Liberec

Last weekend we headed out of town on Saturday for a little excursion. We went to a town called Liberec, which is the sixth-biggest city in the Czech Republic and came recommended by some of Chelsey's students. Our main goal in going there was to hike up Jested Mountain, on the edge of the city, to a famous tower.
It was a little cold; it's November and nice weather is definitely gone. We had to break out the gloves and tuques for the hike. We found it wasn't too bad, however, apart from a particularly muddy patch. On the way up we found a broken-down wooden toboggan or bobsled run. It looks like it might have been fun in its day.
The tower itself is quite the structure. It was voted the Czech building of the century by a civil engineering society, largely for the way its shape conforms to the surrounding landscape of the mountain. It was built, I believe, as a receiver of some kind, although there is a hotel and a restaurant in the building. We enjoyed a late lunch in the restaurant as we warmed up before the trek down. Unfortunately, as we got to the tower, quite a bit of fog rolled in, meaning whatever spectacular view there is was completely wiped out. You really couldn't see anything outside the restaurant windows.
After we hiked back down we had a little time before our bus home, so we explored the Babylon Centre. This is an entertainment complex that houses one of the country's only indoor waterparks. We didn't have time to go in, but we watched some other people having fun. Compared to, say, the one at West Edmonton Mall, it's not a very big waterpark, but it seemed to have quite a few visitors on a Saturday night. Other attractions in the complex included a hotel, a casino, an arcade and a bowling alley.
-Jason