To restart in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains

After several postponements of the start date, it can finally start again on Friday, May 26, 2018. For the next major milestone, I have chosen the Caucasus. My rough travel plan includes starting in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Further east, I have planned a detour to the High Tatras and Lviv. From there, I will continue south along the Prut River to Iaşi. I hope to reach Odessa on the Black Sea via Chişinău and Tiraspol. If all goes well, a ferry will take me to the foot of the highest European mountains. We will see...

First, we have to make our way to Saxon Switzerland. I have a meeting at TU Dresden around noon to catch up with some old acquaintances. So, Rango and I start in the morning towards Chemnitz train station. After a detour to the Citizen Service Center at Sachsenallee (deregistering my residence), we are sitting on the RE train to Dresden Hbf shortly after twelve o'clock. We are barely on the train when Dicke (my dog) already makes his first friendship and is pampered by a Russian-Germanistics student. As luck would have it, she is currently writing a paper on power relations in the North Caucasus. So, the hour to Dresden is quite entertaining. Around half past one, I drop off Dicke at the Alma Mater and go to Didi's office, where Alex and Martin also arrive shortly thereafter. We chat for a good hour over coffee and some strawberries about more or less relevant things. All in all, it was nice to be there again. Didi arranges for Dicke to have something to drink before Rango and I embark on the next adventure and the rest go back to university life. Once again at Dresden Hauptbahnhof, we have about 3 minutes left until the S-Bahn to Schöna departs, so there won't be any shopping at the train station. On the train, I research shopping possibilities in Schmilka and Hřensko, both not very productive. I decide to get off at Bad Schandau and stock up on food for the next two to three days. Once that's done at the local Lidl, we start searching for overnight accommodation. We head southeast through Bad Schandau. The plan is to stay in a boofe (rock shelter). According to the map, the nearest ones can be found at Falkenstein or the Torsteinen. When the historic person lift Bad Schandau comes into view, I spontaneously decide to get some help with the first meters of elevation. We continue above the Sendig promenade to Wolfsgraben and over the Emmabankweg to Meergründel. During the descent towards Schrammsteinbaude, I pass by the Radeberger Hütte, where a first overnight camp is set up for bouldering. I inquire about overnight accommodation and a short time later, I am allowed to set up my tent in direct neighborhood under the rock overhang. The other nature lovers belong to the Radeberger climbing association and regularly use the outpost for climbing trips in the area. After a communal dinner and a short exchange, we go to bed early. Even though the distance from Chemnitz and Dresden with the Gelatsche (traditional pastry) is 'only' just under 15 km, we have to get used to our travel gear again. We don't want to have to take a bus because of some triviality...