Stage four of the Malerweg starts in Altendorf and finishes in Neumannmühle. It is part of the Malerweg Trail (Painter’s Way), which is a series of eight point-to-point trails through Saxon Switzerland National Park in Germany. It roughly follows the path of German landscape painters who frequented the area in the 18th Century.
My Son Alex and I had only planned four days of hiking while in Dresden, but because of the amount of rain that fell while we were there, we were only able to hike two days. Having read blog posts of people who had done all eight stages, stage four seemed to be one of the favorites of the eight stages.
Our day started with a train ride from Dresden to Bad Schandau. From there, we needed to take a bus from Bad Schandau to Altendorf. Once we got off the bus in Altendorf, it only took a few minutes to find the sign directing us to the Malerweg trail.
We followed the signs, and it wasn’t long before we came across a sign that said the path was under repair and that we needed to turn around to go to an alternative path. That forced us to turn around and eventually led us down a fairly steep trail with a lot of switchbacks that descended from Altendorf.
At the bottom of the hill was a campground where we missed a sign and walked another quarter mile or so before I thought that the trail didn’t seem right. My instincts told me we weren’t on the Malerweg, so we turned around and returned to the campground, where we saw the sign pointing to the Malerweg, which we had missed the first time. We had barely even started hiking, and we had already come across a closed trail and taken a wrong turn – not a great way to start.
From there, we started an approximately 1,000-ft ascent over the next four miles. The first part of the ascent was through prairie and woods until we reached the sandstone mountains. The early parts of the hike weren’t that scenic, but as we approached those stone cliffs, we were treated to amazing views.
The trail took us around a series of sandstone pillars for about 15 to 20 minutes before leading us uphill. This area has a large sandstone bluff, and the Malerweg trail continues on top of the bluff for a few miles. However, first we needed to climb from the trail up onto the sandstone bluffs.
On the ascent, the trail was varied. Often there would be metal stairs with handrails, other times, wooden steps, and sometimes you would need to climb on the rocks themselves. There were spots that I thought were fairly dangerous, and the footing was tricky, but after a while, we made it to the top of the bluffs, where we were treated to some spectacular views.
I was baffled by how dangerous the trail felt in parts. At one point, I was completely stretched out, holding onto the base of a metal railing, with my feet desperately trying to grip onto a large boulder, which was slick from the sand on top of the stone. This was precariously over what would be a fall of at least fifty feet.
The baffling part, though, wasn’t the fact that I perceived it to be so dangerous; it was the number of much older Germans and German children doing this hike. Alex and I are in pretty good shape, and these German hikers were treating this trail like it’s a walk along a gentle river. As I learned on the Camino de Santiago earlier this year, when it comes to hiking, Germans are pretty hardcore.
For about an hour, we walked along the top of the sandstone ridge, with phenomenal views of Saxon Switzerland National Park. On occasion, we would have to climb on top of rocks formations, and sometimes we would need to descend. However, the whole time, we were enjoying breathtaking views of the Elbe River and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.
Finally, we began our descent out of the ridge and down along the edge of the sandstone pillars. We were in a pine forest, with the sandstone cliffs next to us. We were starting to get hungry and hoped to find civilization so we could stop for some food and a drink.
While the hike had provided us with spectacular views, it hadn’t yet passed through any towns that had restaurants. This was unlike Stage Two of the Malerweg, which had plenty of opportunities to stop for a drink and a bite to eat. After about four hours and ten miles of hiking, we finally stopped at Lichtenhainer Wasserfall.
Lichtenhainer Wasserfall is a waterfall with a beer garden and restaurant nearby. We both ordered sausages and potato salad, and enjoyed some rest by the waterfall. The food tasted great, but I couldn’t tell if it was because it was actually great or because the hiking had made me extremely hungry.
I had a couple of beers, including a dunkel made by Sachsisches Schmuggler, which is made in nearby Sebnitz. It hit the spot, and we were ready to head off into the woods again.
We only had two or three miles left, so with food in our bellies, we were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of about 10 minutes before it started to completely downpour. At first, we put on our raincoats and continued on, thinking that the rain would have to break up eventually.
The rain was so heavy that the raincoats were powerless to stop us from getting wet. We walked about a mile away from Lichtenhainer Wasserfall before giving up and walking back in the other direction. We really wanted to finish, but without really knowing how much further we needed to go and being completely soaked to the bone, we decided to return to Lichtenhainer Wasserfall and take the train back to Bad Schandau.
It was disappointing not to finish the rest of Malerweg Stage Four; however, I felt pretty sure that we had experienced most of the beauty of the stage, with all of the amazing views at the top of the ridge of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It was an absolutely amazing hike, and while I wish we had finished it, I was glad that we were able to do the parts that we did.
If you are thinking about hiking some of the Malerweg, I would highly recommend doing stage four. You should, however, keep in mind that there are parts of the trail that are very technical and sometimes dangerous. Just don’t be surprised if you get passed by a German family with a couple of grandparents and a four-year-old.
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