Another cycle trip

If you meet an English speaking traveller who tells you they've done a week-long cycling tour in the Czech Republic, there's a pretty good chance (I'd guess at least 4 out of 5) that they rode either from Mikulov to Český Krumlov or from Český Krumlov to Mikulov. Which is fine, of course, but sometimes I answer questions on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forum and when one came up recently I found myself with hesitations about recommending the Mikulov-Krumlov shuffle.

South Moravia is probably my favourite region in the country and South Bohemia is definitely in the top three good-looking regions in the room, but I just wonder if this route really deserves four times as much attention and patronage as the rest of the cycle routes in the country put together. My main concern is that, with the exception of Znojmo, all the other towns might start to look a bit the same.

Znojmo has around 35000 inhabitants, medieval catacombs, and a variety of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance architecture; but Mikulov, Slavonice, Telč, Jindřichův Hradec, Třeboň and Český Krumlov are all smallish towns (maximum 20000 people) dominated by the renaissance architecture of the 16th century (two storeys plus attic, pastel or sgraffito facades, arcade walkways, and dating from 1500-1620). Unless you really have a specific interest in the variations and intricacies of Central European renaissance architecture (I must admit that applies to me) wouldn't this route be a bit like going to a smorgasbord dinner and having six helpings of the same dish?
In the case of the fellow that asked the original question, (lets call him Ben) I kind of thought Mikulov to Krumlov would be OK, but he expressed interest in hearing any other suggestions I might have and because I'm intending to finish my round the country ride soon, I thought it might be a good exercise to plan an itinerary a bit and see if it's any use to him or anyone else.

Ben was thinking of beginning in Mikulov and my last ride finished in Mutěnice near Hodonín, but for the purposes of this we might split the difference and start in Břeclav. Ben has a week and I have more than a month, so he'd have to skip some of the things I'd visit and I'd be able to devote more time to each place.

Břeclav

Břeclav is a good place to start because it has excellent rail connections and a well-equipped train station. Bombed in World War II, it's now a fairly unattractive town, but there is a chateau that was built to look like a partly ruined medieval castle during the romantic 19th century. Behind the chateau, cycle trail #43 heads off through the Dyje natural park towards Lednice chateau.

Lednice-Valtice area

The Lednice-Valtice area is 2 square kilometres of landscaped countryside and world heritage architecture from the 19th century. The highlights are another mock ruined castle hunting lodge called Janův Hrad, the minaret designed by Josef Hardtmuth (better known abroad for his pencils), the Lednice chateau and greenhouse and the chateau and Jesuit church in Valtice. I've done this ride a few time and i like to follow trail 41 out of Lednice, then turn off along the lake to visit Hlohovec castle, which marks the old border between Moravia and Austria. From there it's up and over a vineyard-covered hill and down into Valtice. Valtice's wine cellars are a great opportunity to sample the local drop, but bear in mind that cyclists should technically have a 0.0 blood-alcohol-content. From Valtice there are minor country roads back to Břeclav or sandy trails through the forest and past the rendezvous and monuments.

Ruins of the Great Moravian Empire

Trail #43 south out of Břeclav leads to Pohansko, which is marked on all the Lednice-Valtice maps because of the Pohansko chateau. More interesting to me though is the nearby archaeological site and reconstruction of a small encampment from the Great Moravian Empire. The Empire was the first organised nation state of Slavic peoples but you hear very little about it because most information comes out of Prague and getting a proud Praguer to use 'Great' and 'Moravia' in the same breath is like getting blood from a a stone.

Past Lanžhot, cycle trail 44 runs along the bank of the Morava river, and is a great opportunity to absorb what you learned at Pohansko, before delving into the centre of the great Moravian empire at Mikulčice. Actually no-one knows where the capital was, but the excavations at Mikulčice uncovered the largest cache of Great Moravian churches, graves, jewellery and ceramics ever found. It's likely to be the Czech Republic's next UNESCO-world heritage site.

