Pravčická Archway and an Odyssey in Hřensko

It was day 12 of our honeymoon, and I had already chased the hubster through the Alps, Munich, Würzburg, Leipzig, Dresden, and half of the Sächsische Schweiz (‘Saxon Switzerland’). In short: we were EXHAUSTED. It was our last day in Saxon Switzerland and we thought of taking it easy with a short hike. We googled a bit and found the Prebischtor in Czechia (Pravčická Archway or ‘Pravčická brána‘ in Czech, don’t ask me how to pronounce it though 😉 ), in the Bohemian Switzerland National Park, which we could reach by boat. It’s the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe and one of the most recognisable natural landmarks in Czechia. Apparently, even some scenes from The Chronicles of Narnia were shot there.

According to Google, it was an easy, family-friendly hike, and it all sounded pretty great, so what could possibly go wrong?

…

A LOT!

We took the Wanderschiff (“hiking ship”) to Hřensko which took around 1 hr and was pretty scenic.

Wanderschiff Bad Schandau — The Wanderschiff

On board itself, the first fateful event occurred which should lead to a neverending Odyssey… I got my hands on a MAP with DESTINATIONS in the area. One thing about me is that I always have to do EVERYTHING. Doesn’t matter how tired I am, if I get to know that there’s something worth seeing, maybe even connected to the words “the most beautiful/largest/unique” somewhere in the “vicinity” (a couple of kilometers mostly), there’s no stopping me. Turned out, there was a gorge on the way, so “let’s do this too!”. “Well, let’s see…” (The thought “Why did I marry this woman?” may have crossed his mind at this point 😀 )

Once we reached Hřensko, we needed to change money as the Czech Republic doesn’t have Euros yet. Luckily, we were able to do so at a random shop and received our first korunas. There were buses to the different treks and we managed to catch one pretty quickly.

Now the issue was that large parts of the forest were entirely dried up and there were dead trees everywhere, hence the first part of the trek wasn’t very scenic. There had been forest fires a few days before our arrival in Saxon Switzerland, and just a few days after our departure it started raging big time. We were somehow lucky enough to come exactly in between where trekking was still possible!

This is where the hubster started complaining for the first time as he didn’t expect a hike uphill. Well… if you’re in the mountains, is there any trek that doesn’t go uphill? To Google’s defense which called it an easy trek, my so-called “research” about it took 5 min, I only saw the amazing pictures and the word “easy” in a comment, so that was that… (and it WAS easy – for me 😀 ) Had he known at this point that we’d end up at the height of the mountain in the background in the next pic, he would’ve turned around 😀

What I found most impressive there were the bizarre rock formations and how the trees found some way to grow in between 🙂

It took around 1 hour to reach Pravčická Archway but it was quite crowded (no wonder being July and peak season). Generally, I found it really beautiful BUT thanks to the crowd and especially the wasps, it was impossible to sit down nicely and have a snack. I would definitely recommend coming off-season and first thing in the morning before the rush!

The chateau next to the arch is called Falcon’s Nest (‘Sokolí hnízdo’), built in 1881 by a prince. They had used it to host distinguished guests, now it’s a restaurant and a photo gallery.

Hence we went further on top (=lots of steps) and the view up there was absolutely stunning.

At this point, even I acknowledged that yes, it might have been slightly too much for something which should’ve been a relaxed hike. Fully worth it though, just look at this view!

After enjoying the view for a bit, we made our way down the mountain, this time with a more happy hubby.

We walked back to the village and sat down at a kiosk for lunch, close to the entrance to the gorge.

The Kamenice Gorge… if only we had never gotten to know about it…

Edmundsklamm or “Edmundova Soutěska” as this part of the gorge is called, is one of the most extraordinary and interesting parts of Bohemian Switzerland and is definitely worth exploring – starting from the OTHER side though, but we’ll get to that later… What makes this special is the boat ride through the gorge which we wanted to experience.

Fun fact: For a long time, the area around Kamenice was difficult to access and shrouded in mystery. The place where the trail ended and only rocks and water continued was even called the “End of the World”. Attempts to penetrate further were considered foolishness or even impiety by the local people. Only in 1877, it was explored for the first time – thanks to a bet in a pub! Five adventurers explored the gorge on rafts which started tourism there soon after. Since rafts are a tad uncomfortable for fancy people, Prince Edmund started developing the gorge to make it accessible.

Now, the issue with our visit was that we had a bus to catch and didn’t expect the boat ride to start after 30 min of walking, and all that after the previous exhaustion. But ok, we’re halfway through, it can’t be much further… and in we went. We finally reached the boats and took the ride, which was once again absolutely worth the trouble.

Had we taken the boat back (which would’ve been an option), we even would’ve been on time for the next bus. But someone told us, no, the next village is very close and the bus stops there too. Well, if you say so, dear local boatsman…

This is where it escalated.

Look up the Gorge, see how high it is? That’s pretty much the height we had to climb up. It was one of the steepest paths I’ve ever had to walk… I think Russell was close to a heart attack, but somehow we made it up.

When we finally found the bus stop, a signboard said “The bus is not stopping here anymore, it’ll be at the next village. The next village was approx. 2 km away… So we walked… and walked… and cursed… and cursed…

When we finally caught a bus back to Hřensko and were not sure whether we missed the last bus back to Bad Schandau where our hotel was. It was a special bus for hikers connecting Saxon and Bohemian Switzerland. It was at least 30 min late and we were about to look for alternatives when it finally arrived!

So the Odyssey finally came to an end, we were saved and would both not feel like hiking for the foreseeable future.