After visiting my hometown Dresden (Germany) for Christmas I decided to go on a spontanous hiking trip to closeby Bohemian Switzerland, the Czech part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains (“Elbsandstein Gebirge”).
I took the train (S-Bahn) from Dresden to Schöna and crossed the river Elbe by ferry (both Deutschlandticket and the Bike/Dog Ticket from VVO are valid here). Arrived on the other side of the Elbe, I was suddenly standing in Czech republic and in the city of Hrensko. Hrensko is a strange little place, it seems to consist of a single street and a river seamed by Vietnamese market booths selling cheap textiles, cigarettes and toys. The scenery is framed by the dark rocks of the Elbe sandstone mountains. I stayed one night at Hotel Kotva, also run by a Vietnamese family. Bringing my dog was no problem.
Hike day 1 (Hrensko -> Mezny Louka)
From Hrensko we hiked 4.6 km uphill to the Pravčice Gate (“Prebischtor” in German), the main attraction of Bohemian Switzerland. It was an easy/medium hike to for us to start, the wide canyon at the beginning offered plenty of space a very diverse scenery. The trajectory is quite popular, attracting tourists from all over the world – I enjoyed hearing all the foreign languages around us and we met a few other dogs too! Up there at the top there is a little bistro (the owner also has a very friendly dog), and public toilets.
I walked the same way back from the Prebischtor down into the canyon, which was not boring at all since the landscape is quite diverse! Later I saw that there is another way down (next time!).
After arriving at the bottom of the canyon we walked another 4km to the village Mezní Louka, where our next accomodation was: “Resort U Fořta”. The last part of the hike was on a road with no sidewalk – luckily there was not much traffic. At the reception an unpleasant surprise was expecting me: The room I had booked a few hours before via booking.com didn’t allow for dogs! (More in my post about Dogs & Booking.com). As a result I had to “upgrade” to a much more expensive bungalow (where dogs were allowed). The other alternative would have been to pay an extra fee of 40€ and take the dog into the room.
Hike day 2 (Mezny Louka -> “Chata Tokáň”)
This hike was more demanding than the one yesterday. The landscape was a mix of flat heathland and dramatic canyons. The floor was frozen overnight, and the stones where so slippery that I had to sometimes walk on all fours when going down hill – just like a dog, but with the belly upwards ;-) I let Lillet climb and walk without leash most of the time. She was careful and looked down the cliffs with much respect.
I walked to “Saunstein”, the main attraction here. Unfortunately it is not possible to go all up the rock with a dog, because the only way up is via a ladder (!). I met a group of other Germans there who also had a dog, and they took turns to go up and/or wait with the dog downstairs.
From Saunstein I walked downhill and arrived at the “Böhmische Straße”, a bituminized street, monotonously going on for 10 kilometers. Seamed by remarkable rocks with archeological importance, this chapter radiates a mysterious reminiscence of stone age life.
When exhaustion started to kick in, it was a solace to finally arrive at “Chata Tokan”, which I had booked via phone the day before. “Chata” means cottage in Czech and this was my favorite accomodation during this trip: A dark wooden house in the middle of the forest with a few rooms and a little restaurant. Renata, the owner was so warm and helpful. The internet connection is very poor and you can only pay by cash. The room was quite cheap and bringing the dog was no problem at all!
Hike day 3 (“Chata Tokáň” -> Krasna Lipa)
I had breakfast at Chata Tokan infront of this charming oven. I bought a paper hiking map at the reception and off I went! This day it was snowing and very peaceful winter weather. As mentioned earlier, this trip was quite spontaneous and I am not an experienced hiker. So my “tools” were a mix of Google maps and the app komoot. When I researched hiking routes online I stumbled upon photos of steep ladders and stairs made of loose metal grids – easy for human feet, but utterly impossible when you are hiking with a medium-sized dog! I couldn’t really find specific information whether a specific hiking route is barrier-free in this sense – so I just hoped that we will be lucky! Then we arrived at “Úzké schody” (english: Narrow steps) – and that’s where I realized, okay that’s what I saw on these photos and this is not possible with a dog. Luckily I quickly saw that there is an alternative route that circumvents the steep part! Maybe that is always the case for popular hiking routes, that there is a second, barrier-free path way? This might be a philosophical question too :-) I walked mostly alone for quite a while through flat snowy forest landscape, arrived in Doubice, and continued towards Krasna Lipa where I ate a solid Goulash in the brewery restaurant. From there I took the train to Rumburk, spend one last night in the hotel “U Parku” which was cheap, dog friendly and had a motel-like charme. 100 CZK is the extra cost for the dog – about 4€. The next day I took the train U28 (the “national park train”) back to Bad Schandau (Germany).
Good to know
Train travel
- Dog ticket for the S-Bahn from Dresden to Schöna: Buy a day ticket for bike/dog (“Fahrradtageskarte”) for the whole region (“VVO Verbundraum”) - this costs 3,60€
- Cheap Czech train tickets via the mobile app of Ceske Drahy: “Muy Vlak”
- U28, also named the “national park train”: Connects the German and the Czech part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains region; in the U28 train you can also buy the ticket in Euro inside the train
Dog friendly accomodations
- Hrensko: Hotel Kotva (for an extra fee)
- Resort U Fořta (BUT: not all rooms allow dogs, call first)
- Chata Tokáň (for an extra fee, only cash)
- Rumburk: Hotel U Parku (for an extra fee of 100CZK/4€)
Useful apps
- Muy Vlak (for Czech train tickets, you can also book the dog ticket there)
- Mapa.cz (for hiking trails)