"Life within us is like water in a river."

Henry David Thoreau

Two of our pilgrimages this year are dedicated to the two largest Czech rivers. In May, we will set off on a journey along the Elbe from Lovosice to Ústí nad Labem, and in August, we will set off from Prague Troja along the Vltava to Nelahozeves and Mlčechvostů and from there to Říp. The Elbe, which is one of the largest European rivers, rises in the north in the Krkonoše Mountains at Labská louka at an altitude of 1,387 m; the Vltava, which is the largest Czech river, rises in the south in the Šumava Mountains near the village of Černý kříž at an altitude of 1,187 m. Both rivers flow together near Mělnik and drain almost the entire region of Bohemia. Although the Vltava is longer and more waterlogged at the confluence, another river course is called the Elbe. Behind Lovosice, the Elbe plunges into a deep canyon called the Czech Gate (Porta Bohemica) and passes across the Bohemian Central Mountains to the border with Germany; It leaves the territory of Bohemia through a deep gorge formed by the Elbe Sandstones and then flows through Germany to the North Sea.

This time, we will set off on our May journey from Lovosice in the direction of the Elbe River on its left side, a path that is one of the most beautiful tourist routes in the Bohemian Central Highlands and will lead us all the way to Ústí nad Labem. There are many unique viewpoints and several remarkable rocks and waterfalls. One of the most beautiful viewpoints is named after the 19th-century Czech painter Ernst Gustav Doerell, who celebrated the landscape of the Bohemian Central Highlands in a series of his charming paintings, in which the poetics of Romanticism are combined with Empire stylization and realistic objectivity.

Saturday 4. 5.: Prague – Lovosice, Porta Bohemica, Radejčice, Doerell's viewpoint, Skalky viewpoint (21 km)

We will meet in Prague at the main train station, from where we will take the express train to Lovosice at 6:45, arriving at 7:58 (alternative: departure from Masarykovo station by passenger train at 7:42, arrival in Lovosice at 9:22). From the train station in Lovosice we will head to the city center to Wenceslas Square and from there take the yellow line to the Lovosice port and continue along the Elbe to the ferry in Malý Žernoseky. We cross the railway and turn onto Porta Bohemica nature trail and we will walk along the Elbe through the two-kilometer canyon of Porta Bohemica, surrounded by jagged gneiss rocks, to Litochovic nL.. From there we will follow the yellow to Dobkovicek, on the Pod Kubačkou intersection, to Radejčina, on Radejčín lookout tower and on Jaroslav Srba's viewpoint, until we finally get to Doerell's Viewpoint with a unique view of Porta Bohemica and the Elbe meander. We will continue to the village of Dubičky, on Václav Krčil viewpoint up to the viewpoint Miller's Stone; from here we will go to The Moravian Waterfalls and through Moravians we will reach Skalka viewpointwhere we spend the night under the open sky.

Sunday 5. 5.: Skalky, Skály (Milenci), Vaňovský waterfall, Vrkoč, Větruše, Střekov (20 km)

From Skalka we will set off in the morning along the yellow path Vaňovský Hill (561 m above sea level) and from there follow the blue line to Rock Lovers under By the rock (448 m). Then we return to the yellow marked path and follow it to Vaňovské waterfall, the largest waterfall in the Bohemian Central Mountains (height 12 meters) inside a beautiful basalt amphitheater. It is located at National natural monuments Vrkoc, in which the main object of protection is a remarkable geological formation with a unique example of columnar cleavage of olivine basalt, shaped into the shape of an inverted fan. Then we will go through Elbe Hills on Judgment Hill, on Humboldt's Viewpoint and from there to the lookout tower Windbreaks. It is one of the main landmarks of Ústí nad Labe, towering over the Elbe valley. From Větruš we will follow the yellow path into the city, cross the Railway Bridge over the Elbe and continue to the ruins of Střekov Castle, which rises on a trachyte rock above the Elbe valley. It is an important historical monument, a building that was probably founded at the beginning of the 14th century by John of Luxembourg. In the 19th century, during the Romantic period, the castle was frequently visited by important figures of cultural life, including painters such as the German Romantic painter Adrian Ludwig Richter or the aforementioned Ernst Gustav Doerell, who settled in Ústí, and who is commemorated by a memorial plaque on the castle. From Střekov we will set off along the red road to Nova Ves, which is located below Vysoký Ostrý, and from there follow the yellow line back to Ústí nad Labem. Střekovská viewpoint (Malé Sedlo, 284 m) and from there across the Dr. Edvard Beneš bridge to the main railway station in Ústí nad Labem, from where we will return to Prague by train.

Ernst Gustav Doerell

Ernst Gustav Doerell (1832-1877) was a Czech late romantic painter, graphic artist and photographer whose work is associated with the landscape of the Bohemian Central Mountains and the Ore Mountains and especially with the region around Ústí nad Labem. He was born in Freiberg, Saxony, into the family of a mining assessor. After training as a merchant in Litoměřice, he ran away to Teplice in 1848, determined to become a painter. He entered the apprenticeship of the Teplice interior painter and decorator Franz Hyberman and at the same time he associated with some painters in Teplice and taught himself to draw; he often studied natural scenery from Doubravská hora. An inheritance from his mother enabled him to study painting at the Academy in Prague, where he attended the landscape school of Prof. Max Haushofer in the years 1856-1858. He did not graduate from the Academy and after traveling to Scandinavia, he moved to Ústí nad Labem in 1859, where he lived and worked until the end of his life, for a total of 18 years; this was Doerell's longest and most fruitful creative period. In Ústí, he opened his own lithographic and photographic factory and at the same time he intensively devoted himself to landscape painting. The buyers of his paintings were mainly Ústí businessmen and industrialists, and Doerell became one of the first painters to begin documenting the changes that the Grunder period brought to this North Bohemian landscape after the onset of the Industrial Revolution. In any case, EG Doerell entered the history of this city as an important and meritorious citizen.

Connections

Train Prague → Lovosice 4th of May

• Prague, Main Station: departure 6:45 – Lovosice: arrival 7:58
• Prague, Masaryk Railway Station: departure 7:42 – Lovosice: arrival 9:22

Ústí nad Labem → Prague on Sunday, May 5

• Ústí nad Labem: dep. 15:42 – Prague main station: ar. 17:12
• Ústí nad Labem: dep. 17:13 – Prague main station: ar. 18:42
• Ústí nad Labem: dep. 17:42 – Prague main station: ar. 19:12
• Ústí nad Labem: dep. 18:13 – Prague main station: ar. 19:24

Contacts

• Jiří Zemanek, email: sarvanga1@seznam.cz, mobile: 777 117 466
• Tomas Hruza, email: tomashruza@gmail.com, mobile: 775 052 607
• Barbora Kinkalova, email: b.kinkalova@seznam.cz, 776 123 969

"I believe that a lot of good would come from a change in attitude if tourists became pilgrims again."

Rupert Sheldrake