Kleť

This is a photo of an empty train car.  The train car on Track #2 at 10:34 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, 2009.  The train car we anticipated would take us to Holubov where we would then join up with a half dozen other families to go on an outing to Klet'.  The train car that was not connected to the rest of the train.

Although we didn't get to spend the day with a bunch of other people we know, we did still take the next train at 12:21 to Holubov.  From the village we walked about 3 km (uphill) (carrying Silas) through the incredibly charming village of Krasetin to the chairlift at Klet'.

At 1084 meters, Klet' is the highest hill in the area.  They say that on a clear day you can see the Alps from atop Kleť.  I don't know about that, but I do know that on a foggy day you can't see the top from 200 m away.  There is an observation tower on top (but we didn't go up, we could see clouds from where we were).

Kristine and Silas wisely took the chairlift.  Caleb wanted to be particularly manly and hike up.  Lucy was freaked out by the chairlift and decided to hike up.  I went with them.  It was about 1.75 km with a rise of 383 m.  It was nicely wooded with a fair amount of exposed rock.  I thought Lucy was going to collapse, but she made it all the way to the top. 

I bought chairlift tickets for myself and my two children, ages 10 and 30 (everyone in the chairlift building got a good laugh out of this) and we all rode the lift back down, walked halfway to Holubov (we ate some incredible plums off a wild tree) and hitched a ride with our friends (who we did not see at all on Klet') back to the train station. 

The most interesting thing about this trip was to see the number of people out on this hill.  There were, of course, a lot of adventuring sorts on bikes and with backpacks, but there were also plenty of families, old folks, and young couples out on a date.  That's one of my favorite features of the culture - that people do active things as activities with family and friends a lot.


Peter