As I mentioned previously, my week-long stay in Saxony consisted of sightseeing on the one hand and hiking on the other hand. I wanted to hike the Painter's Way, or the Malerweg. This is one of Germany's prettiest hiking trails, going to the Saxon Switzerland National Park. I was able to complete the first four of the eight stages of this hike.
The first leg is 12 kilometres long, going from Liebethal to Stadt Wehlen. In order to get to the trailhead, I had to take a train from Dresden all the way to Pirna, and from there take a bus. The bus dropped me at the beginning of the trail. I remember feeling like I was out of place, since it was a weekend and therefore there were plenty of hikers on the bus with me. And perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the people were way older than me. And when we got to the trailhead, they all were very eager to start their hike. Almost everyone wanted to take a photo of the first trail marker that one could see. In any case, I figured I would wait for them to move first, and then I started walking.
This hike started quietly, and the first thing I saw was the small church in Liebethal. I just followed the stream until I saw Richard Wagner.
Yes, there is a monument to Richard Wagner in the middle of the woods. This monument was constructed in 1933 by Richard Guhr, and it is definitely evident from the design that it is rather modern, and reminds me of Nazi architecure. Afterwards, I just pushed forward and went through the Lochmühle.
The trail follows the little stream passing through old buildings.
From this point, I encountered some staircases. I thought they were tricky, but later on I would realise that these aren't that bad. There would be more challenging steps that would come up later on. This was just peanuts, as I had to descend a small valley and come up on the other side.
And then the large rocks started to appear. I have been to this area at least twice in the past, and so I am aware that there are massive rocks in this part of the country. But hiking next to them up close and personal is definitely a highlight. In later stages of this trail, I would also be climbing these at some point. But for the moment, this stage is still a walk in the park.
I passed by the Felsentor, or the Rock Gate. This is a part of the trail where there is a large boulder that got stuck in between two slabs of rock. Thankfully there's enough space to go underneath it and continue the trail.
After four hours, I eventually reached the town of Wehlen. It was great seeing the town from above for the first time. The trail essentially goes over a cliff, and so you approach the town from above, slowly descending on a set of staircases to get to the town centre. From here, I slowly made my way to the river. I had to cross the Elbe, since the train station is located on the other side of the river.
