We began our perfect Stage 6 day of the Malerweg in Prague, leaving before sunrise, the city still quiet. We caught a train and then a bus back to our last hotel on the trail to change into our hiking gear. From Schmilka, we crossed to the opposite side of the Elbe, beginning the three-day return toward Pirna and Dresden. It felt incredible to look across the river and recognize places we had walked the week before—the small, low-lying villages up against the river and the massive rock formations rising like behind them. Today’s trail led us through cool, damp forests where mushrooms clustered in every shade of russet and ivory, and later through tiny villages, each with maybe a few hundred residents at most. We stopped to take pictures of tidy, charming homes with piles of wood stacked with such neat precision that they looked like art, ready for winter stoves.
Pete & Lori's Retirement adventures 