Šumava - wilderness guided tours in national park

National park Šumava in south Bohemia organizes every year extremely interesting tour "Průvodci divočinou" (Guides to the wilderness) http://www.npsumava.cz/cz/1081/sekce/pruvodci-divocinou-2014/ to areas with no or limited access. It's all in Czech so it's good to have someone speaking Czech to translate for you however even if you miss the "talking" you can still enjoy beautiful preserved nature. 

There are shorter trails (10 km) as well as trails up to 21 km... most of them are off-path so be ready for difficult terrain, peat bogs with lot of water etc. There are weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays, June - October. This year, I did "Trojmezná" on 10. 10. and "Zhůřská hnízdiště" on 11. 10., both tours were perfect, and the weather was amazing... Apparently, the weather tends to be better in autumn rather than in July or August! 

It is important to register in time - to do that, you have to check announcement of a day when the registration starts. This year it was 28. 5. at 9:00. Some of the tours are sold out extremely fast. You can only register one person to one e-mail (you cannot send registration for 2+ people) at this site (http://www.npsumava.cz/cz/1522/sekce/registrace-na-vychazky/ - there will be list of the tours organized by date, you click on it, fill your name, e-mail...). Important is that registration is not valid until you click on the link in e-mail confirmation! Only after you confirm your registration by doing that, your place is booked. Then you have to pay the fee in 5 days (different for each tour, 190 - 450 CZK per person). Complicated but worth it:)

How new forest grows

The trail! Across the fallen trees... 

Vltava hike close to Prague - Svatojánské proudy

Text based on two visits (Oct 10 and Sep 14). This 8,5 km along river Vltava claims to be the oldest marked trail in the Czech Republic (the other one claiming to be the first is red marked 15 km trail from castle Karlštejn to Beroun which is also beautiful and still waiting for my post:). It is definitely worth visiting any time of the year but now (in the autumn), you can also find many mushrooms there and see rare animals, salamandra salamandra. It is an easy trail, not many ups and downs but you can make it longer. "Svatojánské proudy" got its name from St. Jan, whose statue is in the end of the trail, and "proudy" refers to wild rapids that used to be there until 1938.

Tourist map is here: http://mapy.cz/s/de2E - it is the yellow and green trail from Štěchovice to Třebenice. 

You can get easily to Štěchovice from Prague, it is 37 minutes from Smíchovské nádraží by bus no. 338, 390, 361 (in these buses, you have to pay at the driver - no matter if you have or don't have Opencard). Be in time at the station as these buses are usually quite full. 

Marked trail starts directly at the bus station in Štěchovice however you can first start with breakfast in one of the cafés there. First follow blue mark but later you will follow the special white and green square sign. You will go across local water power plant, continue along the river with some beautiful views and finish the river part of the trail at Slapy dam. Along the way, there are some educational boards - unfortunately in Czech only - but there are some interesting old photos how the place looked like before people completely changed river Vltava with a system of river dams. 

Also you can notice dozens of not easily accessible wooden little cottages. They are part of "tramps' settlements" (the oldest one being established here, at Svatojánské proudy) and often bear USA-inspired names. History of Czech tramps is extremely interesting; you can find some more information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_tramping and here http://domov-trampu.home.comcast.net/~domov-trampu/Tramping.htm ; very detailed text (A century of Czech tramping by Mr. Pohunek) here: http://prebral.net/dok/trampflk.pdf ; more about specific tramp music here http://www.radio.cz/en/section/panorama/sing-when-youre-tramping-the-art-of-the-czech-wandering-song

When you reach Třebenice, take bus no. 390 back to Prague or hike back to Štěchovice (it is more up the hill) following blue marked trail (or blue and later red). Nothing special there to see but it is a nice app. 5 km long walk:) If you feel up to a really long hike, follow blue trail from Třebenice further to the south across river until you reach yellow trail and you can see some famous Vltava views (this hike is described in another post:). 

Day trippers around year 1900 - it was very popular destination for trips from Prague

Some of the best Vltava views. From Vysoký Újezd to Třebsín

Date of last visit: 8. 5. 2013

Nature will probably become green much sooner than last year so consider one day trip from Prague to this beautiful area for amazing views and hike in forests and meadows.

