Travellers' Tales: The Czech Greenways

My husband Tim and I spent 10 days cycling the Czech Greenways route from Prague to Vienna, and then along the Danube to Bratislava. With us were my sister Liz, who lives in Prague, and her Czech friend, Eva. 

It was a great holiday. The well-marked route follows quiet roads and tracks between small towns. We rode along part of the Iron Curtain cycle trail and learned that during its 45 years, more guards died (mostly by suicide) than people trying to escape. It was moving to visit a preserved section of the fencing with a watchtower at Cižov; Eva explained that when she was growing up, it was the western boundary of her world.

We went through the Podyji National Park, a beautiful area of woodland with wild cyclamen flowering beside the trail"

We saw bunkers built by the Czechoslovak government in 1938 in a doomed attempt to keep Hitler out. The next day, by complete contrast, we spent an afternoon in Slavonice admiring the Renaissance façades of the houses. We went through the Podyji National Park, a beautiful area of woodland with wild cyclamen flowering beside the trail.

From the Austrian border, we went due south to Vienna and then along the Danube to Bratislava, from where we got the train back to Prague.

Details: pragueviennagreenways.org