Hodonín

From there it's not far to Hodonín, which has an impressive main square church, and museums devoted to a) local boy and liberator president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and b) South Moravia's oil industry. You didn't know they drilled for oil in South Moravia? Neither did I - I'm looking forward to visiting to find out more about it. From Hodonín, trail #47 leads along the river valley towards Strážnice, or we could shortcut through Slovakia and the pretty little town of Skalica.

Strážnice

Strážnice is best known for the huge folk festival that takes place every year in and for its skansen. A skansen is basically an outdoor museum; in this case with a collection of typical traditional South Moravian cottages, farmhouses and gardens. There's also a renaissance chateau that offers budget accommodation, a Jewish cemetery and a small port for boats navigating the Bata Canal.

Uherské Hradiště or Uherský Brod & Luhačovice

Uherské Hradiště is the biggest town in the Moravské Slovácko region. If it were possible to single out the one Czech region that has best held on to its folk traditions and customs it would probably be Moravské Slovácko. There's a handful of wonderful old historic buildings in Uherské Hradiště, but the best way to use the town is as a base to get into the real Slovácko countryside.

One good day long cycle trip is the loop to Buchlovice chateau ( home of the garlic festival) The imposing gothic Buchlov castle, Tupesy (ceramics workshop, gift centre and museum), Velehrad (pilgrimage church) and Modra (reconstructed huts, houses and church from the Great Moravian empire).

Uherský Brod is a relaxed town with a couple of very impressive churches and a good museum to the most famous local boy Jan Amoš Komenský, better known abroad as Comenius - the teacher of nations. Luhačovice is a spa town in a lovely forested setting with some of architect Dušan Jurkovic's best work. Personally I think all places mentioned above are worth visiting, but a cyclist pressed for time would probably ride from Strážnice to Zlín either along the river via Uh. Hradiště or up over the hills via Uh. Brod and Luhačovice.

Zlín

Home of Bata shoes. The innovative Bata factories, villas and shoe museum can all be visited and office block 21 is especially worthwhile for the rooftop terrace, the elevator office and the free exhibition on the eighth floor. The town chateau has good exhibition about the local film animation industry and the annual festival of children's film happens each year at the end of May.

Vallašské Meziříčí and Rožnov pod radhoštěm

In my experience, Wallachia (Vallašsko) is the Czech republic's friendliest region. Vallašské Meziříčí is its biggest town and the pleasant old square, cool bars and cafes and the inexpensive guesthouse right in the chateau make it a good place to base yourself for a few days. Check out one of the teahouses and the coffee shop in the upholstery school.

The big attraction of Rožnov pod radhoštěm is its collection of traditional wooden buildings. In the early 20th century there were two brothers who bought any timber building they heard was going to be demolished and somehow got permission to restore and reassemble them in the Rožnov town park on the right bank of the river Bečva. There's a church, a mill, a post office, a couple of working pubs and traditional festivals or events almost every weekend from May through September.

Nový Jičín/Štramberk/Kopřivnice/Příbor/Hukvaldy

Nový Jičín and the towns nearby have plenty to keep anyone interested for few days. Nový Jičín has one of the prettiest main squares in the country, the hat museum and Starý Jičín castle ruins just outside town. Štramberk has good collection of traditional wooden Wallachian houses, the remains of a hilltop castle lookout tower and an excellent microbrewery on the main square. Příbor is Sigmund Freud's birthplace and the family house is now open to the public. Kopřivnice has the wonderfully quirky Tatra car and truck museum and Hukvaldy castle ruins are worth visiting even if you miss the annual Janaček music festival. The #502 trail connects most of these destinations.

Frýdek-Místek

I want to go back to Frýdek-Místek mostly because it has the best teahouse I've ever been to. Frýdek and Místek were originally two towns; Místek on the left, Moravian bank of the Ostravice river, and Frýdek across on the opposite bank in Silesia. The historic centre of Frýdek around the square and chateau is lovely and I'm looking forward to exploring Místek too when I go back with a bicycle.

