An amazing hike through rocks and forests

We had to leave Prague early...meeting at the train station at 6:10 a.m. ugh! needless to say, no bath for me this morning. meet everyone at the metro station and took it to the train station. took an early train to teplic, located in northern bohemia (czech republic). the train ride lasted 2 hours, then we had to switch trains and ride for another hour. we arrived in teplice, just south of the germany border (near Dresden) and then took a 3rd and finaly train for 6 minutes (that's right...6 minutes) to teplice a skally. we walked about 15 minutes to a pension. what a quaint place. i'm really impressed with the housing that we stay in. it's always very clean and comfortable and in convenient locations. this is my first trip with intrepid and i'm duly impressed with the company. wonder if they need to hire any trip leaders? actually, ashley told me that intreprid would hire someone like me in a minute with my expreience. time wil tell. so..if i dont' return to moc, you can assume that i took a job with intrepid and went to work immediatley. hee.

we walked back to some small cafe and had soup for lunch. it was delicious. guess how much my soup cost me? 80 cents. in teplice, everyone speaks germany. at last, i can understand again what's going on.

It was a hell of a way up there...but an amazing view

after soup, we took another 6 minute train ride further up the track to the aldsrach national park (rock park). it's kind of like stonehedge inthe middle of nowhere. these massive rocks plopped down in a forest. we did a 2 hour hike thorogh the forest. along the way, there were signs indicating shapes of different rocks. some were really easy to see (madonna and child, ice cream cone, dog, etc) but others...at what angle were they standing to visualize this image. plus, some of the english translatinos still used words i had no idea what they were..so i still wans't sure. anyways, a wonderful hike up and down. the only bad part was the 20 school groups. not 20 kids but groups. ugh. they took away from the peacefulness that should be enjoyed in nature. after2 hours, freda, ashley and stephen decided to hike back to the pensions. i decided to hike the other trail. so...another 2 hour hike. this was much better. no screaming young'ins, snow on the trail, it was so peaceful. i visited a cave. vidal...that's a grotto. ever been to one? hee. i also climbed 300 steps to the top of a rock. my legs were killing me by the time i reached the top. what an amazing view...but one could barely move around as it was windy and a hell of a long way up there. certainly dind't need to fall over. plus, they had one section of the trail blocked off so the pegrine falcon (go BGSU Falcones) and rock herring could mate. apprently, only 12-15 pairs actually mate per year...and if they are disturbed with noise, the mother leaves the eggs and the chicks never survive. i sang my favorite song, "on the loose", girl scout song, as I hiked along. it was so peaceful and relaxing.

back to the pension after a 4 hour hike. man, i was feeling my legs big time. we had a bbq (that's a real bbq for you southern hillbillies). we grilled out chicken, veggies, corn on cob and baked potatoes. it was delicious. the 4 of us sat aroudn the campfire, roasted marshmallows and chatted it up. Went to bed at 11:00 p.m. I thoroughly enjoyed my day of hiking.

tomorrow, we cross the border to poland. poland is my 63rd country and the first new one for me on this trip so far. i'm really looking forward to my visit to Auschwitz concentration camp. I've been to Dachau and Buchenwalkd camps in Germany before and one can't help but be moved by the experience.

So..iwill bid you and Czech Rebulic farewell.

Send me those emails.

Adventure on,

Julie