I usually spend the New Year's Eve at home in Berlin, with the exception of 2006 (Tokyo), 2009 (Stockholm), and 2011 (Copenhagen). [Do I see a pattern here?] While Berlin is usually a very nice place to be, I became to dislike the usage of fireworks in general during the end of the year. Fireworks in Japan, for example, occur during the summer months and are a supervised show to impress the guests but the New Year's Eve fireworks in Germany (and many other parts in the world) are the complete opposite. People use them by themselves with little regard to their environment. The result is that cities like Berlin feel like a raw battlefield and end up with huge (!) piles of garbage in the streets vanishing only after about 3 days of intensive new year's cleaning by the city. This year, I decided to do something different than just drinking myself to the edge of delirium while waiting for the countdown to initiate 2014. I decided to go on a hiking trip on the 1st of January and together with a friend bought a ticket to the small Czech border town of Děčín.
Gantan 元旦 2014 as seen from the train Berlin - Budapest
In Japan, there is the tradition of hatsumode 初詣: the first shrine visit during the first days of the new year. While I really like this tradition, its hard to follow up with it in a country where there are little shrines or temples available. Another Japanese tradition is witnessing the gantan 元旦, the first morning/first sunrise on New Year's Day. Gantan 元旦 is not to be confused with the Japanese word ganjitsu 元日, which translates into New Year's Day. We saw the first sunrise of 2014 from the train between Berlin and Dresden.
Děčín is a small town close to the German border (a bit south of Dresden). I'm not so sure about the summer time, but in the winter, I would say that the town is not worth visiting, as there is nothing much to see. However, Děčín is an excellent starting point for hiking in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.
The mountains are probably most famous due to the Bastei rock formation and the bridge with the same name. However, the Bastei, which is located in proximity of Dresden, is not the highest point of the Elbe sandstone mountain range. Following the Elbe further south-east, the highest point of the Elbe sandstone mountain range is located near Decin and called Děčínský Sněžník in Czech and Hoher Schneeberg in German.
There are different routes that are given using signs found on trees. We walked up using the yellow route, which is comparably steep but enjoyable. On the way down, we used a different path, the more common red route. However, I have to say that starting from Decin main station, it is not easy to find the beginnings of either route.
Once we were high enough (I would guess from 600m or so), the landscape was covered in hoarfrost, which was quite nice to look at and also the first time in 2014 (and late 2013) it actually looked like winter. Temperature also fell to a few degrees below zero but felt much colder on the summit due to constant wind blowing.
On the summit, there is an observation tower and also a small restaurant. As the 1st of January is a day where many people start doing what they claimed to be their New Year's resolutions I figured that we wouldn't be the only ones who hiked up this mountain to see the landmark tower. In fact, we met various travelers who also undertook the journey up the mountain. What I found interesting is that among those people we met couples, senior citizens and whole families with small kids. In Japan, it always amazed me when I met many senior citizens who were really in good shape to hike up mountains with more than 1000m height. I guess I also underestimated the European hikers. All in all, I strongly recommend this hike. Not only is the height optimal for a day trip (even from Berlin!) but, provided good weather conditions, the view from the summit must be quite nice. When we arrived, everything was kind of foggy and we couldn't see farther than 100m or so. Well, there is always a second time. :)
After reaching the valley again, we saw this nice scenery. The building on the left is Decin castle (zámek Děčín), a really large building and one of the main tourist attractions of the city. The building to the right apparently is a restaurant placed on top of the Pastýřská stěna sandstone rock massif (Schaeferwand in German). We didn't go up there but it looks like a nice place to eat. :)
This New Year's hike also was of symbolic meaning to me. As I haven't really pursued hiking since I left Japan in mid 2011, I hope I can climb mountains more often in 2014. In this context: I am looking forward to a prosperous 2014!
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