From Prague to Vienna - week 7, Třemošnice to Hlinsko v Čechách
Those of you who know me know that I like to walk. It's a way to see places you wouldn't see from a train, and at the speed where you can stop and take a photograph. Here's one I took a few weeks ago of starlings roosting.
But, I digress. The idea of walking from Prague to Vienna is that the route largely follows railway lines, so I go out by train, walk a bit, catch a train home. Easy - except when it isn't. After seven weeks, I had reached the town of Třemošnice, and here the railway line ends. To walk to the next railway station following Euro Velo Route 4, Hlinsko, it's 49km.
To put my walking into context, I had come from Kutna Hora in a day and a half, so I was doing two days' walking in a day. (By the way, Kutna Hora is a pretty place. It reminded me of Malmesbury or Chichester.)
But, back to walking 50km. I left Prague at 0600 to give me plenty of time to walk - 4km/h is reasonable with breaks. I arrived at Třemošnice on a train looking like this:
The railway line from Čáslav, just less than an hour away, looks like this:
Back to walking. When you leave Třemošnice to head for Seč, you go uphill and you are walking on the main road. Those first two hours were the only ones where I managed 5km/h. I liked this waterfall on the way to Seč:
There wasn't much in Seč - here's the church:
And here's the sign showing that I was a fifth of the way:
The other important fact of note on that sign is that it's 16km, over three hours, to the next place with a shop. It would have been a good idea to buy drinks and chocolate in Seč, but it was 1000 and the sun wasn't warm. Yet.
Coming out of Seč towards Horni Bradlo, it was beautiful...
...and hilly...
...and sometimes quite formal...
Those two hours between 1130 and 1330 seemed to last forever. My feet were already starting to hurt, and I was craving sugar. I eventually arrived at Horni Bradlo and went to the grocer's shop. After half an hour I ached, but I was somewhat refreshed. I really should have taken a picture of that shop, as it really was a life-saver.
The next stage was 10km to Trhová Kamenice. The fields looked like a hilly version of Lincolnshire:
Vast amounts of not a lot. Here we see a number of tree stumps, although if you want to believe that they are aliens, you may do so:
And here's the contractual obligation arty picture, with me leaving a small village with cyclists just having turned right ahead of me:
The journey to Trhová Kamenice wasn't too bad. Another grocer's shop found for a drink, and here's the church.
So I'm almost there, right? Only 13km to go, 12km by the time I reached the end of the village. Wrong. I hit the wall. I had been walking for about an hour when I saw a sign saying Hlinsko 10km. I expected about 7km, but I'd hit the wall at marathon distance. My trusty Tilly (aka Google Maps, don't ask) agreed with me - about 7.5km. I passed this stone in Svobodné Hamry:
Of course, the sign was right, and Tilly misguided but wrong. We took a sensible detour for bikes, and eventually, exhausted, with darkness approaching, I reached a place called Stan. Stan likes carved tree trunks, apparently.
What was brilliant about Stan was two things. See the path on the left? It goes all the way to Hlinsko, so no worry about approaching traffic. Also, the rumour of there being a railway proved to be true, as I saw a train.
An hour later, with nothing in the kitty at all, I reached Hlinsko and a replacement bus, slow train and express train home to the sophistication of Prague, where the grocery shop was still open at 2330.
Lessons learned:
- One foot after the other. Repeat.
- 49km is a long way. Hopefully, never again, but never say never.
- Take food and drink cans with me, just in case.