Český Těšín

Český Těšín is the Czech part of the town that found itself split in two when a new international border between Czechoslovakia and Poland was drawn was drawn along the Olše river in 1920. Czech Těšín was cut off from the historic centre of town, and Polish Těšín lost the important rail connections that were on the western side of the river. Another upheaval came in 1938 when Polish troops annexed Czech Těšín after the Munich betrayal. These days you can just walk down and across the bridge into the neighbouring country and nobody bats an eyelid.

Havířov

You wont find Havířov mentioned in many guidebooks but it seems like a very interesting place. It's an industrial city built in the early 1950s in the style of socialist realism. In those early years the communist party was still dominated by courageous people who joined when it was a persecuted organization and I'm keen to see if I can find differences in their architecture compared to the monstrosities of the 1970s when party membership was a prerequisite for every ambitious and unscrupulous citizen interested in personal power. Even if I'm wrong about the difference in architecture, I think the extensive collection of social-realist public sculpture will make the visit worthwhile.

Ostrava

3rd biggest city of the Czech republic and much-maligned as an ugly industrial sprawl populated by unemployed former miners. But ask anyone who has actually spent time there and the overwhelming response is that they really quite like it. The nightlife is famous but I also enjoyed the cafes, bookshops, the tour of the old steelworks and the museum of mining out in the northern suburbs. From Ostrava there are good train connections to all major cities in the region and Ben would probably finish here, while I'd like to push on to Opava, Krnov and the Jesenik mountains on my way home to Olomouc.

I've probably left this post a bit late to be useful to Ben, but I hope to cycle much of this route between about Mid may and Mid June this year. With tiny villages, towns and large industrial cities; everything from Great Moravian wooden cabins to social-realist reinforced concrete; forested hills, gentle flood plains; Moravian Slovak, Wallachian and Silesian culture and cuisine, it's going to be quite a trip.

Scaling Sněžka

Peaking at 1602 metres above sea level, Sněžka is the highest mountain in the Czech Republic. The name is a derivative of the old German 'Schneekoppe', which means something like 'snowy peak' or 'snowy head'. Shaped roughly like a three-sided pyramid, Sněžka's north face slopes down into Poland, the south-east towards the rolling hills outside Trutnov and the west into the valley of the River Úpa.

The nearest town is Pec pod Sněžkou and that’s where I based myself for the hike to the top. Actually, I stayed a little outside town, about halfway between Pec and nearby Velka Úpa. It wouldn't be quite truthful to call Pec a resort town, but most of the businesses there are involved in tourism in some way. There are ski schools, adventure equipment stores, restaurants, pubs, hotels, and at least a dozen pensions.

Pec is the Czech word for furnace and gives a clue to the reason for the first settlement in such a high and remote part of the Krkonoše mountains. In the early 16th century German colonists settled in the mountains to mine iron, copper and arsenic and after 1566 they were joined by woodcutters felling timber to be floated downstream to the silver mines at Kutná Hora. Pec pod Sněžkou's importance as a mining colony gradually faded but the furnace for arsenic (nicknamed the poison furnace) functioned until serfdom was abolished in the mid-19th century, and small scale mining continued as late as 1959.

There’s not much left of historic Pec but the most useful facilities for travellers are close to the intersection of the roads that run along the base of the river valleys. The supermarket, the best pub in town and the information office that deals with accommodation are all within a few metres of the intersection. Finding accommodation shouldn’t be too difficult; almost every second building is a pension.

The tourist information office in town helped me arrange a room at the cottage Eliška. For less than the price of a typical hostel dorm bed, I had my own room with a writing table and access to a balcony, garden and a kitchen equipped even with recycling bins. The owner told me that most of the people who visit Pec are Czech, Polish or German, and those three nationalities in roughly equal numbers. The busiest season is winter, but the summer holidays are not far behind.

