Bad Schandau
A town full of activity and beauty
Author: Rostislav Křivánek
Bad Schandau is a town with two faces. When you arrive here, you see an idyll, a picturesque place quietly nestled on both banks of the Elbe, protected by the fantastic Schrammsteine rock walls. But as soon as you take your first steps here, you will understand that this place is the ideal starting point for dozens of different activities and that activity is its second name. A starting point for any adventure.
Personally, Bad Schandau always gets me going. I love just walking around the picturesque streets and the waterfront, but I can’t stay there for long – something just keeps urging you to move your bones. For example, there are three information centers here (one by the train station and two on the square), where they will fill you with< 1 > all kinds of tips and ideas. It is also very important that the city offers several options to rent practically anything here and become, what do I know – a climber, a hiker, a cyclist, a boater… Let’s add to that the city’s perfect strategic location in the heart of the Saxon Switzerland National Park and the fact that it is a transport hub from which you can set off on an adventure by train, bus, boat, and even tram.
Once you arrive, park comfortably at the train station (free of charge) and take the ferry, which will give you a panoramic view of the entire town. On the square, go to the Aktiv Zentrum information center in the Elbresidenz hotel and borrow whatever you need. In the neighboring Haus des Gastes, you can find out all about the cultural and leisure activities on offer.
And where to go next? Well, that’s up to you, but not exploring the breathtaking rock town of Schrammsteine, not going through the Affensteine - for example on the via ferrata routes, not taking the tram to the rocks, that would be an unforgivable tourist sin. However, endless activities in the truly beautiful surroundings do not mean that there is nothing to see in the town itself. On the contrary. The exhibitions are simply active here. First of all, there is the National Park Zentrum with a wonderful and fully interactive exhibition of the flora, fauna, geology and cultural landscape of the Saxon Switzerland National Park, which literally counts on your active participation, with you touching everything, playing, discovering, searching. They will also offer you two films, one of which is aimed primarily at children. Everything – including the aforementioned films and the entire exhibition – here consistently speaks to you in both languages, so it doesn’t matter if you come from Saxony or Bohemia – this is simply a house where people understand each other. I can guarantee from my many personal experiences that you will have fun here.
From there, a lynx track imprinted once and for all into the paving will guide you through the entire city to the historical tourist gem, the local “Eiffel Tower”, a charming fifty-meter-high elevator ending on a rocky plateau above the valley, from which you can view the entire city scenery and complete your trail anabasis at the lynx enclosure. My personal recommendation is to the edge of the Křinické Valley, to the tracks of the rock tram. Here, the Botanical Garden and the Bad Schandau Museum await you with an exhibition of tourism, mountaineering and ethnologist Erich Wüstmann. And then the adrenaline and endorphin levels will increase sharply and you will set off for your chosen activity to have a wonderful and unforgettable “get away”.
Tuscany on the Elbe
So now you know that Bad Schandau is a place where experiences mostly start with activity, that you won’t know what to do here at first. But whatever your activity, you don’t have to worry about where to relax. In Bad Schandau there is a place where everyone can relax. It’s called Toskana Therme and it’s magical. Am I exaggerating? Try it yourself and then judge me.
Whenever I come here, my subconscious is already preparing for all those refined wellness treatments, for bathing in colorful and music-saturated thermal water, for hot steam that draws fatigue out of the body… The body simply remembers when somewhere is good for it – and here they are. How does it all work? Exactly as you choose. The basis are swimming pools and hot tubs, dominantly under the roof, so the experience is the same in any weather. If it’s beautiful, it’s a relief to rest on a meadow with deck chairs and watch excited children running around you, if it’s mid-November, it’s wonderful to cheat the weather by watching the hard rain from the warmth, permeated with light.
What’s wrong with the light? The unique Liquid Sound® system – flowing sound – is responsible for this. The water and the space around and above it are illuminated by a refined and changing light show, music echoes through the water, which seems to spring directly from the ground and washes your soul as beneficially as water does your body. You won’t often see wall projections made of water droplets either.
If you want good advice – go here during the full moon. The spa is open late every day, but during the full moon you can watch the path of the silver disc from the new panoramic sauna until one in the morning. Plus, there are massages you can think of, herbal baths, path therapy, volcanic mud, various types of saunas… Do you know Gerad’s chocolate massage? Something incredible.
And whenever you get hungry, there is an excellent restaurant with selected Mediterranean cuisine open all the time the spa is open. Now you might want to pamper yourself in a good hotel, you might say – and you don’t have to look far. Part of Toskanaworld is the only five-star hotel in Saxony, the luxurious Elbresidenz with above-standard services. The hotel on the banks of the Elbe actually forms the entire southern side of the square. It has its own fitness, wellness and saunas – so if you don’t have enough of the spa, you can continue in the hotel. I sometimes treat myself to the services of the Elbresidenz, because a person should reward themselves every now and then, don’t you think? And Toskanaworld, that is a heavenly reward, without exaggeration.