From Prague, take a bus from Smíchovské nádraží, no. 390, change at Štěchovice to bus no. 438 to Vysoký Újezd. If you want to make your trip shorter or go further to Štěchovice for example, you can also get off already at "Krňany, Teletín".

See map: http://mapy.cz/s/9qGd

 Follow blue trail direction Rabyně for 2 km to crossroads called "Pexův luh" where you change to yellow. From there it is only 6,5 km to Třebsín so it's really not a challenging hike:)

If you have GPS, consider small detour to one extra beautiful view at N 49° 49.505 E 014° 27.012 (or http://mapy.cz/s/9yK0 )

 
 

After passing Teletín, you will reach detour to view called "Máj" (May) which is 101% worth visiting. You may need map to continue as there were too many marks missing in the next part of the trail.

Shortly before reaching Třebsín, take another detour to Smetanova vyhlídka (view).

When you reach road, there is a station of bus no. 438 (station called "Krňany, rozc. Třebsín").

You can also continue further (for example up to Štěchovice); just a little longer on blue marked trail "to the left" (direction Štěchovice) and you can stop at "Usedlost Medník", little local farm. If you're lucky you can get wonderful products (milk, "tvaroh", meat...). It is very close to next station of bus 438 called "Krňany, Závist, u křížku", a bit back following the main road (exactly here: http://mapy.cz/s/9yKA )

Krkonoše in winter - Rokytnice nad Jizerou and surroundings

Visited in: February 2014

As you probably noticed, snow conditions were terrible this winter in the Czech Republic. But who could have known couple of months ago when we booked our winter holiday? Well as I am not a big fan of cross-country skiing we spent most of the days hiking.

Weather can change quickly in the mountains and weather forecast is not always reliable... you can meet all possible conditions in one day so be ready for that:)

 

Tip for cheap accommodation: 170 CZK per night. http://www.erlebaska.cz/ at 1020 m. - noisy but everything else is fine. You have to cook yourself or go up 300 metres to a restaurant. It is a few kilometres up from Rokytnice nad Jizerou or you can order a car from Dvoračky to take you there (and mainly your baggages), 600 CZK one way.

"Dvoračky" restaurant was our base every day with Budvar beer, amazing soup ("krkonošské kyselo") and blueberry cakes and dumplings. http://www.dvoracky.cz/cs/

They have their own lift and short slope but you can ski through the forest and reach Lysá hora slopes for - usually - pretty good skiing. 

There are quite many trips you can do (this one quite easily on cross-country ski, too); the easiest and probably most beautiful is red trail up to the ridge - map http://mapy.cz/s/9qaX - enjoy the view while going towards "Vrbatova bouda" (1397 m). There you can get some refreshment (9.30-16.00) and stop at memorial of Hanč and Vrbata who both died in 1913 during 50 km ski competition because of the weather change (to cut the story short).

From there you can continue on red trail further away from Dvoračky, or, what I would recommend, turn to the right direction Labská bouda passing Pančavský waterfall (vodopád). You can have another beer at Labská bouda, however despite promoting their own microbrewery, they didn't have anything but Budvar at the time we were there. They also offer accommodation which may be an option if you are planning a trip for more days and don't want to go down from the ridge http://www.labskabouda.cz/en

Take a very short detour to Labský vodopád (waterfall) and continue to Pramen Labe (spring of river Labe that is, in the end, 1154 km long) but you won't see anything if there is snow. Here you can turn back to close the circle - follow yellow and later green trail to the crossroads "U Růženčiny zahrádky" where you reach again red trail leading back to Dvoračky.

Another pretty nice hike about 16 km (with more ups and downs on the way) was from Dvoračky to Horní Mísečky on green trail and then up to the ridge following yellow trail to Vrbatova bouda and then red trail back to Dvoračky. 

Trip to Harrachov was mainly motivated by our desire to visit local brewery:) The hike itself is a bit boring despite nice nature around - 7 km straight down the hill on green trail and the same way up http://mapy.cz/s/9qBQ (but if we had a bit more time we would definitely take different trail to go back - specifically the blue one heading to Mumlavský vodopád / waterfall, really nice place! Then we would just continue to "Krakonošova snídaně", then yellow, blue and green back to Dvoračky).