To get to the top of Sněžka from Pec, you can either walk or take the cable car. The cable car started operation in 1949 and covers the 700m of altitude between Pec (864m above sea level) and Sněžka in two stages of about two kilometres each. The base station is along the valley of the Úpa at the edge of town and operates from 8am to 7pm in the summer months. The fare is 180Kč for adults, with discounts for children, pensioners and groups of more than 20 people.

To walk to Sněžka from Pec, you can choose either the yellow marked trail that leads up from the edge of town near the cable car, or the green trail that leaves from behind the pizzeria about 200m from the big intersection. It doesn’t matter too much which one you choose, because they join together less than ten minutes into the forest. I went up on the yellow and came down on the green.

The first part of the trail is steep and leads out of the river valley through thick pine forest up to the ridge that runs south from the peak. The undergrowth is of moss and ferns, but as you approach the ridge they give way to grasses and the trees thin to a clearing with wide sky and a view of Sněžka’s barren peak.

There are two cabins up here and they offer accommodation and have restaurants open to the public. If the weather is good, it’s hard to resist joining the other hikers sitting at the outdoor benches and admiring the view, and if the weather’s bad, I’m sure it would be hard to resist zipping inside for a warm drink and a sit around the open fire.

From the cabins the hiking trail flattens out and leads past the cable car relay station. The cable car seems to be used mostly by people who are too old to climb the mountain without endangering their health. Or groups of school kids who couldn’t climb the mountain without endangering the mental health of their teachers. Towards the treeline, the trees get smaller and smaller and there are glimpses of cable car passengers swinging through their tops like the shopping bags of an invisible giant.

When the trees come to an end, so does the gently sloping trail along the ridge. This is the base of Sněžka's bald head and the hiking trail becomes a steep staircase covered in loose rock. I found this the most difficult part of the hike but there are a handful of benches on which to catch a breath and the peak is in sight, so it's too late to give up no matter what your legs and lungs might tell you.

Approaching the peak there's a view over the other side down into Poland and there will no doubt be hikers heading up that way too. There are a couple of reasonably large towns down in the valley on the Polish side, and Sněžka suddenly doesn’t seem nearly as remote as it looks from the Czech side of the border.

The knee-high concrete markers with a P on one side and a C on the other mark the international border that runs precisely across the peak of Sněžka. Right at the top there a flattish area about twice the size of a tennis court, with three or four buildings on it. The square ones are on the Czech side of the border and the round ones are Polish.

The small, round, wooden building is the Chapel of St. Lawrence. The large one that looks like a comic-book space station or a clump of huge, metallic mushrooms is a restaurant, souvenir store and weather station. When I visited Sněžka there were two buildings on the Czech side of the peak (not counting the cable car terminal which is a few minutes' walk downhill) but there's now only one.

The small wooden hut that functioned as a post office and cafe was up for sale very cheaply on the condition that the purchaser remove it. Its role as a post office and meteorological station has been taken over by a modern, louvre-clad building with a raised observation deck that was getting its finishing details in June of 2008.

Public transport connections to Pec
Accommodation in Pec

Biking around Břeclav

For most travellers, Břeclav is one of those places like Kolín or Přerov that you pass through dozens of times without ever getting off the train. Simultaneously one of the oldest and youngest settlements in the Czech lands, there's plenty in and around Břeclav to reward any traveller who makes the effort to visit.

Just outside town near the Pohansko hunting lodge are the preserved foundations of buildings from the time of the Great Moravian empire, but most of Břeclav's current architecture is less than 100 years old, thanks mostly to the Allied bombs of 1944 that effectively destroyed the historic centre of town.

There are however a handful of historic buildings, the most impressive of which is the chateau. From the 14th Century Břeclav belonged to the noble Liechtenstein dynasty, but passed to the Žerotíns in the early 1500's. They had time to transform the old fortified castle into a renaissance palace before joining the losing side in the estates uprising and forfeiting their South Moravian lands back to the Liechtensteins. The Liechtensteins added three romantically pre-ruined towers to the castle which they owned until they had to leave the Czech lands in 1945. The chateau's communist era sufferings are slowly being repaired and a wine cellar, restaurant and guesthouse operate on the site.

