Tallying my list

Due to heavy gusts of wind in the morning and a steady drizzle we changed plans and instead of going up Cerna Hora for some more skiing we took a tour of more or less surrounding towns.

First stop was Trutnov half an hour to the south west, then Dvur Králové nad Labem, then a short stop at Hostinné and finally Vrchlabi again.

Hostinné

The first three are very similar in layout. There is a church in the town centre and the marketplace not far off with buildings from the 18th century surrounding it. There is a roofed pathway around the marketplace with shops underneath. Mostly cheap clothing, pottery (in fact very beautiful) or sports clothing. Restaurants everywhere. Bought a nice tee pot and got ourselves some of the famous Czech poppy-seed cake, yum!

Trudnov

Stopped at Vrchlabi again on the way back to check out that one toy shop my dad wanted to visit but it was still closed. Headed over to a restaurant afterwards and had some great food again.

I'm back in our appartment now reflecting on our days here.

pros:
- outstanding food and drink
- only 4h drive from Berlin
- prices are lower than back home
- lots of cross country- and downhill ski tracks

cons:
- our room was way too cold
- if there's ice on the road no one bothers to take care of it
- information on ski tracks etc. is hard to get
- cross country ski tracks are not necessarily for beginners

My list of Czech must-have consumables:
dumplings - check
palacinka - check
beer - check, check and check
oblateness - check
apple strudel - check
poppy-seed cake - check
slivovice - open

So after all we had a really good time here. There are hundreds of paths and tracks. Unfortunately the snow was only good above 800m. And you should definitely have snow chains with you.
We'll go cross country skiing next season for sure. If it'd be Czech Republic again... I dunno. If any of you want to join us, drop me a line :)

Cheers,
Kat

This path looks nice. Let's take it.

Due to lack of alternatives we went up Cerna Hora on the bubble lift and just chose the first path that we came across where ever it would lead us to. The wind had blown most of the snow off the tree branches only leaving a thin white layer turning the otherwise dark trees grey. It felt like the whole world had changed into a black and white movie. Weird but strangely beautiful.

We kept on going as we liked turning left or right at crossings going more down than up. On those thin skis with our lack of skill it wasn't easy but fun anyway.

Ended up on the hill opposite of Cerna Hora at the Svornost mountain hut and took a wide turn down again to Cerny Dul.
Again the day had started with us not really knowing what to do and again we found a pretty cool route around the area and had a lot of fun. Must have been like 20km after all.




Of course we stopped by our favourite restaurant again for some food and I simply had the best medallion of venison with burgundy sauce EVER!!! The cook has some talent for sure!!! A dark beer and a palacinky for desert and I was more than happy.

Last day tomorrow so I guess we'll just do the same. Start off somewhere and see where we end up, hehe.

Where is Sněžka?

After a long study of the map only finding probably tough trails we decided to try one we've passed by on our first venture up Cerna Hora. We started off at the same parking lot and walked for like 20 mins before taking a fork to the left.

The trail was way to icy to put on skis so we kept walking. The sun broke through the high clouds time and again and the path was lined with high conifers. Beautiful!
As we gained height and snow crept onto the tree's hitherto green branches also the quality of the trail increased. So we put on skis and followed its direction for a long while marvelling at the fantastic scenery. Best trail of our holiday so far!!!

The path wound its way from the south side over the west side to the north side of the mountain going ever up. So we figured we should see Sněžka (Snow Mountain) soon. And after another bend we could see its easily distinguishable top looming in the distance.

Turning right we kept going all the way up to the top of Cerna Hora enjoying every bit of it.

Had a break and some sausages and a beer at a mountain hut before going down again on the bubble lift.

Today I really fought with my rental skis. I just think they're crap. The going is really hard even on good ground. It can't be just my insufficient skill, haha. Well, I'll keep going for the remaining two days and get myself some decent equipment during the summer and a course next winter when we go skiing again.