Rock City

A couple weekends ago, some friends and I decided to visit Teplice nad Matuji in northeastern Czech Republic (very near the Polish border) to see the "Rock City" in the mountains.  We arrived on Friday evening to a very dark little village near the entrance to the park.  We took the train from Prague then transferred to a regional train to get closer to our destination.  Then we got on a tiny train that took us to our little village in the mountains.  The train stop was a small shack with no lights and when we arrived at 7:30 pm it was pitch black.  We saw a light in the distance and decided to head down the stairs towards the light.  We found our penzion (below) was the only place open!  Most things don't open for another month when the real high season starts.  Thankfully we had brought food and snacks with us and we entertained ourselves by playing cards by the fire.  It was a great escape into "the nature."

Our Penzion

Amy and Becca starting out on the trail

First signs of snow - and there was much more to come!

Stop in the name of love - or don't do whatever he's telling you not to do!

The beginning of the rock formations

Simone, Becca, and Amy - hiking partners

Cool tree roots

We hiked up 200 steps to see a great view - this is almost the top

Amy  heading up the last, very steep, steps

The view was worth it!

Czech flag - needs some paint

One view as we went down the stairs

Next we entered an area nicknamed Siberia - we learned why when we entered and the temps dropped about 15 degrees

Always having fun - and the ice tasted refreshing too!

Someone had shoveled out the path and even created steps

Ice

Cool to see ice and moss together

And the path narrows

We found a frog

Ice patterns

More interesting ice - above the creek

See the ink pot on the left?  A lot of the rock formations were named and I didn't really see them - however, I got this one!

And the path got smaller and smaller

Peek-a-boo

Tree had fallen with all its roots...never seen anything like it before

Snack time!

Water puddle

Melting snow

To show we really were in the middle of nowhere - we hiked to this nearby train station - a step above what we arrived at the night before!