Septmber 6 Good or Bad Shandau... or Bad Banff

Pastyrska Stena. Don't get too excited about this castle, which overlooks Decin and the Elba River.  It is an interloper, built of wood in 1906.

Our last bridge in the Czech Republic. 

Just some houses along the Elba on the way to Bad Shandau.

All indications are that the rivers around here are prone to flooding. The tree on the left in this image has rever debris all over the lower branches, indicating that the river appeared to have been several metres higher in the spring of this (or last?) year.

Inspecting the border between The Czech Republic and (what would have been East...) Germany. 

The "new" crest.

Not much point in fanfare when the simple will suffice with this block of stone and a cross indicating where the proper border lies. Undoubtedly designed and built to exacting standards by East Germans.

On the other hand, always good fun to fool around at a border crossing.

From the old days when the Czech Republic was called "Czechoslovakia", we crossed the border into Germany. It seemed odd that there was no border crossing other than these makers, as both countries are part of the European Common Market. We were crossing into what would have been East Germany at one time.

This is the "new" sign.

We had to cross the river to get to Bad Schandau but there was no bridge. We were mortified when we had to shell out three Euros to cross in this ferry.

Old hotel in Bad Schandau behind a barge dock.

In Bad Shandau, more evidence of high water damage. It looks like 2002 was a bad  year for flooding.

When we checked into the hotel, we were the proud repicients of vouchers that covered the cost of all kinds of things. One thing is that is is good for coverage of the ferry crossing;

We also got passage on the historical train that takes narrow gauge track up to the national park, a 30 minute ride, with multiple stops along the way to pick up or drop passengers.

It really is quite beautiful but it is not near as rugged as what we are used to seeing back home. Of course this canyon probably has 2000 more years of history than our own parks.

The park even has camping. Organized, unlike what we saw in the Czech Repubic.

We had a nice dinner out at the hotel restaurant, which is one of the better reviewed restaurants in Bad Schandau. While the food was very good, the service was very slow, which was somewhat disappointing, especially as we were seated away from the main lights of the outdoor dining area so by the time we had waited 50 minutes for our food to arrive, it was so dark when it did arrive that they couldn't tell which plate was which menu item and we had to ask for candles so that we could see out food to eat it. We were brought electric candles that were "set" on green, giving all the food a faint nuclear glow.

Afterwards, Kevin commented on the price of his and Gloria's meal costing about the same (within C$4) of the meal for the five of us in Litomerice the other night.  We came to the conclusion that we were in the "Banff" of Germany.