Strenuous Finish

Day 5 - Monday
27km

Had to be back in Pirna - where I had started this trail - by 7pm. So I set off early since I was a bit unsure about my physical condition and the difficulty of the trail ahead. I just hoped there were no more steep climbs. Again my legs and knees were stiff at first and I was somehow missing some stability from my knees. It's hard to explain, but it felt like the ligiaments in my knees were worn so much that they couldn't support me like they should anymore. I've had that feeling before back then in Ireland after that strenuous first week. So I was quite happy to be on my last stage now and I was going to be careful when walking down stairs which hopefully wouldn't be neccessary at all.

After last night's rain the sky was still hung with dark clouds but only a few drops made it to Earth's surface. In the end I've been very lucky with the weather on my journey. No real rain, mostly just the dark clouds. Walked back to were we had left the trail the day before and continued to follow the markers. I was led along a broad path with the wood to my left and fields to my right with a nice view back to Gohrisch.

looking back

 Passed a tiny village and could already see another one of those mountainous pillars up ahead - the Pfaffenstein. Oh no. When I passed a sign pointing to famous Königstein I pondered for a moment. The trail would most certainly lead me up - and more fatally - also down that steep one over there. I could skip it easily by going directly to Königstein which I was supposed to pass anyway right after climbing Pfaffenstein.
I decided to take the shortcut. I normally don't like cheating, but it was still not even mid day and I had a long walk ahead of me that I HAD to fnish no matter what. So skipping that hard part which I was sure wouldn't do anything to improve the "knee-situation" was the better choice having the greater goal in mind.
The shortcut also saved me at least one hour walking as well and I arrived in Königstein around 10am. Despite the early hour on a Monday morning it was clearly visible that Königstein was one of the big tourist attractions in the area along with the eponymous castle up on a rock nearby. Didn't linger long and started going up mentioned rock. Didn't have to go all the way up and kind of lost the track as there were no more signs but found it again with the help of my GPS and a woman I asked.

Fortress Königstein

Walked through woods, along empty fields and passed small villages until I arrived at the next obstacle - the Rauenstein. Hopefully that was going to be the last one. Upon arriving at its foot I immediatley had a deja-vú. I've been here. Exactly here! When I was with that group for a weekend of rock climbing earlier this year this spot was were we started on Saturday. Yeah! So I walked up the same path with some stairs and easily recognised the place were we had left it to abseil down 30 meters. Cool.

Up on the top I found a restaurant which also ment I had found a place to relieve myself. A very unpleasant side effect of my overstrained knees was that I couldn't squat down. Not at all. So as a woman it was basically impossible to get rid of the stuff my body didn't need anymore. At least not without collateral damage. A smile crept onto my face upon leaving the bathroom, ordered a soljanka soup again and left shortly after 12pm. I had come quite far already and was sure to make it to my train in time.

playground

Walked around on the top of the adjoining rocks until the path led down again luckily no more stairs. It followed then the bend of the river Elbe high through some trees with some boggy parts in between before the final steps led me down. Those were the hardest! Luckily no one was watching me or coming up. That would've been embarassing... me trying to get down without bending my knees, haha.
The last 5km nearly killed me as they had to be done on a small tarmac road. Tarmac or concrete is poison to your locomotor system especially when you've already done some walking carrying a heavy backpack. I had to make several short breaks but in the end I reached my final destination. The Pirna tourist information right in the center of that scenic town. Yeah!!! I did it! And I had plenty of time left but I just didn't want to walk anymore which is a shame since Pirna is like I said a very beautiful place. I didn't even have the energy to take some pictures while I was walking to the train station.
Got the next S-Bahn to Dresden, dragged myself through the inner city there looking for food, had a salad at Subways then and spend two hours at Starbucks reading before getting into my train back to Berlin. Unfortunately I wasn't alone in my compartment so no comfy stretching out. Too bad.

Arrived at home around 11pm totally knackerd but happy. I had walked the "Malerweg" within five days instead of eight. Had underestimated the amount of stairs. That was the only problem for me. The weather was okay, the scenery very nice - at times even spectacular - andI enjoyed it a lot. Was assured that I'm in a good shape since no one passed me by from behind except for one couple with no backpacks at all. Still I need to train harder for the likes of Kilimanjaro, Mera Peak or Aconcagua.