Let's cut to the chase. Early morning, June 2, S and I hiked up the Kaiserkrone, a rock table near Schöna, Saxony, where we looked through Nebelmeer 208 years into the past.
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| Guard rails keep Friedrich groupies from plunging off cliffs |
This was the third day of six that I spent hiking the Malerweg, and was the only morning when weather conditions aligned to create a thick layer of mist in the fields.
Somewhere near the base of the Kaiserkrone, on June 3, 1813--212 years minus a day before we arrived there--Friedrich sketched the rocks on which he eventually placed his Wanderer. We didn't go looking for them in the drizzle.
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| https://cdfriedrich.de/chronik/felsige-kuppe/ |
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The Sächsische Schweiz ("Saxon Switzerland") National Park administration maps out the 116 kilometers (72 miles) of the Malerweg in eight stages, running from the Liebethaler Grund bus stop north of Pirna eastward to Schmilka on the north side of the Elbe, then back west to Pirna on the south side of the river.
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| https://www.saechsische-schweiz.de/malerweg/planung/etappen |
Because of time constraints and a general impatience with just hanging out when I could be walking instead, I divided the route into six stages (with a few backpack-free bonus hikes added in):
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| Ta da! |
I then hiked my stages out of order and in varying directions, to ensure not only that I would arrive at the Kaiserkrone in the early morning--the most likely time for a sea of fog--but also so that my wanderer, S, would have time away from work to hike that stretch with me. Thus:
Saturday May 31 - with S and colleague J, "Stage 6" clockwise: Koenigstein to Pirna, then train back to Dresden.
Sunday June 1 - with S, "Stage 5" counterclockwise: Koenigstein to Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, hotel overnight.
Monday June 2 - with S, first fourth of "Stage 4" counterclockwise: Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna to Kaiserkrone to Schmilka. S then caught a train back to Dresden while I continued with "Stage 1" counterclockwise: Rathen to Liebethaler Grund.
I took a break on Tuesday to catch up on work and to join S's exchange cohort at the Dresden Semperoper for a staged production of Handel's oratorio Saul.
I hiked the last three sections solo:
Wednesday June 4 - "Stage 2" clockwise: Rathen to Altendorf, hotel overnight (but had I realized how close I would be to Bad Schandau, I would have taken the train back to Dresden)
Thursday June 5 - "Stage 3" clockwise: Altdorf to Sebnitz, hut overnight
Friday June 6 - The remaining three fourths of "Stage 4" clockwise: Neumannmuehle to Schmilka.
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A drenching rainstorm passed over our hotel after we had arrived on June 1. S set his alarm for dawn the next morning, so we could check for fog, and then either hasten up Kaiserkrone or roll over and go back to sleep.
Mists obliged. We threw on some clothes and headed down through the field toward Schöna.
En route, we passed some clay chickens; their human told us the real chickens in the coop next to the house had been stolen by a fox the night before.
This porch cat was on a steely-eyed mission to schmooze:
By the time we reached the top of the Kaiserkrone, what had been a steady drizzle had turned into rain, but the views fueled our adrenaline and more than made up for the soggy inconvenience.
We could see the nearby Zirkelstein swaddled in mist. We had actually walked past it on the road below, without even realizing it.
As the rain increased, the fog did too, and it really did look like the sea:
After taking a few more photos, we declared our mission accomplished and headed back to the hotel for breakfast...
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| A fire salamander, moving too fast to catch in pixels |
...where we arrived happy but drenched.
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| Ta da! 5 glorious misty miles RT. |
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