The World's Greatest Daylong Bike Ride -Conclusion

We pedaled on. Soon we approached Königstein.

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

Far up the hill the Königstein Festung, or fortress, loomed over us. There was no great place to get a picture. But we had been up to the Festung the week before, on the same trip that took us to the Bastei. Here is a picture from last week, looking down to the trail.

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

Again, a full description of the fortress will have to wait for another blog.

We bicycled through Königstein and made our first mistake. Well many of us on the trail made the same mistake. We were at a dead end. Sure enough, when I took out my map of the Elbeweg trail I see that the trail crosses over to the other side in Königstein. We went back and hopped on the little ferry.

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

We had bought a family day ticket in Dresden, at the dispenser that was in an earlier blog. Trisha's foresight payed off, as the ticket worked on all the ferries and the train ride back, as planned. We punched and activated the ticket on this ferry (the yellow box in the picture).
When we got off there was a crowd of people on the other side, but they all managed to get on.

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

The trip on the other side started through a beautiful, seemingly quiet, forest.

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

But soon there were 10 motorcycles roaring at us, past us. Then several cars followed. Yes, on that narrow path. We had to stop and pull off for the cars. A bit scary. As we entered Bad Schandau we were cycling on busy cobblestone roads, and the trail wasn't marked very well. But we managed to work our way down to the river.

The "Bad" in Bad Schandau means "spa" in German. Bad Schandau is a tourist spot and spa town. The town was filled with people. We rode to Toskana Therme.

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There we paid some 24 Euros for 2 hours of swimming in the warm pools and relaxing in this amazing pool with "liquid sound". Check out the link. There was a domed circular room with a large circular pool. The pool was filled with salt water, and under the water they pipe relaxing music that matches the mood of the light show on the ceiling. Very quiet and relaxing. The place was great. Next time we will remember to bring a towel.

On the way back we were tired, but happy.

From Greatest Bike Ride Ever - conclusion

We just rolled our bikes onto the train, and stayed down in the lower area (where the WC is located, as you can see). To bring the bikes on the train we had to add a little bit to our family day ticket. But still, all the transport for the day for the two of us was less than 20 Euros. What a deal.

And that was the end of a spectacular bike ride. The Fall colors were prime. The weather was warm enough to bike much of the afternoon in a T-shirt. The scenery was serene. And it ended with a great swim. Sehr schön.