Sep 15 – Today you get a story, told at length to tickle my dear friend Tom. It’s a beautiful fall day, and we are going to the top of the mountain! Jim found directions online: take a local train to a nearby town with a ski lift, take the lift to the top of Mount Klet, and enjoy the gentle wooded walk back to town. Sounds lovely – let’s go!

In the fairytale town of Česky Krumlov there are no intercity trams, trolleys or buses – if you want to go somewhere, be prepared to walk! The walk to the train station took 45 minutes, all uphill.

When we arrived, there was no one to sell us a ticket, and Google didn’t know anything about this train. Luckily, a lone student was sitting outside, and he said we would be going on the same train as him and could buy a ticket onboard. Nice person of Czechia!

Twenty minutes later we hopped off the train at the Holubov station, and started to walk. And walk. How far was this ski lift? Another 45 minute walk! Now it was midday and getting warmer. After a while, Jim stuck out his thumb and a young man pulled over and drove us to the ski lift. Another nice person of Czechia!

We encountered a couple at the ski lift office, knocking on the door and then calling on their phone. The ski lift is closed today. The man said according to the internet it should be open, but the internet is often wrong.

Now what? Back the way we came? Who knows when there will be another train? We asked Google Maps for the shortest way home and, you guessed it, it told us shortest route was up and over the mountain.

A young lady jogging down said yes, there was a path straight up the mountain. Just follow the ski lift towers. She assured us it was doable. From the lips of a twenty year old!

The path started off gently, but the higher we climbed, the bigger the rocks got, until we were scrabbling instead of hiking. Three hours later, we scrabbled to the top. The restaurant? Closed. The observation tower? Closed, of course, so no scenic view. Luckily, Jim had packed sandwiches. What we thought was a soda vending machine turned out to be a beer dispenser, so at least we weren’t thirsty!