Exploring Czechia

Having a folding bike with me in this research trip has been a revelation. A train can get you anywhere major. A bus from there can you get you anywhere minor. And a bike from there can get you anywhere at all. Even places so small they don’t have a pub. Up in ‘Czech Switzerland’ – the rocking and rolling lands aside the Elbe in the far north, on the German border – I’ve been exploring Swiss-ish looking villages, and making my way via train, bus and bike to or at least near to a Czech speciality: lookout towers. If there’s a hilltop or mountain summit with a half-decent view, there’ll probably be a tower of some kind that you can climb for a splendid panorama. There’ll usually be a small charge – if it’s open, which it may or may not be depending on day and time – and a lot of steps. But as they say, no pain, no Instagram pic. Anyway, The last couple of days have been delightful, up in this scenic, quiet and friendly corner of the country. Yesterday, having cycled around the ...

‘Děčín is awesome’, goes the slogan for the city 100km or so north of Prague on the River Elbe/Labe. The guidebook I’m updating is a bit reserved about the place, saying there’s nothing much to do here, but that was in 2006. In the last twenty years, Děčín has reinvented itself as a vibey outdoors place. It’s simple to reach from Prague. Direct trains run hourly or better from the main station (1hr 45min, 120Kč). There are superb views of the Labe valley from the window as the train follows the river. The centre has one of the friendliest tourist infos in the country. It’s a cafe as well as library of useful outdoor info, so you can browse your pile of enticing leaflets and brochures over a coffee and cake while your e-bike is charging outside. Děčín’s photogenic clifftop chateau and glorious rose garden give commanding views over the Labe. Opposite, high above the Labe, towers a sandstone cliff called the Shepherd’s Wall ( Paštýřská stěna ). But I was more interested in t...

Up in the Czech north, a few kilometres west of Děčín, is a little-celebrated scenic delight. Tisá Rocks ( Tiské Stěny ) is a collection of dark brown sandstone pillars whose grotesquely weathered shapes make the area a bizarre sculpture park. It’s easy and cheap to get to Tisá from Děčín by bus – as usual, the IDOS app has the info at your fingertips (432 bus from outside the tourist info in town, then a 452 from Libouchec; 45min). The final leg winds up the hillside to Tisá village, where there are two entrances to the rocks. One is up the steps from the village centre, the other a kilometre or so east up the main road at the top of a hill. Entrance from either is 50czk. It’s best to go clockwise from the village entrance, and anti-clockwise from the eastern entrance, because that way you finish with a grand ridgetop walk giving great views back down over the plains your bus struggled up earlier. There are two circular walks, the longer taking about an hour. It’s worth da...

The Czech Republic is not America, and outside of burger bars, it doesn’t want to be. You can get around here easily by public transport, for instance. But there is one bit of the country that prides itself on being a bit like the US. It’s the ‘Czech Grand Canyon’ of Velká Amerika (‘Great America’), a disused quarry that makes an easy half-day trip from Prague. Getting there from the capital is a straightforward trip of just over an hour: take the metro line B to Zličín, then the (very infrequent: check timetables carefully) 311 bus to Obcodni lom. There’s nothing here, just a car park and bus stop and cubicle toilets: no cafe. There are, however, signs showing you where to walk. A 2km circuit of the Velká Amerika quarry takes about an hour. It’s a flat easy stroll, but best to keep to the marked path. Some YouTubers are fond of going past the warning signs to get dramatic cliff-edge shots, but this isn’t a good idea. Czech medical facilities are very good, but it’s best not to...

Having a folding bike with me in this research trip for the upcoming Bradt Guide to the Czech Rep has been a revelation. A train can get you anywhere major. A bus from there can you get you anywhere minor. And a bike from there can get you anywhere at all. Even places so small they don’t have a pub. Up in ‘Czech Switzerland’ – the rocking and rolling lands aside the Elbe in the far north, on the German border – I’ve been exploring Swiss-ish looking villages, and making my way via train, bus and bike to or at least near to a Czech speciality found all over the country: lookout towers. If there’s a hilltop or mountain summit with a half-decent view, there’ll probably be a tower of some kind that you can climb for a splendid panorama. There’ll usually be a small charge – if it’s open, which it may or may not be depending on day and time – and a lot of steps. But as they say, no pain, no Instagram pic. Anyway, The last couple of days have been delightful, up in this scenic, q...

There’s more to the Czechs than beer and castles. But that said, beer is pretty important. And to celebrate the country’s most globally-appreciated cultural contribution, there are few better ways than to do the Pilsner Experience in Prague. Lager – proper lager, not your terrible North American imitation – may have been perfected in Plzeň. Pilsner do excellent tours there, of course: I’ve blogged about that . But if you’re in Prague, this is a zippier and even livelier alternative. As you’d expect from the Czechs, the audiovisuals are just superb. You wander through the first exhibition at your own pace with headphones, and the commentary tracks you. (I say your own pace, but a gong chivvies you along if you dawdle. Fair enough: there’s some sampling to be done, and we don’t mean music.) The historical stuff (Egyptians! Zulus! Vikings! They all brewed very enthusiastically!) is all done with great humour and verve. The tale of how Plzen came to devise what we now call lage...

An hour by train north of Prague – and quicker by bus – is the all-walkable castle’n’wine town of Mělník. It sits on the confluence of the Elbe and Vltava rivers, on a fine smooth riverside cycle path. You can cycle pretty much flat south from here almost to the country’s border with Austria, and north to Germany and ultimately the North Sea. You can see the view of that confluence from the castle’s viewpoint. Or can you? The ‘obvious’ junction is actually that of the Elbe and the snappily named Vraňansko-hořinský plavební kanal . Obviously that’s Czech, so we don’t understand it, but it is, in fact, a canal. The actual river nexus is slightly upstream (the left of the picture above, invisibly). Curiously, the Vltava looks bigger than the Elbe, but it’s the Elbe that keeps the name. Women achievers of the past who married a deadbeat man but had to take his name might know the feeling. Further along are more views, to the north of the zippily-named Řip Mountain. The castle...