The baroque church of St Wenceslas that was destroyed in 1944 was replaced in the early 1990's by a reinforced concrete church whose modern origami angles look like they belong somewhere in the new world. Just around the corner opposite the very friendly and helpful tourist information office is a former synagogue and in the outskirts of town is an old Jewish cemetery with gravestones from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Across the river in the suburb of Poštorna is the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The high octagonal roof of the red brick neo-Gothic church is visible for miles across the flat countryside and is as recognisable a Břeclav landmark as either the chateau or the spires of the new St Wenceslas' church.

Probably the best reason to visit Břeclav though is its proximity to the Lednice-Valtice area, which was added to the UNESCO world heritage list in 1996, because of the way it “succeeds in bringing together in harmony cultural monuments from successive periods and both indigenous and exotic natural elements to create an outstanding work of human creativity.”

The towns of Lednice and Valtice are each around ten kilometres (seven miles) from Břeclav and from each other and the triangular area in between is the core of the world heritage area. Covered in flood plain forest, vineyards, a 200 hectare landscaped park, and crisscrossed by smooth trails and quiet roads, it's the perfect place for a day or weekend of cycling and exploring. Břeclav tourist information has bicycles for hire from 300Kč per day for a single or 450Kč for a tandem.

I've cycled the area twice recently, once alone and once with friends and the only trouble we had was that there was too much to see and do in the time we'd allowed, which I guess is a good problem to have.


Find train connections to Břeclav
Contact Břeclav tourist information

Burčák, mushrooms and falling leaves

By this time of year, keen observers will notice two things have appeared in great quantities in the Czech Republic. One is the cloudy, bottled liquid for sale at markets and streetside stalls and the other is the wicker baskets that people seem to have decided to carry all at once.

The cloudy liquid is Burčák, the still fermenting young wine express delivered from the vineyards of South Moravia, and the baskets are for mushrooms.

Collecting mushrooms from the forest is such a popular pastime among Czechs that they are considered the world leaders. According to the Czech Agricultural University's 2006 report on the state of forests and forest economies, 70% of Czechs go mushrooming at least once a year and each household collects on average more than 8kg of mushrooms in a season.

For short term visitors to the country, keep an eye out for mushrooms on sale at street markets or as special offers on restaurant menus. They're a local delicacy as much as anything else you might like to try during your stay, and anything on sale publicly like this will be good. Some of the varieties are extremely poisonous, so if you do stumble across and decide to pick wild mushrooms by yourself, please, please, please ask somebody knowledgable to check them for you before you even think about going anywhere near the kitchen.

The muchomurka variety is one to be especially careful with. The pink muchomurka is an edible mushroom, but it's very, very similar in appearance to the red muchomurka, which is a strong psychotrope and the white, tiger and green muchomurky which are among the deadliest mushrooms in the world. It might sound simple enough just to eat the pink ones, but the colours of the mushrooms do not always correspond to their names and especially the tiger muchomurka can be tricky to distinguish from the edible pink variety.

For anyone who is around the country a bit longer, mushrooming is an activity you can probably take part in, even if you don't realise it. Keen mushroomers guard their favourite locations carefully, so nobody is going to tell you where to go, but if you let it be known that you can be ready early on the morning after a decent rain, you'll probably find that most of your Czech friends will be happy to take you along.

On a vow of secrecy of course.

Castles of the Český ráj

The Český ráj is a natural reserve in East Bohemia and a favourite weekend getaway for city-bound Praguers. It’s often among the first destinations suggested to any foreign traveller who asks local advice about places outside Prague.

