Šumava Forest Weekend · part 2

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Photo stop near Zaječov

   For decades the Brdy hills south-west of Prague were off-limits: a large military training area closed to the public, with forests that grew wild and roads that only soldiers used. In 2016 much of it was opened and became a protected landscape area, and the hills around villages like Zaječov have quietly become one of the more interesting places to explore in central Bohemia.

   Read the complete Photo stop near Zaječov write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Photo stop near Zaječov is where the day begins. Next is Šumava Forest Weekend checkpoint 8.

2. 2. Near Modřany

   South of Prague, the Vltava leaves the city through a deep, wooded valley, and the suburbs give way to villages, orchards and cliffs. It is a place of transition: the city's traffic behind you, the Bohemian countryside ahead.

   Read the complete Near Modřany write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Šumava Forest Weekend checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is High point in Postupice.

3. 3. High point in Postupice

   Postupice is a straggling village in the hills east of Benešov, the kind of place where the church tower is the tallest thing for miles and the pub is the second most important building. Around it the Posázaví uplands fold into small valleys with ponds in the bottoms and woods on the crests, and the roads between the hamlets climb and drop in short, satisfying pulls.

   Read the complete High point in Postupice write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Benešov.

4. 4. Scenic stretch near Benešov

   Benešov is a busy little county town about forty-five minutes south-east of Prague, and for most riders its name is shorthand for one thing: Konopiště. The chateau sits in a wooded park just west of the centre, a Gothic castle remodelled in the late nineteenth century for Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Habsburg throne. He was an obsessive hunter, and the corridors are lined with an almost unsettling quantity of antlers and trophies. The rose garden, the deer park and the lake below the castle are calmer company.

   Read the complete Scenic stretch near Benešov write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Scenic stretch near Benešov, late in the day. Next is Back to Šumava Forest.

5. 5. Back to Šumava Forest

   The dot lies in the Elbe lowland east of Prague, between the small villages of Přerov nad Labem and Poříčany, about two hundred kilometres from the forests of the Šumava where the ride began. This is flat, open, intensively farmed land, with big fields of cereal and rapeseed, small villages with a pond and a chapel, and a horizon that stretches in every direction. It is the quiet exhale at the end of a weekend.

   Read the complete Šumava Forest write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Back to Šumava Forest. That is the ride.