Hiking the Bastei

Early bedtime on Good Friday enabled Florian to make sure that I got to experience the thing I told him I most wanted to do in Berlin when I arrived.  "Get up," he insisted when he awakened at 4 a.m.  "We're going to Berghain."  When I protested, he yelled.  "You said that's what you wanted to do so we're doing it now whether you like it or not."

What is it, exactly?  Only the world's most famous techno club, housed in an old power plant.  It sure doesn't look like much does it?

 

Our 10 euro admission got us a serious drug frisk by a doorman with a refreshing lack of attitude.  We emptied our pockets, checked our coats and climbed the stairs to the Panorama Bar.  Several hundred, mostly straight people of all ages danced to "chill" techno, drank and smoked.  They included a couple of guys in wheelchairs, something I'd never seen in an American club.  I might have been tempted to stay longer if it had been a gay crowd, but we had places to go.

Nothing like a sugar rush to get you jazzed for your road trip to Dresden.

Blue skies stretched before us on the autobahn.  Given the fine weather, Florian suggested we detour to the Bastei for a hike.  We'd already packed a lunch.  Hundreds of other people had the same idea.  It's a major tourist destination in the Saxon Switzerland National Park which extends across the border into the Czech Republic.

"Bastei" means bastion in German.  It refers to the steep rocks rising up from the land around the Elbe river to protect an ancient castle.

We stood in line for the money shot, also painted by Caspar David Friedrich, the German Romantic artist.  Some jerk released a drone.

We began our hike by crossing a rock bridge constructed in 1850.

You can see Florian better in this shot.  He's in front of the center rock, waving in red.

I threw my usual demure peace sign.

Trail markings led us down to the Elbe.

At the bottom, we stumbled upon the Rathen Open Air Stage where the seasonal productions, which include American musicals, must attract a pretty intrepid audience. The forested setting is inaccessible by car. We devoured our wurst sandwiches, apples and chocolate truffles.

It took us about an hour to climb back to the top, past a lot of moss and some hardy trees.