The name translates as “Bohemian paradise” and while pleasant, ‘paradise’ is probably being a bit generous. Travellers from the Antipodes or North America probably won’t find Czech national parks or natural reserves measuring up to the ones they know from home, but a redeeming feature of the Český ráj is that, within an area approximately 30km by 20km, there are literally dozens of castles, chateaux and castle ruins that are accessible to the public. Some of the more frequently visited ones are:

Trosky castle ruins are probably the most recognizable symbols of the Český ráj. Their twin towers can be seen for miles around and provide some of the best views in the region. Apart from climbing to the lookout platforms there’s little to do though, so don’t; plan too long. (Admission: 50Kč; closest public transport: Train station at Rovensko pod Troskami)

Valdštejn castle was for me the nicest surprise in the Bohemian Paradise. Tucked away in thick forest, it’s not visible until you’re almost on it, but consists of four different sections; the gate house and entrance, the renaissance palace, the chapel and the old castle built into the rocky outcrops of the ridge that runs for miles south from Turnov. The palace is accessible only in the presence of a guide, but visitors are free to wander the rest of the grounds at their own pace. (40Kč, walk from Turnov)

Hrubá Skála chateau is now used as a luxury hotel, but the reasonably priced restaurant is open to everybody and the large courtyard offers sweeping views over the lowlands to the east. There are good views back towards the chateau from the nearby Marianska lookout and a trail through a narrow gully leads down to the old spa buildings and train station at Sedmihorky. (Grounds Free, Bus or train to Sedmihorky then 1km walk)

Kost castle was the least rewarding of the seven or eight castles I visited. The castle itself is interesting and impressive but it’s not possible to roam around even the grounds by yourself, and the tours cost too much and take too long to show too little. (Half-tours 100Kč each or 170Kč for both, 100Kč surcharge to take photographs, 200Kč for video; Bus to Sobotka and 2km walk from there)

The Pantheon above Malá Skála is made up of two parts; the ruins of a stone castle perched atop a rocky cliff, and the neo-renaissance chapel that is visible from across the valley. Exploring the ruins is part castle tour-part rockclimbing and the chapel now houses a refreshment stand and a small gallery. (35Kč, 2km walk from Malá Skála)

Sychrov chateau is a huge complex of luxurious two and three storey palaces surrounded by wide lawns and formal gardens. My enthusiasm for Czech architecture is as high as anybody’s but having been to six or seven castles within a few days I baulked at the entrance prices for Sychrov and used the money to have an excellent lunch at the chateau restaurant. (Czech tours 100Kč each, foreign language 180Kč each, 100Kč surcharges for photography or video, Chicken schnitzel in mushroom sauce with french fries 135Kč)

Frýdštejn castle is a complex of clifftop ruins with a tall round lookout tower that offers views as good as any other castle in the Český ráj. The lower castle area features staircases, tunnels, rooms and small cellars cut into the rocks. (40Kč, 4km walk from Malá Skála or 2km from the Pantheon)

Related Posts:
Czech Switzerland National Park
The Adršpach-Teplice Rocks

Czech Switzerland National Park

The Czech Switzerland National Park is an area of 80 square kilometres stretching in the west from Hřensko, where the Labe River crosses the German border and becomes the Elbe, eastwards almost to the prettily named town of Krásná Lípa, where the park administration and visitor centre are located.

I based myself for a couple of days in Krásná Lípa and explored the eastern end of the park by bicycle. If you ask locals about the Czech Switzerland national park, they’ll often think first of hiking, but there’s also an excellent network of marked cycle trails that crisscross the thick forests of the park and connect the most impressive of the viewpoints and rock formations.

Near Wolves’ gully and the memorial to the Jewish prisoners executed in the closing days of WWII, “on the threshold of freedom” as the inscription says, is a border crossing to Germany and Hinterhermsdorf, which was voted ‘Prettiest village in Saxon Switzerland’ in 2000 and the ‘Prettiest village in Germany’ in 2001.

After a quick look around town and a break for ‘Ein tasse kaffee und ein stuck dort, bitte’, I got a bit lost and ended up admiring some rock formations and the view from a lookout that I hadn’t really intended, before eventually working out the German system of trail marking and finding my way back across the border to the former settlement of Zadní Jetřichovice.

