I have personally been there about twice already (once with an acquaintance and once with a group of friends to go skiing), but the girls had not, and we had talked about the trip to Dolní Morava many times, so there was no question about it.
We were looking forward to a weekend when it would be sunny.
We set off on Saturday morning, since the forecast for Saturday had been favorable since Wednesday.
From our area of Vyškov, the journey takes roughly an hour and a half.
It took us about three hours, instead of just under two.
Leia likes trains, so many times when we go somewhere on a trip, the girls take the train for about an hour and I pick them up somewhere by car afterward.
So we drove to the train station in Vyškov, with the girls planning to travel to Olomouc.
They had about an hour, so I took advantage of the situation and stopped at Tesco on the way to get sleds.
Honestly, it did not occur to me that despite the government regulations, it would not be possible to buy sleds, even though they were physically right there on the shelf in front of me.
What is the difference between sleds, which cannot be bought, and the frying pans and batteries right on the next shelf, which are being happily sold and nobody minds?
I will not debate the meaning—or rather, the nonsense—of these legislative changes and went to the Sportisimo next door.
Right at the entrance, a man assured me that I could definitely buy sleds, but I had to order them online, and once the order appeared in the system, which normally takes about 3–4 hours, I could pick them up.
I tapped my forehead and left.
I sat in the car and tried to figure out how to buy sleds within an hour these days.
They have them in stores everywhere, but they simply will not sell them.
Hehe. An interesting puzzle in the 21st century.
Fortunately, I found Decathlon on Google, which offers collection within an hour of placing an order.
At least that was what they said on their website.
There is also a Decathlon in Olomouc, which was about 40 minutes away for me, so there was no question about it and I placed the order.
I sped over to the train station in Olomouc, triumphantly announced the great news to Petra that I had managed to obtain the unobtainable, and we set off for Decathlon.
It had been exactly an hour, so I entered the store and dictated my order number to the woman at the checkout.
And guess what?
Nothing…
Apparently, the order was not ready.
What could I do? Even though about 40 sleds that I had ordered were lying around next to the checkout, what could I do… they could not hand them over until, to quote them, “someone prepared the order.”
Apparently, I was supposed to leave and come back once they contacted me by text message.
So we waited in the car, since we had promised the little one that she could go sledding; otherwise, as they say, I would have “given up on it.”
Looking back, I am really glad about it—the sleds came in very handy, and I do not know how we would have managed without them.
But more on that later.
All in all, we waited about an hour and a half instead of the promised hour.
Finally, the long-awaited text message arrived, and I immediately rushed into the Decathlon store.
The woman who had refused me earlier noticed me right at the door and immediately asked whether I had received the text message.
I replied, “Yes, I have.”
She found me using the order number, which I dictated to her again, took the sleds from exactly the same place where the approximately 40 pieces had been lying next to the checkout before, and asked me to pay by card.
Next to the saleswoman, there was also a sledding shovel hanging on the shelf (the kind of plastic one you sit on and ride downhill on—I am sure you know what I mean. 🙂
I asked the saleswoman whether there was any way to buy it other than through that annoying online order, which had taken almost two hours instead of one.
Apparently not.
All right, I told myself, and resigned myself to not buying the shovel.
In the end, when I was paying, the woman apparently “softened up,” tapped something into her phone, and sold it to me as well.
I preferred not to ask how it was possible for the shovel to be processed so quickly, while the sleds could not be handed over during my first visit and we had to wait in the car for another good half an hour, even though I had asked her and explained that my wife and child were waiting for me outside in the car.
I did not have the energy to deal with it; I understand the situation we are in.
Most of the time, the salespeople cannot be blamed for it, but a little willingness would have been enough and would have saved us almost an hour.
So we continued on to Dolní Morava and arrived at the parking lot below the ski lift.
There were quite a lot of people everywhere.
The lower lifts were not operating at all, but that did not matter.
Skiers walked up the hill and had no trouble skiing down.
Some were even helped by skilled snow-groomer drivers on snowmobiles.
It is nice how we Czechs know how to manage, isn’t it? 🙂
The only lift that was running was the second one, up at the top.
You just have to walk up the path alongside the slopes and you will reach it.
We have probably all become accustomed to the oddities of our current system, so I will not try to find any logic in why, despite the fact that the lift was fully utilized, only pedestrians and tourists were allowed to use it, while skiers were not.
Leia was absolutely thrilled by the cable car; she had never ridden one before.
Everything was beautifully covered in snow—just like in a fairy tale.
At some point in the future, during another visit, we will have to try the bobsled track that runs through the forest alongside the cable car.
It looks like what our American friends would call mega fun (great fun).
But it was cloudy.
I was a little worried whether we would be able to see anything at all from the viewpoint.
After getting off the cable car, we had a somewhat slippery path ahead of us, beautifully lined with snow-covered conifers, followed by an equally snow-covered path along the metal structure of the viewpoint heading upward—“into the clouds.”
Well, judge for yourselves.
Isn’t it beautiful?
Just like in The Snow Queen.
We already had a beautiful view on the way up.
As always, we were lucky, and just as we were climbing up, the sun began to shine through the clouds.
Thanks to that, a magnificent panorama appeared before us.
I dare say that the view was more beautiful at that moment than it would have been under completely clear skies.
What I was a little afraid of was the netting instead of a floor at the top.
It took me a few minutes to pluck up the courage to climb onto it and see everything below me.
Well… Complete idylls usually do not last forever.
Leia was already quite tired during the climb up to the lookout tower, and she made it very clear at the top.
Her fatigue was not helped by the fact that her legs had frozen after sitting on the sleds the entire way.
Fortunately, we have a great footmuff for the stroller from Stokke, which we wisely brought with us and wrapped her completely in.
After a little while, she fell asleep, so we put her on the sleds and took her back to the lift.
It was already getting dark on the way back to the car, but that gave us the opportunity to admire a beautiful sunset.
A beautiful trip and a lesson for next time.
We got some excellent fresh air.
It helped me quite a bit, since I sit at a computer all week, often from morning until evening.
In any case, Petra ordered some sheep-wool insoles for the boots.
The little one did have snow boots, but it was -7 degrees the entire time, and whether she liked it or not, she got a little chilled despite wearing two pairs of socks and warm boots.
We did too, but with a child it is nevertheless a little worse, since she cannot say for herself what is bothering her and it is a new situation that she is unfamiliar with.
Fortunately, it was not so terrible, everything turned out well, and she slept on the way back in the car, where we also turned on the heat for her :).
And at home, a lit fireplace was already waiting for us :).
The Sky Walk is beautiful, with truly wonderful nature and scenery.
It has a special charm in winter.
I recommend taking a trip to Dolní Morava.
Have you ever been there?
If so, how did you like it there and what did you experience?
Leave me a comment below the article; I would be happy to hear from you.
