Day 21 - Mělník to Prague

Very good breakfast at Hotel Kokořín. The trail continues to follow the Pšovka downstream, hugging the bank. It's getting wide and peaceful:

We pass some more creative uses of the sandstone cliffs. Love this stuff!

It's abundantly clear that we're leaving this landscape behind, descending rapidly, but the trail takes us through one last jaunt of cliff formations. Deb suggests that perhaps we might want to veer off and head up instead off down...

But we decide to obediently continue on the E10 towards the city of Mělník. As we join a small road, a dirty sign reveals the limitations of Google Translate:

We're definitely tourists. ("Tourist" and "hiker" are the same word in Czech.) Hopefully it's good news. We continue on through cultivated fields and small bits of forest on a hill overlooking Mělník. Before long we're spit out onto a very long sidewalk leading down to the city.

Looks like the wilderness is over for now. We do get a glimpse of a vineyard as we head downhill, the first we've seen this trip.

A very long sidewalk later, we arrive in the city, passing through an Eastern-bloc style town square and into a very pretty old town square right on the river bank.

Here we treat ourselves to gulash, knedlíky (bread dumplings), wine, and Pilsner.

Mělník is situated on a cliff above a confluence of rivers. This is the end of the Vlatava River (also known as the Moldau) as it joins the Elbe -- one of the great rivers of Europe, over 1000 kilometers long. From here the Elbe flows boldly north across the mountainous German/Czech border, through Dresden, through both Wittenberg and Wittenberge, and finally empties into the North Sea at the great port city of Hamburg. Along the way it picks up hundreds of tributaries, including the Vlatava, the Pšovka from this morning, and even the Havel (and by extension the Spree) from our start in Berlin.

Just a bit upstream along the Vlatava River is Prague, our destination. But there's an annoying little wrinkle -- there's no trail. Though dozens of maps and informational kiosks describe the E10 as a continuous trail straight through Prague and on to Italy (and beyond!) the hiking signpost here in Mělník tells a different story:

There is no more E10, except in the direction we came from. There are other trails here, but none of them lead to Prague. Best I can tell, to go on foot from here to Prague would mean walking 30 kilometers of sidewalk-less highways, or heading back up the E10 to Kokořín and taking a very long detour on paved bike paths.

I had read about this gap in the E10, but I'd hoped it might magically be fixed by the time we got here. The closest thing I could find to an official recommendation is to take a bus from here to Prague.

So that's what we do. Goodbye, stick! (The painted squares mark trailheads; both the red E10 and a smaller yellow trail begin/end here.)

Hello, Prague! (There's the Vlatava again! Too bad boats don't run here from Mělník ...)

The ignominy of our trip's end is quickly forgotten in the buzz of the old and exquisite Czech capitol. The truth is, the trip isn't even really over (we'll be in Slovakia and Ukraine later this week) but we're done hiking for now. Until next time, signing off from the glorious Charles Bridge, happy trails!

Day 20 - Down to Kokořín

Chilly morning in the pine plantation. We find our way back to the wide, sandy path and follow it uphill to the little village of Bezděz in the shadow of a foggy castle ruin.

Deb doesn't like this town -- nobody smiles. Maybe it's just too early and too cold. She found a tiny ear of corn though; that made her happy.

From here the trail follows tiny windy roads through sandstone formations not unlike those at Peklo Park, but less grand. Again, many houses, sheds and closets are dug right into the cliff face.

We're tempted by a wacky homestead with hot dogs for sale, but instead we follow the trail back into the woods and lunch on a bench next to a Father-and-Son shrine.

Food from Kaufland; rum from home (from Jamaica really) infused with Czech berries. Normally this is our emergency rum but our hike is almost over so we're getting a little recklessly optimistic.

We're still up pretty high at this point, with a nice view of the valley, but with every step it's clear that we're coming down from the mountains now. The trail winds down the cliffs to and alongside the Pšovka river, heading for the town of Kokořín. Along the way we pass through a parking lot where visitors come and climb many stairs to see these formations:

They're pretty nice I guess.

As we enter Kokořín, we feel the weary tug of civilization, passing lots of pleasant rustic cottages. Looks like it's a vacation area. For us, though, there's the convenient grandeur of the Hotel Kokořín, right on the trail!

We get a posh room with a view of the cliffs and a computer instead of a TV. Next door a great restaurant serves fish and rabbit,

...which we enjoy with our new favorite Czech white wine, argh! I didn't write it down or get a picture of the bottle! Now we'll never know! Well, it's the fanciest white wine (hey, it's our anniversary!) at the restaurant called Pobuda, next to the Hotel Kokořín. Maybe they still have the same one. It was lovely.

Back at the hotel, we take our day's notes and plan for tomorrow. We'll be in Prague soon. Good night!

Day 19 - Mushrooms

Owls all night. Awoke in the early morning mists in Peklo Park, eager to break camp before we're observed. Number one rule of illegal camping: Don't get caught. (Number two rule: Always leave the illegal campsite cleaner than you found it.)

Morning mists make for some spooky cliffs. There are lots of little holes in the rock, and sometimes deep caves. Some of them might be natural but this one was very carefully hewn and looks like it must have had hinges and a latch at one point:

...but it's up too high for us to see inside.

