Saxon Switzerland

I have uncanny bad luck when it comes to hiking. If I don't get lost at some point during the trek, then I discover my troubles were all for some pathetic view at the top. Or, as at Mt. Tamalpais with Ari, we manage to nearly get stuck at the top due to a poorly planned itinerary. And getting lost. Hiking without looking at maps seems to be a pretty bad idea.

The same happened in Saxon Switzerland. It was alright at first: I'd gone without an actual plan, but I knew I wanted to see the Bastei. It was an okay climb, some stairs and slopes, nothing too difficult. The view wasn't impressive until the fortress/bridge appeared.

And is it just me, or does this totally look like the Bridge of Eldin from Zelda?! Yes?!?1?!

Actually, it wasn't really that romantic. I played with the colors on photoshop hahaha. This is how it really looked.

Another view!

Anyways, when we'd finished that part of the trail, we hiked back into town, and I had no idea what to do. Most of the trails take 4 hours or so, and while I wanted to go down a smugglers' ravine, my mom's knees were starting to hurt, so I took the train to Schmilka, a town right at the border of Germany and Czech Republic with supposedly really good views.

What no one told us--or what I didn't know and didn't/should've looked up--was that it was a super steep hill paved with rough cobblestones on the way up. And the view, if there was any to be had, was completely obscured along the way by trees. We were planning  on taking the 30  minute walk, but 15 minutes in, we were so exhausted by the climb that we decided to stop  and start walking back down. Especially since the people walking down said there wasn't anything too impressive at the top.

Sigh. And so for the rest of the trip, we avoided major hikes, haha. Lessons learned. Although in Salzburg I really wanted to go hiking in some of the national parks, but there we couldn't get to the park without a car. The fast train ticket was too expensive, and the cheap train ticket took 6 hours thanks to the mountains separating the town from the parks. Nature hates me.