Long Weekend in Dečin, Czech Republic

Late May/early June has some great possibilities for two long weekend travel with Ascension Day (always on a Thursday) and Whit Monday (ten days later). Back in the glory days, ie when we weren't tied to the school schedule, we maximized our holidays and planned a two-week trip to Portugal.

Back in the days when we only had one mobile child.

These days life is a little too crazy for back to back weekend travels, so we went the first weekend to Dečin, and the next holiday went on a local adventure using the new Nine Euro travel ticket to a near-by Asparagus Farm. 

Dečin is on the Czech side of the Saxon Switzerland or Saxon Bohemia Mountains. Switzerland is in the name because the region does indeed look like Switzerland.  

Exhibit A: Cliffs and Castles

Exhibit B: Scenic hikes with questionable safety precautions

As is our current modus operandi, we did very little research before this trip. The original plan was to go to Bad Schandau on the German side of Saxon Switzerland. However, three weeks is not near enough lead-up time to book a hotel or train in Germany on a long weekend. When we figured out that Bad Schandau wasn't going to work, Paul just checked the train route and found that one stop further across the border had similar good stuff for about 1/3 less. 

T'was a bit of a cluster on the train. The kids are seen here playing in the hallway next to the bathroom. We did get money back for not having seats available on our first class reservation, but we try to avoid this kind of hallway travel when possible. That being said, it is good practice for how we are traveling this summer on our nine euro pass. 

Recent photo from our full train back from the asparagus farm. The kids are flex.

Like I mentioned, we did very little research before this trip. I remembered our hotel being a 15 minute walk from the train station. That was an incorrect assessment. However, our trek across the the beautiful overpasses of Deçin yielded two more rested little people:

Whenever we travel we need to have at least two areas for kids to sleep. This trip it was the double stroller instead of the ergo and the travel stroller. Paul didn't love bringing this big thing on the train but I think our backs thanked us.

Yes, this is how Paul spent his Father's Day: schlepping big bags around town. Our regular pack light routine was thrown off because it was a rainy weekend (one rain gear bag), we were going swimming, and we weren't planning on doing laundry. In general, we always pack for a four day weekend no matter how long we go. So, our packing seemed a bit overboard but we used everything.

Lest you feel too bad for Paul on Father's Day, Crosby did make him this awesome card:

I bought him a travel pillow. Let's just say our budget accommodations don't reliably provide ergonomic pillows. However, this Airbnb had a great view and awesome host who provided us with an itinerary of our stay.

First stop, head to the lookout of the hill above the city that we could see from the window in our apartment.

We were happily surprised by our little hikers' abilities:

After that successful hike, we decided to go for another adventure to see the table rock where the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was filmed. We determined the Narnia movie series is too scary for Mommy but thankfully we can still handle the books. After a 1.5 hour bus ride to neighboring Tiske, we started looking for the table. 

Long story short, we hiked around for an hour or two but didn't find the stone table. When it started raining we decided to declare victory and head back for nap time. Our Tiske hike experience is a good analogy for our trip to Dečin. We didn't find the things that people normally see when they visit, but our version of exploration was fun for all parties involved.