Published: 23.07.2023
In the morning we drove to Pec pod Sněžkou (German: Petzer), a village at the foot of the Sněžka mountain, the highest mountain in the Czech Republic.
Several kilometers of parking spaces are spread out in the village to accommodate the cars of the many visitors who want to hike up the mountain or take the cable car in summer and go skiing in winter.
Because our camper van did not fit in the parking garage, the only attendant who spoke German explained to us where we could park.
So we left our car behind and walked through the village to the valley station of the cable car. We had decided to only hike down and take the cable car up.
When we arrived at the top, the sky was quite overcast and a cold wind was blowing.
There were a lot of people on the summit, enjoying the view while shivering, even though the sky was very dark and light drizzle was starting.
We briefly sat in a crowded café, hoping that the clouds would clear while enjoying a hot drink.
Indeed, the sky was already becoming bluer and so we started our descent.
The trail was very well maintained and many other visitors were hiking up or down.
On the way, we passed two mountain huts that offered food and drinks for hungry hikers.
We also stopped there and had delicious but very greasy regional dishes.
With full stomachs, we continued our way down until we reached Petzer again.
We explored the Giant Mountains a bit further and drove to the treetop trail Krkonoše.
Over a length of 2180 meters, you can explore a mixed forest from above.
Initially, the path led us through the treetops of the forest. Some information boards in Czech and English provided additional information about the trees and the forest. So we learned some new vocabulary about conifers in English...
Finally, we could climb a ramp to a 45.5 meter high lookout tower.
From the top, we had a beautiful view of the forest and the surrounding mountains.
Instead of going down again, we could have taken the 80 meter long slide, which winds down in the middle of the tower. But we decided to walk down after all.
We spent the night at a campsite with the beautiful name 'Dolce'.
Here we met mainly locals who were also staying overnight, but we also met four Germans from Wildeshausen who kindly invited us for a glass of red wine in the evening.