Sunday, November 4th
For our hike through the hills, we aimed to reach three different lookouts. The first of these was Deer Leap, named for what should be obvious reasons given the picture below.
Although the weather was a bit damp during our stay in Karlovy Vary, the fall leaves were absolutely beautiful, and there were plenty to enjoy throughout the hills.
The view of the town below was also pretty great. Elsa, Bettina, Marcos, and Kelsey took a moment early in our hike to get a picture with the little town in the background.
Although it wasn’t one of the main stops on our hike, we eventually found a little gazebo overlooking the town. After eight weeks learning Czech, Elsa could have sworn that vstup zakázán meant come on in!
Here you can see the little gazebo as well as part of Karlovy Vary’s main drag.
By the time this picture was taken, the rest of the group had gotten ahead of Bettina, Kelsey, Elsa, and me. Instead of struggling to catch up with them, though, we decided to take our time and enjoy the scenery.
Jiří was also with us, and he was kind enough to help satisfy our desire for group pictures.
A short while after being separated from the rest of the group, we found a playground in the woods. Naturally, it was time to play. While Elsa was just trying to have fun, Jiří was being a bully. Kelsey, on the other hand, was much better at playing nice. To watch her and Elsa relive part of their childhoods, click here.
After we’d had enough fun remembering the good ole days, we headed up hill. After a while, we could hear Ken’s voice, but we couldn’t see him. As it turned out, he and the others were watching us from above in our second destination, Diana’s Tower.
By the time we were going up the tower, the others were making their way back down. Fortunately, they had left plenty of great views for us to take in.
While we were taking in the scenery, though, it began raining. That gave us a perfect excuse to drop by the nearby restaurant for a bite to eat. Bettina and Kelsey did the responsible thing by getting a nice, healthy serving of soup in a bowl of bread.
In contrast, Elsa and I were already eying the desserts while we were reading the menu. We ended up enjoying hot chocolate with whipped cream and the ever-irresistible match-up of warm apple strudel with cold ice cream.
Following our meal, we spotted a sign for a microzoo just 50 meters away, and we decided that we couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to see it. At the microzoo, we found a peacock, a couple of pigs (one named Bruno), a horse, and a few goats.
Sooner or later, though, we finally put our hiker hats back on and hit the trails again. Despite the appeal of benches like the one below, we knew that we couldn’t stop for another break.
In the end, our return to slightly more serious hiking paid off, and we reached our third and final lookout point—Charles IV Belvedere—with enough sunlight left to enjoy another great view of the city.
Bettina and Elsa thought the view was cause enough for a bit of silliness.
Kelsey, however, knew all too well the seriousness of showing our readers Karlovy Vary.
On our way back down the tower, Elsa stopped to see things from a slightly different perspective.
Soon enough, everyone else was looking up.
After returning a little way down the trail, though, we didn’t know where to look for the fastest route back to town. What were we to do instead? Consult the iPhone, of course!
In short order our small group dissolved. Elsa and Bettina took the long route back to keep enjoying the woods. Then, Jiří and Kelsey headed to a museum on Becherovka, a highly alcoholic drink from Karlovy Vary that’s supposed to be good for digestion. Meanwhile, I wandered around looking for a souvenir or two. But what happened to everyone who had stayed behind at the hotel for the day, and what happened to everyone who had gotten back to the hotel earlier? Well, because we had a final paper due for our Nationalism class the next afternoon, the scene at the hotel looked a bit like this:
