And it is associated with the Polish King Augustus II the Strong, who launched Europe’s first porcelain production in 1710. It initially operated in the Albrechtsburg castle we already mentioned, and in the 1860s it was moved to where production still takes place today, in the Triebischetal district. Not just any production, because in addition to the story itself, the numbers of colors (about 10,000 shades) and forms (more than 700,000) of the small masterpieces created here are noteworthy.
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A museum is open to visitors, where they can see, for example, the world’s largest free-standing porcelain statue, the Saxonia, but also porcelain nightstands and tombstones. Here you can also get a sneak peek at the process of creating porcelain objects.
Summary
The Elbe Valley is an amazing place. It is full of interesting sights to see and there are plenty of opportunities for active recreation. A few days are not enough, and one is left unsatisfied.
We will come back, we are still tempted by Saxony in spring and early summer :)
...prefers a quiet, lazy vacation, but does not miss the opportunity to see something interesting and bravely keeps pace with Kamila. Contrary to appearances, he also loves active leisure :) He is responsible for the organizational and practical part of the trip, i.e. he makes sure that we get to the ... More about us >>
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