The trail continues to wind under the cliffs and across the swamp, and finally a cluster of informational signs marks its southern boundary.

By the way, speaking of signs, guess what's super handy and kinda trippy? Google Translate. You might be tempted to think that this sign says "No bicycles" or maybe something about dogs:

But it really says:

It also found somebody's name in the tree bark. Hi, Liz! And forgive the product placement... it really is impressive. (Especially when there's not a graphic on the sign.)

Just outside the protected park boundaries, the very same cliff formations serve as cellars and woodsheds for local houses.

The canyon widens and is spanned by a high railroad trestle.

A friendly old hiker tries to explain about a previous arched bridge that used to be here, finally resorting to drawing with his stick:

As we march on we see he's left us a few other historical notes. This old mill, for instance:

...dates from:

It looks like it was most recently used as a bar.

We pass a castle under restoration, with some intimidating old walls.

The trail briefly takes us through a farm road lined with apple trees, and soon back into the woods. Lots of families are out hunting for mushrooms today. The good mushrooms look like this:

But all we can find are spooky mushrooms...

(We're told you can find the good ones if you dig in the mossy roots of pine trees.)

We grab a hot lunch and a butter pretzel as the trail makes a jaunt through the tiny village of Jestřibi, a roadside attraction with a hilltop castle, a small market, and a couple of restaurants. Then back into the mushroomy woods and through a very sloppy logging operation, felled trees sawn to random lengths and tossed around in messy piles. And though I can't help but contrast this to the rigorous order of Germany's log piles, look at this:

That, people, is a really nice trail blaze, and typical of the Czech hiking trails. It shows unambiguously that you're currently on both the red trail and the green trail, and that the green trail is turning off to the left. I don't think there's a single trail marker that nice in all of Germany, but around here they're almost all this good. In Germany we got lost several times due to poor blazing and signage, but it hasn't happened once since we entered the Czech Republic.

With the day winding down, the trail takes us through the jolly lakeside resort towns of Staré Splavy and Doksy.

These towns are thick with cute little hotels and restaurants, but we just have to keep moving. We follow a very wide, sandy path out of town and into a large pine plantation. Kilometers later we're still waiting for the plantation to end and real woods to start. Finding a camping spot in the plantation can be tricky because the dug-up earth usually isn't very well re-leveled after the planting, so it can be a lumpy ride. But as dusk approaches there's still no real forest around, so we'll pitch where we can and take our lumps.

Day 18 - Welcome to Hell

Elaborate hotel breakfast in Nový Bor features hard bread, old fruit, leaden oatmeal, dense egg mass, iffy meat, and slimy cheese. A jukebox-sized coffee machine has buttons labeled kava, espresso, latte, cappuccino, all of which squirt out various foul combinations of instant coffee, non-dairy creamer, and sugar -- very slowly. Not to complain, of course.

Outside, no trace of last night's crazy storm other than a couple of collapsed party tents on the hotel grounds. We exit Nový Bor (a thoroughly enjoyable town, breakfast notwithstanding) through a large town park and along paved country roads, soon arriving at some fun-looking cliffs.

It seems that people around here like to carve these cliffs. Sometimes just a little graffiti, sometimes a bit of art, sometimes a balcony for a clifftop house...

or a mountaintop outdoor theater

or a little chapel

After a nice spell in these augmented mountains we venture along little roads to a pleasant paved bike path which leads us to the city of Česká Lípa.

(A splendid snail on the bike path; we're a little worried about him...)

It looks like there might be some nice stuff in Česká Lípa, but the trail consterns us a bit by staying right between a dinky river and a noisy highway. We try to detour into the "old town" for a nice meal to spook off the memories of breakfast, but the main square lunch joints shutter closed as we approach. Instead we head to Kaufland, a giant, disorienting German supermarket. The PA system keeps singing "Kaufland!" in a loop and it's a wee bit maddening. We manage to get out with a little cheese and crackers, but still can't find a lunch place.

On the way out of town, it's getting late, and we duck into a rundown Merkur hotel. We enjoy asparagus and schnitzel and a few drinks too many at the hotel bar, a comfortable, smokey dive (the Czechs are holding firm on the pleasures of indoor smoking) peopled with local sad sacks and sympathetic barwomen. By the end we're so jolly and brave that we skip the hotel and march off into the sunset. Dazed and a little lost on the way out of town but we finally find our way past the industrial outskirts and back into the woods.

Soon the cliffs resume, and the cliff art:

Might be Stalin but it's probably Ladislav Lis, a popular politician who retired to this area to raise sheep and goats.

The cliffs begin to rise steeply on both sides and the ground begins to be quite swampy. Sturdy sections of boardwalk help keep the trail walkable.

It's clear we're in a special place. As it happens, we're in Hell! It's a conservation area called Peklo Park, which translates as Hell Park... but honestly it's pretty nice. Maybe the funky sandstone cliffs resemble Hell geologically, but they're also a lot of fun. The trail winds around the little canyon and sometimes takes us right through the wall

People have been living here since the Iron Age, carving their homes out of the soft cliffs. Our best guess is that we're probably not supposed to be camping here, but since we're unable to make it out by nightfall, it will have to be home to us as well, for now.