The international border here is a low key affair. The Czech side displays the national coat of arms and the simple text ‘Czech Republic’ while the only trace of German border formalities are some crooked red, gold and black striped posts that no longer hold signs. The German signs are more concerned with descriptions of the flora and fauna, rules of the park and trail pointers.

I left Krásná Lípa on an early morning ride through misty villages of traditional wooden cottages with gables clad in slate tiles arranged like the patterns of lace curtains and headed for Hřensko at the heavily visited western end of the park.

Despite a majestic backdrop of soaring rock walls, Hřensko lacks the charm of the other villages like Krásný buk Dlouhý důl and Kyjov. They were honest little villages with grocery stores, pubs and post offices, while Hřensko is all hotel restaurants, overpriced carparks and streetside stalls selling bulk cigarettes and trashy imported junk to German daytrippers.

Along with the huge sandstone arch called Pravčická brána the main attractions at this end of the park are the steep-sided, narrow gorges of the Kamenice river.

A yellow marked walking trail leads east out of Hřensko and winds along, beside, under and sometimes even through the rocks, for ten or fifteen minutes before a low weir appears, the trail becomes a boardwalk and then ends at a wooden hut nestled beneath the rocks. The cliffs here close in and become so steep that there’s simply nowhere for a walking trail to exist, but the hut is a ticket office for boat rides which are the only way to get through ‘Edmund's canyon’ to the point where the walking trail begins again 800 metres upstream.

The boats depart every twenty minutes and are operated by guides who stand at the rear to push the boat along with long wooden poles. And practise their stand up comedy routines, if my guide was anything to go by. “The water here is only 10 degrees. If you don’t believe me, throw your wife in.” “Here on the right is the spring of eternal youth. It’s 20% Becherovka and if ladies drink it they’ll get younger by two years. If men drink it, they’ll live until the end of their lives” and so on.

His big finale was “Hallo. Letzte attrakzione! Eskimo roll bitte!” before rocking the boat violently until everybody grabbed the sides. All the passengers had a good time and the guide told me afterwards that he’d been doing the job for 16 years and after six months could do the standard spiel in his sleep. “2 metres here, 5 metres there, hands in on the right, blah, blah, blah”. “I could see everybody was so bored they just wanted me to shut up. This way is better for the guide and the tourists”.

At the end of Edmund's canyon the yellow trail continues to another boat ride through another canyon or the green trail climbs steeply out of the river valley to the village Mezná. From Mezná its 6km back to Hřensko or 4km to Tři prameny and the beginning of the red marked walking trail to the other main attraction at this end of the national park.

At the top of the forested ridge above Tři prameny is a high sandstone arch called Pravčická brána. It’s reportedly the highest natural arch in Europe and appears to have recovered well from its widely reported collapse on April Fools’ Day of 2007. In the shadow of the arch there’s an impressive traditional wooden building with a restaurant, small museum and turnstiles charging another 75Kč admission fee.

Most of the other visitors to Pravčická brána were speaking German which I don’t understand very well. The one phrase I caught was “kein highlight” which is kind of how I felt about it as well. The arch itself is impressive enough, and the views are good but I guess the town full of hotels, the crowds of hikers and the turnstiles were such a contrast to the low key atmosphere at the eastern end of the park that I was anticipating something a little more spectacular.

Any other foreign travellers accustomed to the national parks of North America or the Antipodes probably shouldn’t get their hopes up too high for Pravčická brána, but it was good to visit once and I’d happily spend another couple of days roaming around the eastern end of the park anytime.

Getting to either Hřensko or Krásná Lípa from Prague takes less than three hours by bus and/or train, and it's even possible to continue on to Dresden by boat. There are several hotels in Hřensko but the Továrna in Krásná Lípa is an excellent option for budget accommodation.

More information:
Official website of the National Park
Connections to Krásná Lípa
Connections to Hřensko