Breakfast at the Hotel Garni was beautifully done, with linen tablecloths and beautiful breads, cheeses, boiled egg, cold meats and fresh fruit salad. Also as much coffee as we could drink.

We then set off for a trip along the Elbe to see the Elbe Sandsteingebirge (Bastei) – some special rock formations along the Elbe. Kris took a route hugging the river as much as possible, and we rode along past Dresden again. Our first stop was Pirna, founded in 1233 and directly on the Elbe. It evidently gets flooded every now and then, the last time in 2013 – they were still repairing some of the cobbles. The bicycles from the nearby Elbe cycle route were very visible with a number coming into the town and an electric bike charging station by the tourist office.

Elsbeth had a hankering for a ice cream sunday so we stopped at a cafe for one. Elsbeth had a Sunday, Kris a “spaghetti” ice cream and I had a quark-torte (cheese cake) – that I had seen on several menus so far.

We set off again in search of the special rocks. At one point we rode along part of the Elbe cycle track which is shared with cars (though having to give way to bikes). The landscape became more and more hilly, presumably because of all the hard rock that didn’t weather away. Kris took us along the south side of the river first so that we could view the rocks from the opposite side. It took quite a while to find – the roads became incredibly narrow in the little towns along the rivers and we reached several dead ends. At one point Kris had to reverse to let a rubbish collection truck come through. When we found them at last we stopped briefly to have a look around. There are hotels on this side of the river and also a ferry going across.

We then went over to the north side and made our way to the Bastei from that direction. You can’t drive right up to them, you have to park in a paid parking lot and walk ten minutes up the road. However once we got to the viewpoint it was worth it, as you look down at the river and the rock formations – far, far below.

Looking down we could also see clearly where we had stopped on the other side of the river.

On the way back we detoured through the town of Stolpen to look at the Burg Stolpen castle. A castle has been here from the 12^th century and is made out of basalt stone. Some TV crew vans were set up at one side of the castle.

The castle has a tragic history – Anna, Countess of Cosel was exiled to it for 49 years, from 1716. She was the mistress of Augustus the Strong but fell out of favor as she interfered too much in politics. Sounds like a very unusual woman for her time, as she was well educated and also had a previous marriage. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Constantia_von_Brockdorf)

We walked around the castle, which is huge, first through the forest park on one side (very atmospheric). Then through the little village on the other side.