Four years ago……

Decín Zámek/Château © Ricky Yates

….Sunday 27th March 2016 was Easter Day. The following day, I put myself on a train from Prague to Decín, intending to spend my post-Easter break, walking for a few days in Ceské Švýcarsko – Bohemian Switzerland, fulfilling the promise I made to myself when I had paid a day visit to the area, some six weeks previously.

Surprisingly at the time, I never wrote about this visit here on my blog. But a combination of the fourth anniversary, together with the need to occupy my evenings whilst currently in lock down because of the corona virus, means I’m doing so now. And whilst I have previously explained here, why I chose to retire and live in North Bohemia, . . . → Read More: Four years ago……

A walk above Kanon Labe

The Labe river flowing towards Germany, where it becomes the Elbe © Ricky Yates

On Saturday 1st September, a group from my former congregation at St Clement’s Anglican Episcopal Church, Prague, are travelling by train to Decín, for me to take them on a guided walk through the Labské pískovce Protected Landscape Area where I now live. This post is both an account of my research for that walk and is also aimed at giving the prospective participants, a taster of what they can look forward to experiencing 🙂

The walk starts in the village of Ludvíkovice, which lies between Decín and Stará Oleška. From outside the Post Office, where I parked my car, I then walked into the forest a short way, to join the red . . . → Read More: A walk above Kanon Labe

Decín

Decín on the Labe river with the Zámek/Château on the right © Ricky Yates

Decín is a town that lies either side of the Labe (Czech), Elbe (German), river. It is situated at the beginning of a deep gorge where the Labe cuts through the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Labské pískovce (Czech), Elbsandsteingebirge (German), on its way to Dresden in Germany and eventually flowing into the North Sea beyond Hamburg. The area to the east of the Labe is known as Bohemian Switzerland, Ceské Švýcarsko (Czech), Böhmische Schweiz (German), about which I’ve written previously here on my blog.

Decín is 130km north-west of Prague and takes around one-and-a-half hours to reach by either road or rail. But its closeness to the German border means that it only takes forty-five minutes by train to get to Dresden. . . . → Read More: Decín

A walk in Ceské Švýcarsko – Bohemian Switzerland

The path to Pravcická brána © Ricky Yates

On Monday 15th February, I took a proper ‘day-off’ and went for a near 20km walk in Ceské Švýcarsko – Bohemian Switzerland, the beginning of keeping the promise I made at the end of my previous but one blog post. I saw enough during my day trip, to encourage me to return and further explore this attractive area.

I drove north-west from Prague, to the port town of Decín on the Labe River, and then a further 12km north alongside the Labe, (which becomes the Elbe on entering Germany), to the border settlement of Hrensko. Here I turned onto a minor road along the Kamenice river valley to the eastern end of the settlement, where there was a designated car park in which I duly parked the ‘Carly’. According to a sign, . . . → Read More: A walk in Ceské Švýcarsko – Bohemian Switzerland

Melník

The Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Melník © Ricky Yates

Following my recent busy July weekend, I am now on annual leave until the end of the month. For a variety of reasons, we’ve decided to have a stay-at-home holiday or ‘staycation’ as I gather Americans call it. For these next two weeks, we’ve written out a list of places in or around Prague that we either want to visit for the first time, or re-visit because we missed something previously, or because we want to go in summer having previously visited in another season.

On Tuesday 17th July, we visited Melník, a small town which lies around 35 km directly north of Prague at the confluence of the Vltava and Labe/Elbe rivers. Melník comes into the third category outlined in the previous paragraph as we had been there once previously . . . → Read More: Melník