August in Valencia is a great time to be somewhere else. High heat and humidity drive even the locals out of town. Most businesses shut down for the month and the smart expat will take the hint and find somewhere cooler to be.

Cindy found a company that offers supported town-to-town hikes in the Czech Republic and later Dan met us in Milan for a few days and then the three of us ran off to the Dolomites in northeastern Italy for a week of hiking. We were gone for a total of three weeks, which was not quite enough to escape all of the heat but did allow us to skip out on the worst of the summer. Given that it was a three week trip, this will mostly be a photo essay with just enough words to contextualize the whole thing. So, enjoy the journey along with us.

Right at the end of July we flew to Prague to spend a few days exploring. The old part of town is lovely and given that it has avoided most of the fighting in the last century it’s still in pretty good shape. In the old part of town there are interesting sights around most every corner.

The Franz Kafka statue. Each layer rotates on its own and the entire evolution of the sculpture is something to behold.

The Powder Gate, one of the original gates in the 15th Century city wall.

Old Town city square and surrounding buildings.

The towers of the Týn Church

The astronomical clock, one of the main attractions of the old town square. No, I have no idea how to read it; I’m like an 18 year old with an analog watch.

The Charles Bridge, begun at the end of the 14th Century and finished in the beginning of the 16th.

We did a dinner cruise on the Vltava River that runs through the center of town. Sunset was pretty.

Gardens of the Prague Castle

Gardens again, with our resident gardener.

The castle from across the river.

From Prague, we caught a bus northeast to the Bohemian Paradise, a region of scenic and rugged sandstone “stone cities” about 60 KM away.

The Bohemian Paradise region, not far from Prague

Our first day hiking was a circular route beginning and ending in Turnov and our introduction to the stone cities. These are sandstone bluffs that the surrounding land has eroded away from, leaving these amazing towers behind.

The woods we walked through were beautiful and peaceful. This first day we hardly saw anyone else.

The people of course took advantage of these natural towers and built fortifications on them to defend their land.

From the top of the tower you could see a very long way indeed.

On our second day out we walked from Turnov to Hruba Skala where the castle of the same name sits on top of the bluff overlooking the town. This was to be our residence for a couple of days.

A farmhouse built in the traditional log-built style, one of the last remaining.

One kind of expects a gnome or an elf or something to come through the woods.

We found many of these carvings in the sandstone near the log house. Some pretty good artists did this work.

A sandstone depiction of the log house, near the log house. Meta.

Nearer Hruba Skala we came out at this viewpoint overlooking the main group of rock towers.

Climbers were working several of the towers. This is the home of some of the first sandstone climbing, which requires quite different technique and tools from hard rock climbing thanks to the crumbly soft stone.

Bohemian selfie

The towers from much closer, and below.

Hruba Skala Castle among the cliffs. Note Trosky Castle in the far distance, it’ll come up again.

When someone mentions being in “deep clover,” think of this.

We took a day off to take care of a little business in town, then for the next leg we walked 18 KM from Hruba Skala to Prachov, via Trosky castle.

Trails were well marked but there were lots of them.

Along the way, more rock towns.

Trosky in the distance.

…and a bit closer

Be ready, you never know what you’ll find in Bohemia.

This is why they went to the trouble of building this castle; it dominates the entire landscape.

A depiction of the castle in its heyday.

After leaving the castle we passed through these lovely open woods.

Deeply rutted footpath. How long do you think people have walked here?

Overnight at Prachov, in a park hotel in the woods, we were treated to a huge thunder and lightning storm which took out the power at the hotel. They were still able to pull together breakfast and made sandwiches for our lunch even without power and bless ’em for that. The last leg of our walking holiday was from Prachov to the larger town of Jicin via the huge rock town of Prachovske Skaly.

Some of the trails got a little narrow.

The scale of these rocks is mind bending.

These stacks are where the local rock climbing club got its start back at the beginning of the previous century.

Some of these towers are 60 meters tall and many of them are individually named.

Jicin from the nearest high point. By the time we got here this seemed like a pretty big town.

Jicin’s center is very pretty.

We spent a couple days in Jicin, then caught the bus back to Prague where we had another couple of days to recover and sightsee before flying out to Milan.

We found this park outside the main part of the city with welcome shade in the hot sun.

We met Dan in Milan and shared a nice roomy AirBnb for a few days of city-style adventuring.

The cathedral is spectacular.

The original Beach Body.

Roof spires: we’ve got a thousand of ’em.

Details details.

Looking out at the new from the old.

