On my first full day in Germany, I got up at 8 am, bought an all-zone, all-day transit pass for €12.50 ($16.50), and set out to Saxon Switzerland National Park.
I took the S-Bahn 1 from the upper level at the Dresden Hauptbahnhof.
	Here comes the train!
The S-Bahn train was cool in that it had two floors.  I got a seat on the upper deck for great views!
	I got off about30 minutes later at the Kurort Rathen stop.
I walked a few minutes downhill to the ferry dock to wait to cross the Elbe River.
I bought the round-trip ferry ticket for €1.50 ($2).  The ferry crossing was just a few minutes as well.
	Walking through town to the town of Rathen reminded me of walking through other small towns in Germany or Switzerland.
I started the walk up to the Bastei Bridge at 10:23 am. The start of the walk is paved with handrails. The walk is uphill and steep in some places.
	From the path, the sandstone cliff scenery is beautiful!
The scenery around the path reminded me of the path down to the Whirlpool in Niagara Falls.
	About 15 minutes into the walk, I got to the first amazing sight, an overlook reminiscent of the Flowerpot along the Niagara Gorge.  (It also made me think of Togo's Faille d'Alédjo.)
It's a small world: I ran into a woman from Allen Park, Michigan (now living in Germany with her German husband), along the walk up to the Bastei.  She took this photo of me from the first overlook above the Elbe River.  So pretty!
	These steps up again reminded me of the Niagara Glen's staircases, only these were fancier.
After about 30 minutes of walking, I made it to the Bastei, where I was rewarded with gorgeous views of the rock formations!
This was my destination: the Bastei Bridge, a scenic, historic bridge from 1851. The walk up to the Bastei reminded me a little of the walk up to Sintra's Moorish Castle, too.
	It was hard to get a good picture of me with the bridge. (This one wasn't too bad.)
All around the bridge are different scenic overlooks.  As I made it up to this one, it started raining, but I still got this great shot!
	The Bastei is a long way up!
I love this panorama because it shows the train line, the ferry docks, the river, the bridge, some rock formations, and gives an idea of the climb up to the Bastei.
Always interesting to see "historic graffiti" (a term I learned from Mammoth Cave National Park), in this case done by Hermann Krone, a landscape photographer who visited in 1853.
	The Bastei is on the Malerweg, a long-distance walking trail.
I walked around the Bastei area about an hour and started to head back down to the ferry. Here's another pretty view of the trail; it had a very traditional "national park" look.
	I caught the ferry back across the Elbe to the train station side, thinking I could get some lunch. Mistake!  All of the touristy shops open were on the Bastei side of the river, plus my train (which was supposed to come at 12: 43 pm) was late, so I did a lot of walking around and waiting.
I love this shot, taken from the train: that's the Bastei Bridge in the middle and a boat on the Elbe at the bottom.  It's a long way up there!
	A little more than an hour after leaving Kurort Rathen, I arrived in Meissen, second-to-last stop on the S1 line.
From the train station, I followed the tourist signs to the historic city center.  What a pretty view!
	I didn't have any information on Meissen, so I followed the signs to the tourist information center.  The TI is located on this beautiful, historic market square. As the TI was less than helpful, I decided to walk on to the Meissen Porcelain Factory (only to find the entrance fee very high).
It was after 2 pm, and I still hadn't lunch yet.  (I made the mistake of bypassing the bratwurst stands in the city center!)  I ended up getting something to eat at this Aldi-like grocery store (called Norma) next to the Meissen Porcelain Factory.
	Rather than walk all the way back through town to the main train station, I followed my map to this abandoned-looking train station, Meissen Triebischtal, the end station of the S1 line from Dresden.  (It was odd to go just a few minutes down the road from the expensive, fancy Porcelain Factory, under a dumpy overpass, to this poorly-signed train station.)
Since I didn't stay very long in Meissen, I decided to explore the Neustadt part of Dresden (which is across the river from the historic sites).  Unlike the main train station, Dresden-Neustadt is very clearly signed!
I enjoyed walking around the Neustadt area, even though I was continually turned around and couldn't get my bearings. The Dresden Markthalle is a classic covered market.  All the foods were so tempting!
	It was such a surprise to run into a Nordsee! (It's like a European Long John Silver's.) I hadn't seen one for more than 10 years!
At 4:40 pm, I'd been at it a long time, so I decided to walk back to the hotel over the Augustus Bridge.
	After a quick stop at the hotel, I took the tram back to Neustadt to see the Kunsthofpassage, a group of decorated courtyards.  I was very underwhelmed.  I got this shot because my mother is a fan of giraffes!
I took the tram back to the hotel.  I had to change trams at the VW Transparent Factory.
	Tram 1 took me back to Postplatz and my hotel.
For dinner, I scouted out the Altmarkt Galerie mall and ended up shopping at Rewe. I got bananas, a bag of pain au chocolat (called schokobroet in German), a chocolate bar, chips, and orange juice.
	I have a hard time deciding where to eat when abroad.  I decided on a box of lo mein (called a nudelbox) and a box of fried potato wedges.  So good!