The summation of the day is we may not have walked to Mordor, but we did do a LOT of walking.
Today was all about exploring the Karlovy Vary area and after a relaxed breakfast the plan was for a tale of 'two towers'. Initially to head up to Goethe's Lookout before visiting the more famous Diana Tower in the afternoon.
The pension we are staying in has a couple of common rooms and we made use of one of these to all meet up for breakfast. The room closest to us is a good size and, after we had worked out how to use the coffee machine, offered a good functional range of equipment to suit all needs.
Then it was time to set off. Goethe's Lookout Tower is located to the east of Karlovy Vary and conveniently there was a walking route in the woods right outside the pension we were staying in that converged with the route up to the tower. It was a well maintained and easy route albeit pretty much all uphill!
At the end of the route was the tower, a small play area and a zipline. So after a play and a trip to the top of the tower to see the views it was time to think about heading down. And what quicker way than via the zipline. With Jana staying with Emma who was too young and Matt opting out to take some videos, it was myself, Forrest, Paloma and Matty bravely stepping into the harnesses to fly over the tops of the trees.
Here is a video of Paloma...
... and one of Forrest.
It was good fun and all the kids loved it and after establishing that there was no way we were walking back up to go again we continued our descent on the woodland path. Taking a different route down to up we did try to time it with a bus to take us some of the way, but with it being a Sunday the buses were few and far between, so after just missing our target bus we had no choice but to walk all the way back into town and to the base of the funicular which would take us up to Diana.
Reaching the top a bit later than planned we decided that the first stop would be the restaurant and also that after all that walking a main meal now would work well with a more snacky tea later. The food was really good and not too badly priced for a touristy spot.
After lunch we had a very quick look round the mini-zoo which really did only need a quick look as it really is very mini being only a couple of paddocks housing some goats, mini-pigs and Shetland ponies. There was also a white peacock wandering round which fascinated the kids but unfortunately despite a hunt there was no sign of its more colourful friend that the information boards said should be around somewhere too.
Then we went into the Butterfly House. This was a fairly small room for a butterfly house, being only 100m2 and it was full of lots of different types of butterflies and some small zebra finches flittering about. There was a no touching rule but it was fine if the butterflies landed on you. The kids loved it and we were in there for about 45 minutes before the heat finally beat the adults and we had to shepherd them out. The rules were probably bent slightly with most kids using the fruit that was out and about to tempt the butterflies to land on them but even without the fruit I had multiple butterflies land on me. Personally the room felt too small for the amount of butterflies which I believe was the cause of so many butterfly landings (something I haven't experienced at other butterfly houses) and whilst this was great for seeing the butterflies up close there were also quite a few injured or sad looking butterflies struggling to fly.
Finally with time slipping away it was time to head up to the top of the Diana Lookout Tower and you can imagine my pleasure at having trekked up 150 steps to be told by Paloma that she had left her newly purchased butterfly bracelet in the toilets. Thankfully we retrieved it and we ascended the tower again but this time making use of the lift!! The views from up the top were spectacular and the kids enjoyed locating our pension house and also the Goethe Tower we had visited earlier that day that looked so far away.
With no time or energy to take in the Diana walking trails we enjoyed the short funicular ride back down into town and with the kids taking in a few of their favourite restorative spa waters again on the way, we walked back to the bus station and then up the hill for dinner at the house.
It ended up being a film night as a solitary German gentleman had set himself up to watch Puss in Boots in the communal room. Hopefully we didn't disturb him too much but other than the blaring TV it turned into a quite a quiet dinner as all kids were glued to the screen (despite for our kids it being in Czech so they didn't understand a word!).
After all that walking they should sleep well tonight which is good as we have an early start tomorrow.
Blogged by Amber.