The actual Last Supper in situ at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The painting is made more remarkable by the way it seems to extend the dining hall past the wall upon which it’s painted. Hardly any of the paint is original; it’s been restored many times over the centuries.

Walking back from dinner one evening through Sforza Castle. 2/3 of my favorite people.

We took a tour of La Scala opera house. It’s quite a large complex and includes a museum.

Day trip to Lake Como. This is the town of Bellagio. We intended to stop in but the ferry schedule was not with us.

Varenna, where we started and ended our trip.

Travel buddies

Above Menaggio. The hike up to this point turned out to be much steeper and more difficult than I imagined when I looked at it on Google Maps. Worth it? Sure but we weren’t really equipped for it. Insult was added to injury when a family came in on the uphill side from the car park just a short distance away.

One of the villas arrayed along the waterfront.

A picturesque sunset capped our day at the lake.

We rented a car and drove northeast to the town of Corvara in Badia in the Italian Dolomites for a week of hiking. We didn’t realize it at the time but we chose an Italian bank holiday weekend for our trip so the entire region was chuck-a-block with people.

What should have been about a 4-hour drive was more like six thanks to holiday traffic.

Our first day of hiking was just around the valley near town where we could acclimate to the altitude of about 1500 meters and see the lovely greenery nearby.

Just about every time you popped out and could see a bit, you were blessed with a gorgeous vista.

We did climb a bit out of the valley to one of the passes that give entry to Covara. It was a chore but the payoff was in the views all around.

Looking back at the pass from a bit further along.

Overlooking the town from above.

The next day we did a circular route that began and ended in the valley you can see center right. There was a lot of elevation in this hike as you’ll see.

This trail junction is where we got an idea of the high point of the hike, that little gap in the rocks waaay up there. By this time Dan had left us well behind as we weren’t keeping up on the climb.

Further along the trail and the gap only looks a little closer.

Looking back at the hanging valley from where we came. While it was cloudy all day it wasn’t too cold.

Top of the gap, finally. The trip down was a long series of switchbacks through the scree.

The payoff was this little lake where we ate a late lunch.

Looking back at the gap and the path down which we came.

Further on, we can again see the valley where we parked. It was still a couple miles away down steep switchbacks but at least we could see the end.

The next day dawned bright and clear in the valley. Dan had arranged to hike on his own, combining two separate hikes into one 17-miler that we all hoped would satisfy his need for a challenge. Turns out it did: even he admitted to being tired at the end of the day.

Cindy and I took a shorter route, past Averau peak, ahead on the left.

Looking back down the trail. Everywhere you looked was a gorgeous mountain view.

First high point, at the top of a chairlift. There are ski areas throughout the region, all linked, and many of the hiking routes we took are ski runs in winter.

Climbing to the highest point of the hike at Nuvolau. This is a steady climb to a peak the other side of which is a vertical drop to the valley.

Looking back toward Averau.

First peek at Cinque Torri. This is a mecca for climbers and day hikers.

A closer look at the Cinque Torri rocks.

The path that circumnavigates the Torri includes passages between the rocks, some of which became quite narrow.

Our goal for the following day, Sassongher mountain, from town. We started walking from our hotel in the middle distance to the top.

More climbing, about 1200 meters in 6 KM.

There was a lot of exposed trail and a fall could have been very bad.

The valley from the top of Sassongher, about a mile straight down.

The peak.

Part of the climb and the descent involved something closer to mountaineering than I’m usually comfortable with but we all made it with no incidents.

The walk back down took us across some trails that felt pretty exposed, where a misstep could have some pretty significant consequences.

On our last hiking day we took it easier, with a walk along the valley to a gondola where we rode to the top. Again the views were spectacular.

Pretty soon after we got up on top, the weather started to close in.

Those look like rain clouds.

Definitely rain. Is there a shelter nearby? We did get rained on but shared porch space at a refugio with dozens of our best friends. You can see them on the trail above.

The storm ended quickly and we were able to resume our walk.

Once again, the views were spectacular.

Once we found our way back down to the valley, Cindy waited for the bus back to the hotel. Dan and I walked back down the valley and were treated to one more gorgeous view.

The following day was getaway day and a seven-hour stop-and-go slog back to Milan. Dan actually had to re-book his train to Zurich because we weren’t going to get back in time. Cindy and I had a little more time to get to the airport so we knew we were OK.

Turns out we had more cushion than we realized.

Good trip, plenty of outdoor air and very little heat and humidity AND we got to spend time with Dan. Win!