Wandern mit Bier

After two days of intense hiking and climbing, we decided to take it easy and do more gentle walking today. The car park we stayed at last night was close to the village of Rathen, so we left the Baron where it was and headed out on our walk. Before reaching the village, there was another rock formation that we walked up to, and found a cave. We couldn’t see an easy route to the top of the rocks via the way we had come, so we decided we would leave it for later in the day and climb to the top by a different route.

Rathen is a really cute place. We were here last Summer, as it is in the valley under the Bastei Bridge and near the Swedish Holes. We treated ourselves to another bratwurst before starting our hike, this time with chips, and ate whilst we enjoyed the view of the Elbe and a ferry bringing sheeple from the other bank.

We then started our walk up the mountainside, along the stream. It was so sunny and a perfect day for having a more relaxing adventure, especially with the beer we brought. We reached another village Rathewalde and found a pub that was selling beers outside, so we bought one and sat on their deck.

We carried on our trail, cutting across fields to avoid the boring roadside, and eventually reached an amazing viewing spot at Hocksteinaussicht, looking over a gorge and at the town of Hohnstein on the opposite side of the valley. From here, there was a staircase down through a chimney in the rock and a path descending to the bottom of the gorge. Although it was great walking down through the rock, we felt it wasn’t quite as awesome as climbing on the steps fixed into the rock in the route we’d taken yesterday. At the bottom of the valley, we stopped for a snack of bread and cheese by a stream and soaked up the sunshine.

Our route continued down along this stream. Along our way, we found another closed guesthouse that was selling booze through a window. We bought a cup of grog not knowing what it was – rum in hot water – which was a nice warming treat. Simon had the genius idea of taking our boots and socks off to dip our feet in the stream and impressed me with his sock magic. This genius plan was short-lived, as the water was freezing.

We followed the trail back up to Rathen and on to another viewpoint called Kleine Bastei, which had amazing views of the Elbe. We then had a quick van stop to drop off the backpack and grab some chocolate, then went back to the rock formation we had first visited in the morning and found the correct path to the top. We watched the sun set behind the mountains and enjoyed some of our favourite Lindt chocolate. Perfect end to the weekend, before driving back to Berlin.