By Eric
We crossed into Germany at a small border crossing. One of our maps didn't even
show the crossing. Another showed it as only a partial crossing. But the third, newest map, showed a full 24-hour crossing.The German border guard the stamped us in chatted with us about our trip. She was laughing and rather delightful. She was going to send us on without even entering the passport numbers in the computer but Joan requested a stamp for our collection. She enthusiastically complied. When putting the stamp in, she selected a blank page and carefully fit it into the upper left hand square marked "Arrivals." Almost every other country had just stamped it anywhere. This was definitely the friendliest border crossing ever.
Even though we had gone downhill considerably the last 5 km in Czech, we still had a lot of altitude and we knew the creek flowing next to the road had to get to the Elbe river going entirely downhill. So we resolved to follow it. We just ignored the map and at every intersection selected the road the followed a creek down stream.
The roads were narrow but well paved and in the evening light the pine forests were gorgeous. The steam w
as filled with moss covered rocks. After about 15km we pushed our bikes up a hiking path and camped at a pretty and well concealed spot among the pines.The next morning we had only about 30 km to get to Dresden and we got an early start. Still somehow we didn't manage to arrive until about 5 p.m.
We were riding into the town of Pirna on the street instead of the bike path because the bike path wasn't paved. A man riding his bike to work on the path waved excitedly to us and we waved back. A few minutes later he was ahead of us stopped along the road waiting for us. Joan would have just kept riding, but after meeting Piotr in Wroclaw she decided maybe this guy just wants to talk to us.
He didn't speak much English but we managed simple conversation. He was so happy and friendly. It was a good omen for eastern Germany. He was the first on a succession of people that kept making us get late starts.
He started telling us what we must see in his town of Pirna then said, just to follow him.
The road about 2km out of Pirna was pretty bad - part cobblestone, part asphalt, all bumpy. Our guide, Gunther, pointed out that the cobblestone was built for the
"panzer tanks."Gunther showed incredibly enthusiasm for Pirna. He was amazed by everything in his town, "Look at that door!" he would say as we rode. Then, "Look at that view!" looking over his shoulder at a cathedral tower.
He took us to the quaint old Rathaus (city hall), showed us a copy of a painting by Raphael of Pirna's Marktplatz (town square) which looked almost the same 200 years ago as it looks now, took us to the Protestant cathedral (the Catholics fought among themselves for 40 years about how to finish it then the reformation came and the Protestants finished it), showed us a very old Ratskellar (underground drinking hall -- literally a cave dug into the ground) now a hotel's dining room, and a spectacular new library built in an old hunter
's lodge -- as much as possible preserving the ancient wood beams.At one point Joan broke into a sneezing fit (she had developed allergies in Poland) and Gunther gave her a packet of tissues.
The best part of the tour was Gunther's enthusiasm. Pirna seemed to be his Paris. In actual fact, Germany probably has 1000 other towns very much like Pirna. We probably would only have stopped long enough for a Danish if not for him.
At the tourist information center he showed us pictures of a place 10 km up the Elbe river. The name of the place translates to "Saxony's Switzerland." The pictures showed incredible stone pillars and with bridges built between them and great long views up and down the Elbe. Gunther told us there was a bike trail all the way there and we could even get a ferry and come back on a bike trail on the other side. We simply had to go according to Gunther. He probably would have gone with us but eventually he had to go to work. He is "chief of construction" he said but we were never sure what that meant.
He also said that there was a bike trail all the way to Hamburg. Or at least most of the way, with occasional breaks. This was g
reat news and made us enthused about riding up the Elbe.We decided to go see Saxony's Switzerland and we weren't disappointed. The bike trail was fantastic with benches now and then, restaurants and guest houses sprinkled around. We locked the bikes in a place called Bastei, ordered a "bratwurst mit kartoffeln" and a coke (they really eat that stuff in Germany and a lot!), then hiked up to the pillars, 305 meters (1000 ft) above sea level. Gunther said there were something like 640 steps. I think more. We were surprised to find the top crowded with tourists, most of them relatively old people. Then we discovered that it can be reached by road.
It was a truly beautiful place well worth a long detour but difficult to describe. It's vaguely reminiscent of the Pinnacles in central California but mostly unlike anything we've seen. The rocks climb straight out of the river and at the top they are bizarre. Giant pillar of rocks hundreds of feet hi
gh jet out of the top sort of like a stegosaurus's back. Some of the rocks have long skinny slits in them. Rock climbers come from all over to try them. Between the pillars was an old stone bridge, looking very out of place.The views up and down the Elbe were great, The river made a big horseshoe turn there and we could make out the path almost like looking at a map. Several paddle wheel boats cruised up and down the river.
We took the bike trail back to Pirna then continued on it towards Dresden. Between Pirna and Dresden was not nearly as nice as the 10km to the rocks but at least we almost entirely avoided Dresden's urban ring.
Next: Germany Chapter 2 - Dresden under construction
