We arrived in DÄ›ÄÃn around mid day, chowed down on some home made strudel Marush had waiting and headed off for a hike. Pavel (senior) gave us 2 choices for our hike. Short and steep or long and flat.
Half way up the hill from where we parked and it seemed like Short and Steep was not so bad. After all, the watchtower at the top of the hill was visible after only 30 minutes…
30 minutes later we were up top chomping on some grapes and enjoying the view.
Then Pavel pointed out the next tower, down the ridge and then up another peak, about equal to the first. Great! An hour later we were enjoying similar views from the second tower – including views back to the first tower.
As we gathered our things, Pavel told us one more tower. No problem!
Another 45 minutes after a steep assent we came to a bit of a peak and could see the last tower… over yonder!
This third tower was accessed by climbing a series of iron ladders and railings. The view from there back to Tower #2:
Downhill and looping around along the ridges we made our way down and back to the car. Supposedly only 6km total, but with quite a bit up and down.
On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at an old palace with a view across the river to the whole town.
Back at the house, Marush had goulash and dumplings and pasta along with freshly picked tomatoes and half sour pickles. The rest of the trip, despite many attempts, Lethy never found a better goulash!
After dinner we made the drive to ÄŒeská LÃpa were we stayed one night at a very poorly designed and oddly furnished hotel. Lethy and I had to go through a restaurant and a pizza area, up a flight of stairs with no lights to our room. The next morning we hit the road early towards Prague.
All pictures of DÄ›ÄÃn can be found here.