Beautiful Decin and Liberec

We took a couple of days out on our way to Liberec to stop and see Decin, a small town near the border of Germany. What a beautiful place! It lies on the banks of the Labe River.

Decin has a castle complex. This is the rose garden inside the castle walls.

We took an unexpectedly loooooong, steep hike to the top of a mountain outside of Decin to see the largest natural stone bridge in central Europe. We had no idea it was going to be this far and this steep, but we kept persevering until we reached the top. You can't tell from this picture, but we had just hiked an hour straight up. We were both pretty beat. I took a picture of President Slovacek with the bridge in the background, just to show that we made it to the top.

The more we climbed, the more we grew to hate the bridge. It felt good to finally reach our destination, though.

On our way back toward our hotel, we stopped off at Belvedere. Here you can see the rocks and cliffs that are in the Decin area. I love the lone cypress out on the ledge, with the Labe River in the background. It made for some spectacular scenery.

Elder and Sister Alsop, our office couple and friends for the last 25 years, came with us on our trip to Decin. We are so sad because their mission is coming to an end. Our loss is Redwood City, California's gain. I know Doug will be happy to be out surfing again instead of doing office work, and Nancy can go back to her outlet shopping in San Francisco. Though we did our share of shopping at MACRO for zone conferences! I guess that doesn't count.
We went to church in Liberec. Here we are on the Namesti. That's the town hall in the background. Sure doesn't look like any of our town halls in Florida!
These are our cute missionaries in Liberec. From the left they are: Elder Briggs, Elder Ames, Elder Hill, and Elder Hicken. They are doing great things in that city!