Liberecký kraj

This back end of our trip includes more meeting up with old friends, & today we woke early to enjoy our breakfast and leave the bustle of the City to head to Mladá Boleslav.

Ondra was our PVC volleyball number 12 for around 5 years when he studied in Leicester, but then returned to his homeland. A big man with a big heart, it was great to be able to get across for a bear hug during our adventure 😎

On our way, we booked some more trains, & were slightly shocked that there were only two second class seats left on all three trains heading to Berlin tomorrrow…so we grabbed them: didn’t fancy almost 5 hours standing only 😱
Met a nice lady with her youngsters on board the old train: she recommended the bar, so we all had a drink on the sound basis that whilst it might have only been 9:30am, it was 5:30pm *somewhere*.

Ondra was waiting for us, & after warm hugs, drove us off to find the space age Ještěd Tower. I had seen photos: it looked AWESOME!
The weather had other ideas….by the time we parked, perhaps a mile from the summit, there was faint drizzle and the murky mist meant nothing could be seen. We climbed up and up, and eventually a shadow of the tower base was faintly visible.
The restaurant sign proudly told us it was “ABOVE THE CLOUDS”. Bloody liar: it was very firmly IN the clouds!

We took some photos, spotted the sad little lost Martian, but soon headed inside: we had a table booked for lunch, & the view…well, Ondra pointed the direction of places, but all we could see was thick fog 🤣

Inside was fabulous!
The place was designed and built in the mid-60s, but to a beautiful spec.
We discovered wifi, & were able to prop the iPad up to have The Kings Coronation on in the background, much to Christine’s delight 💪

Dinner was delicious! I had avoided the disturbing-sounding “tripe soup”, but decided to give it a try: unexpectedly tasty!

As we ate, the clouds suddenly started to lift. I ran downstairs to get some snaps, lest it change it’s mind, but the rest of the day saw the weather continue to improve 👍

It was great to catch up on life, work, family and the challenges of neighbouring countries, & finally we drank the last of our drinks and wandered outside to the sunshine.
A few more photos and a rather nice zero alcohol pint were enjoyed outside, before taking the steep scramble back down.
En route, we discovered the useful phrase “I need to jump into the forest….” 🤣

Ondra drove us back via a brilliant “service area” for ice creams, with a beautifully painted Ilyushin Il-18 serving as a restaurant space. Most unusual!

Finally, a tour of his hometown, where Škoda employ over 22k people to build cars, but also a look around the old town.

Farewells at the station, and off we went.

Back in Prague, we hopped on a tram to seek out the “Dancing House” he recommended….the tram appeared to cost 4p, & the house was very funky.

A top day of spectacular sights and friendship 😎Read more