30. Elbeschwimmen Rathen-Wehlen

In 1992, boatmen in Stadt Wehlen slipped into the Elbe to prove to visiting shippers from Hamburg that the river had truly recovered and was clean enough to swim in. Towering rock faces frame every stroke, carrying participants right beneath the soaring heights of the Bastei bridge. Swimmers can tackle the headline 9.5-kilometre descent downstream. For those seeking a gentler dip, short distances also run along the riverbanks. The atmosphere is celebratory and distinctly unhurried: participants in past editions have floated down the valley wearing bowler hats, sailor caps, or bunny ears, sporting playful messages painted across their shirts. Stepping in and out of the river over the natural shorelines can feel rocky and somewhat laborious, but slipping on a pair of lightweight water shoes—as advised by the water rescue teams—easily neutralises the sharp stones beneath your feet.

The Elbe gorge: current, reaction ferries, and mountain springs

Operating as a reaction cable ferry attached to a heavy mooring line anchored upstream in the riverbed, the ferry glides across the Elbe between the two halves of Rathen without any engine power, driven entirely by the angled push of the river current. The primary ferry craft, an unpowered catamaran named the Bergland dating to 1954, is preserved as a protected historic monument, supported during floodwaters and winter icing by an auxiliary diesel boat called the Ratiner. Downstream at the finish line, another historic river crossing in Stadt Wehlen has maintained continuous operation since 1771, linking the town's northern bank to the railway station opposite. Natural water sources seep from these sandstone ramparts, notably the Franzosenborn spring resting at the foot of the Lilienstein table hill. Emerging from Turonian sandstone aquifers, the spring was first mapped in 1592 and later named when French troops bivouacked around its basin during the campaign of 1813, adjoining an antique horse trough hollowed directly into the living rock.

Amselgrund: gorge waterfalls, glacial kolks, and salmon waters

Just by the starting area in Niederrathen, the Grünbach stream empties into the Elbe beside the reaction ferry landing. The stream originates in high granite slopes above Rathewalde, guaranteeing a steady year-round flow down through the forested Amselgrund ravine. Deep in the gorge, the water cascades over the ten-metre Amselfall, plunging into a narrow chasm where a collapsed sandstone cave features deep kolks and circular potholes carved out by melting glaciers during earlier ice ages. In 1990, the entire tributary became part of the protected Saxon Switzerland National Park, which opened a park visitor centre beside Amsel Falls two years later. The Amselsee is a tranquil reservoir over five hundred metres long created in 1934 by a five-metre barrage built to catch sudden flash floods. Today, broad-winged damselflies dart through the shoreline greenery, rainbow trout drift through the shaded depths, and the clean tributary is catalogued as prime spawning habitat for native salmonids.

Polenz and Lachsbach: wild snowflake meadows and returned salmon

High above the side gorge of Schindergraben, the trail passes the dramatic rock overhang of the Gautschgrotte cave, overlooking a river course once lined with water wheels driving early mills and workshops. On the moist river terraces near the Bockmühle, the Märzenbecherwiesen meadows safeguard one of Germany's most spectacular natural wild populations of spring snowflake blossoms. Since 1995, water quality programs have restored migrating Atlantic salmon to the river system, re-establishing breeding populations alongside native river trout.

Kurort Rathen: spa promenades, historic mills, and paddle steamers

The riverfront at Kurort Rathen, sitting across both banks of the Elbe, retains the quiet dignity of an official climatic health resort. Waterfront alleys reveal handsome timber-framed cottages and the Old Mill, a riverside structure founded in 1567 that narrowly survived historic river flooding. Historic paddle steamers still trace the waterway between Dresden and the Czech border, whistling as they dock along the quay. As you push off from the stony banks of Rathen into the downstream current, the massive sandstone towers rise overhead, turning every stroke toward Stadt Wehlen into an open-air river journey.