Page 45

Ohře Cycle Trail

www.cykloohre.cz SCyklostezka Ohře – Cheb: 170 km from Prague

by train from Prague 2 h 41 min by bus from Prague 3 h 15 min by car from Prague 2 h 10 min

Target group: Pleasure seekers: families with children

A backbone cycle path leading along one of the country’s five cleanest rivers, the Ohře, which flows through beautiful countryside from the border with Bavaria to the mouth of the river, where it flows into the Elbe near Litoměřice. The varied river valley offers narrow canyons lined with fantastic rocks and wide meadows, castles, chateaux and historical royal towns. National cycling trail along the Ohře river The Ohře rises in Bavaria and flows into the Czech Republic near the historical town of Cheb. The cycle path “Egerradweg” (number 6) leads from the source and continues across the border as the Ohře Cycle Path, classed as a national long-distance route. It covers 230 kilometres of relatively gentle terrain. The route has asphalt sections, as well as unpaved sections and field and forest paths. In many places, tempting branches lead to tourist attractions. Yet, you will encounter some of these even if you stick strictly to the main path. Very good public transport is available, with a number of cycle buses, as well as trains which run parallel to the route. The Ohře Cycle path won the competition DestinaCZe 2018 in the category Best Location for Active Holidays. It starts near the historical town of Cheb and its Romanesque castle with the only Kaiserpfalz style fortifications in the country and “Špalíček”, a unique collection of burgher and merchant houses. The Mostov Château hotel offers romantic overnight stays and fine catering. Along the river, the path continues through Sokolov with a late Classicist château with an exhibition of the regional museum, while Královské Poříčí offers the picturesque Bernard Farm with traditional handicrafts. One of the river’s most beautiful sections follows, a deep canyon in the Slavkov Forest massif. On the steep hillsides there are dozens of small karst caves and weathered rock formations. A meander on the Ohře around the medieval Loket castle is spectacular. In no time, there is more astonishing scenery, the glorious Svatoš Rocks, a granite rock town, where the river has carved out a stunning canyon lined with massive cracked rock pillars and needles.

Through Royal Towns to the Elbe We are in Karlovy Vary, the most famous Czech spa town with thermal springs, colonnades and the Moser Glassworks and Jan Becher liqueur museums. A few kilometres along lies former spa town Kyselka, with the Mattoni mineral water spring and Mattoni Museum, and the educational Elves Path leading through the spa complex. Klášterec nad Ohří features a red château with one of the country’s most interesting porcelain exhibitions. From here to the royal town of Kadaň the cycle path occasionally passes along skilfully built galleries leading along the Maxipes Fík riverfront, named after a popular children’s cartoon character, to a Franciscan monastery, which is seeking a place on the UNESCO list and into the heart of the historical town with the country’s narrowest street, a unique town hall tower and a magnificent plague column. The path continues around the Nechranice Reservoir with the longest gravity dam in Central Europe to the historical royal town of Žatec, the world’s hops capital with the world’s largest hop museum and the interactive Temple of Hops and Beer. The last royal town on the Ohře is Louny with a preserved complex of fortifications and a historical centre. The path now reaches the first solitary hills of the picturesque Central Bohemian Uplands, and hurries past the Baroque Stekník and Libochovice chateaux and the alchemists’ water castle in Budyně nad Ohří to the Baroque monastery complex in Doksany, the fortress town of Terezín, and the mouth of the Ohře near a historical pearl on the Elbe, the town of Litoměřice. It is also the mouth of a cycle path, the Elbe route leading to the North Sea.

www.cykloohre.cz Cheb: www.cheb.cz Mostov: www.chateaumostov.cz Sokolov: www.omks.cz Loket: www.loket.cz Karlovy Vary: www.karlovyvary.cz Kyselka: www.obeckyselka.cz Kadaň: www.mesto-kadan.cz Žatec: cs.zatec-thum.eu Louny: www.louny.eu Karlovy Vary region: www.zivykraj.cz Ústí na Labem region: www.gatetobohemia.com