The actual town Harrachov is pretty scary in my view. "Las Vegas casino, Venice pizzeria, Amsterdam café"... certainly not places I'd visit when being in this region. But we had to pass them all to reach the brewery! http://www.sklarnaharrachov.cz/ - beer and food were pretty good so it was worth it. If you have some time you can also visit excursion in their traditional glass production hall. Of course skiing is another possibility what to do if there is enough snow:)

I'm sure you can see plenty of other possibilities where to go... I have some places on my list for next time, like a farm "Hucul" http://www.hucul.cz/ofarme.php with accommodation, horses and other animals, horse-riding, and allegedly very good restaurant with beef of their own production (Scottish highland cows). 

Btw. if you are interested in the mysterious man with a long beard,  wooden stick and hat with bird feathers - Krakonoš - whose pictures and sculptures and name is almost everywhere in this region - there is a quite nice text in English at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCbezahl

Krušné Hory - Klínovec and Jáchymov - mountain hiking

Date of visit: 22nd June 2013

At least two days and a car recommended! However we made one day trip, over 30 km circle from and to Boží Dar.

 Transport: Altough there are some buses from Prague, it takes a lot of time and it gets even more complicated in the evening to go back. Therefore I really recommend to take a car and stay overnight - there are so many places to visit in this area! 

The area combines glorious old and sad modern history and beautiful nature despite the damages on environment caused during communist era.

There is a very good article at Wikipedia about Krušné Hory - I'd highlight the history part. The region never recovered after the German population was expelled after WWII; also the famous mining history is pretty much gone (Jáchymov used to be the second richest city in Bohemia). I'll get back to the history below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains

Here you can find a gallery of old and new photographs of the same places ("before and after") http://www.antikomplex.cz/fotogalerie/album/22-krusne-hory/

They even recently tore down one of the main symbols of Jáchymov, "Hornický dům" (Miner's house) that was built in 50's and was used for gatherings of all locals, there was a cinema, restaurant, wine bar... What was left just before the demolition can be seen here http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4512375 

Back to hiking... We started in Boží Dar, the advantage is that it lies already over 1000 metres high so you don't really have to go up much to reach Klínovec, the highest mountain of Krušné hory (1244 m). Follow the red mark (goes along a church and under a big road) - map: http://mapy.cz/s/7NRL - and you are there soon. Sadly, the old restaurant and lookout tower is almost destructed; however they are now working on renovation and therefore the whole top of the mountain is a big construction site...

Klínovec - past. Source:  http://www.bozidarsko.eu/zarizeni-infrastruktura/

Klínovec - today

Klínovec - future

We then continued on yellow (later green) trail to Jáchymov. Looking back I'd probably be lazier, go the same way back to the car and drove to Jáchymov (and make extra walking kilometres around). Why? Because it is pretty boring way down the hill. By "down" I mean from 1244 m to 560 m above sea level on 6,5 km trail.

Jáchymov is still famous for its radon spa and the lower part of town is pretty nice. More about Jáchymov and its history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A1chymov 

After a walk and some geocaching, we went to the upper part of town to "Hornické muzeum Jáchymov" - Mining museum (map: http://mapy.cz/s/9pIL ) - reminding us of the most famous and infamous of this region at the same time. From the medieval silver mining to uranium mining after WWII till 1964, by prisoners, often political, who were held and forced to work here in terrible conditions. Entrance fee is 50 CZK per person, opening times May - October: Wednesday to Sunday, with tours at 10:00 ; 11:00 ; 13:00; 14:00; 15:00, 16:00. 

We then followed yellow trail up the hill, it is an educational trail "Jáchymov hell" ("NS Jáchymovská peklo") reminding of mines and prisoner's camps used mainly in 50's. The first camp was pretty close to the present times miner's museum, you won't miss it, and it was one of the "smaller" camps: there were 450 - 750 prisoners.  

We continued on yellow trail, changed to red, yellow again and red again - see map http://mapy.cz/s/9pJ8 , we passed along mountain called Božídarský Špičák (highest hill of volcano origin in middle Europe, 1115 m) until we reached the crossroads at "Božídarské rašeliniště" - peatbog. You can choose either 1,2 km trail or 2 km trail back to Boží Dar - you may be tired but take the longer one, it's an icing on the cake! And then you'll be also rewarded by a nice and cheap lunch and beer at any place you choose back in Boží Dar (we ended up in the very first restaurant and it was great:)