Border

The first of a couple of days of wanderung in Sachsische Schweiz with our German friends the Bischoffs. Today we hiked through the woods from Hinterhermsdorf to the Czech border, which is marked here by the Oberen Schleuse, where the river is dammed up in a ravine that you can get paddled down in a boat to the accompaniment of a commentary from the driver in fabulous sing-song Saxon. It's very beautiful - and dead quiet apart from the driver -with sheer rocks rising on either side (studded with boundary stones like this one - the C shows it's the Czech side) topped of with tall pines. Then at the end you get to scramble up a ladder through a very tight fissure (for some of us at least...) that the Germans referred to as the 'clam.'

Today's song was a obvious teutonic classic for my poor unextended brain to sift up. 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk - ironic given the bucolic pastoralism of the day but pretty natural after the previous three days of driving...

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