The first leg was fun, so I continued with the second leg on the next day. There's 13 kilometres waiting for me on this stage, so I headed out early one Monday morning, taking the train from Dresden and getting off at Stadt Wehlen, where this leg starts.
The start of this leg actually is a tough climb. After a few metres of walking through the village of Wehlen, passing by vacation homes, the trail immediately gains altitude, and climbs the rocks. Eventually, one finds oneself perched high up, overlooking the Elbe.
This is the leg where the tall pointy rocks appear for the first time. There's plenty of them, and also plenty of observation platforms to spend some time and check out these natural wonders.
The second leg also includes the Bastei, which is the most famous part of the National Park. Back in 2016, my husband and I visited the Bastei as a daytrip from Dresden. It's easily accessed from Kurort Rathen, given that there's a train station right across the Elbe. If you just want to see the Bastei, simply take the train and climb the few stairs that would allow you to check out these rocks. Now, four years later, I remembered my first visit, and I internally remarked how amateur I was back then. Now I see visitors without the proper shoes, and I cannot help but think that I was like that back then. In any case, I didn't spend much time in the Bastei this time and simply passed through.
The Bastei was the part of the trail that was the most crowded. But after passing through it, the crowds eventually thinned, and again I found myself alone on the paths.
The above photo shows where the path diverges: coming from the Bastei, you go down and turn left descending these stairs to continue the Malerweg, but turn right and onwards to the town centre if you want to head back to the Elbe and catch the ferry to get to the train station.
Eventually, I found myself by Amselsee, a small reservoir where one can rent paddle boats and have fun. I didn't, I just continued the trail.
Eventually, I reached the little village of Rathewalde. There is a small restaurant here, which is conveniently located for hikers who want to have lunch. As I was packing food, I didn't need its services. So I just passed by it and went further, passing by the small village church.
I still had a few kilometres to go, until I reached the end of this trail, which is Hohnstein. It has a small nice Old Town with a small castle, perched high up on a rock. From here, I caught a bus which took me back to Pirna, where I then caught the train back to Dresden. My legs were tired with two days of back to back hiking, but boy, the scenery was definitely awesome!
