Malerweg

The Malerweg is a 112-kilometre trail through the Sächsische Schweiz, the German part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains on the Elbe south-east of Dresden. The official route has eight stages of 11 to 18 kilometres and runs from the Liebethaler Grund near Pirna, past the Bastei, Hohnstein and the Schrammsteine, across the Elbe at Schmilka and via Königstein back to Pirna. The name comes from the Romantic painters who worked here in the 18th and 19th centuries: Caspar David Friedrich, Ludwig Richter and others found their subjects in these rocks. According to the Malerweg association, the rock group at the Kaiserkrone (km 72) served as the model for Friedrich's most famous painting, Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer, and the Neurathener Felsentor beneath the Bastei is the main motif of his Felsenschlucht.

The landscape is built from sandstone: plateaus weathered by erosion into table mountains, towers and narrow gorges. The trail crosses the best-known of them. The Bastei, a rock formation 194 metres above the Elbe with the Bastei Bridge of 1851, is the busiest point. Quieter are the Uttewalder Grund with its rock gate, the Neurathener Felsentor beneath the Bastei, the narrow gorges of the Kirnitzsch, and the ladder and staircase routes over the Schrammsteine and Affensteine, the steepest passage of the trail. On the right bank the route runs from Schmilka via the Muselweg over the Papststein and Gohrisch, past the Festung Königstein, the fortress on the sandstone plateau above the Elbe, to Weißig and Pirna.

The first five stages lie on the right bank of the Elbe, the last three on the left; the crossing is the ferry at Schmilka. The trail has had its own waymarking since 2006, but it is thin in places, and the ladder passages on the Schrammsteine require a head for heights. The Malerweg counts as one of the oldest and best-known hiking trails in Germany, and the Elbe valley, with its S-Bahn, Kirnitzschtal tram, buses and ferries, offers plenty of ways to shorten or combine stages.

Practical. The hiking season runs from April to October, with May and September the quieter months; the Bastei is busiest between 10:00 and 16:00, so start stage 2 early. Take the train to Pirna, the S-Bahn from Dresden runs directly there; by car, use the P+R at the bus station or the station and move between stages by S-Bahn, tram, bus or ferry; coming by car, park in Pirna or Dresden and move between stages by S-Bahn, tram, bus or ferry. Every stage ends at a station, bus stop or ferry, so days can be shortened or combined, and a common 7-day variant starts in Bad Schandau; Dresden is an hour from Pirna and lends itself to a night or two around the hike. Expect 11 to 18 kilometres per day with 100 to 475 metres of climbing on good paths, with occasional ladders and exposed rocky sections: technically not hard, but you need a head for heights on the Schrammsteine. Guesthouses and hotels sit at the end of nearly every stage: Stadt Wehlen, Hohnstein, Altendorf, the Kirnitzschtal, Schmilka, Kurort Gohrisch and Pirna. Book well ahead for summer weekends. From the Netherlands it's about an eight-hour drive to the Elbe.