Malerweg Day 4 - Rathen to Altendorf

I returned to Rathen on Wednesday June 4 to hike my last three stages of the Malerweg.

From Rathen, I followed the trail along the Gruenbach...

...through the Amsel Grund, past the Rathewalder Muehle... 

Can you spot the mill?

...and through the small town Rathewald.

Garden flowers in Rathewald

The route eventually led me to the top of the Hockstein, with a narrow valley separating me from the Hohnstein castle one plateau to the east.

I descended to the valley through the Wolfsschlucht ("Wolf's Gorge"), which involved walking into a hole in the rocks and tromping down several hundred steep steps. This slot was one of the highlights of the entire Malerweg.

At last, the end in sight...

If you were to hike in the opposite direction, you'd start by walking into a hole in the rocks on this end too:

It wasn't long before I was heading up to Hohnstein. The castle likely dates to the 13th c., with the first written documentation dating to the first half of the 14th c. 

From 1933-34, the Nazi party used Hohnstein as a concentration camp; from 1935-39, they used it as a youth hostel for the Hitler Jugend; and during WW2, it served as a prison camp.

I didn't know any of that when I explored the town and castle. Nor did I know that the town of Hohnstein had the strongest AfD turnout in all of Germany in the 2025 federal election. The far right party received 57.4% of Hohnstein's votes. 

Tower from the outside...

Tower from the inside...

Tower view: Lilienstein

Getting out of town proved challenging due to a large construction project, but I got back on track and back to stairs and rocks after a generous detour.

Unsurprisingly, the bark beetle has made it to the Saechsische Schweiz. While foresters catch up on slowing the infestation by clearing out dead and dying trees, hikers are advised to watch out for falling branches.

Scourge

I stayed on the Malerweg until it passed through Goßdorf-Kohlmuehle, site of a now-defunct linoleum factory. The factory was purchased for next to nothing in 2016, but toxic waste has prevented renovations. 

The Bahnhofshotel has seen better days...

...as has the factory.

My accommodation for the night was in Altendorf. Somehow in my route planning, I created a short cut that sent me over a hill instead of around it, chopping about a mile off the Malerweg. Oh well.

Ta da! 13 miles of the day's 18 total

In need of something to do before dinner, I decided to hike the nearby Panoramaweg to the Schlossberg above Bad Schandau.  

My route took me past a Schiller monument...

...to some fake ruins on the Schlossberg. There are very ruined ruins somewhere on the site--so well ruined that there's nothing left to see--but in the 1880s, fake ruins were added to attract tourists. 

Affenstein--a destination for the following day

Ta da! So close to Bad Schandau, I could have
taken a train back to Dresden for the night