Liberec

Since last week, we agreed that this weekend we would have a trip somewhere and towards the end of the week we agreed it would be to Liberec a town to the north of the Czech Republic. So this morning we took the metro from Roztyly to Florenc, then Florenc to Cerny Most, here you can pick up the Bus to Liberec. The coach was waiting when we arrived to we thought we would quickly pop into the toilet before the journey which would take about 1 hour, when we came back out of the toilet the bus has left! We then had to wait 1/2 hour for the next one. It was not big deal really we just had a coffee in a cafe near the stop. At 10.30 we boarded the Bus and paid the driver, just 70Kc each for the trip, about £1.75 for a journey of 60 miles, the driver was also accompanied by a rep who gave us complimentary magazines and a coffee on the way. Thats what I call value for money.

We stopped at Liberec at 11.30 and made enquiries at the office in the station about the return timetable. Perhaps we should have done this before our trip because we found out that the last bus back was 7.00 pm but it had no spaces left, neither was there on the 6.00pm return, so the only choice we had was to buy tickets for the 4.30pm return, and this made us a bit disappointed as we thought we would want the whole day. This turned out not to be the case, because we struggled to find anything to do, sure there is plenty if you do really have a long time or if you are well prepared for your trip, neither of these applied to us. First we walked to the town but found that quite boring because most of the shops closed at 12.00! unusual on a Saturday, but I guess it's what they are used to. So got the tram to Jested which is a nearby mountain with a tower/hotel and restaurant etc plonked right on the top, and it's been there since 1973. After the tram we took the cable car a little practically to the summit, then enjoyed the view, it was incredibly windy and has not been very good weather, so we didn't really stay outside long. We had lunch in the restuarent in Jested which was lovely (the lunch not Jested) and then made the return trip back to the town. We had a little more time to spare before our bus at 4.30 so we had a coffee and a dessert in a bar in the town, this was also lovely, then walked back to the station for the ride home.

In summary, I found the day quite boring, but I think this was only because both the weather and the town restricted what we were able to do, therefore we did very little but hope we made the most of it. http://www.jested.cz/hotel/en/index_dn.php?strana=1
on another trip there we will equip ourselves for the WaterPark and the Zoo, both of which are legendary here and I'm sure we will have a better day.