Lush Czech River Hikes

This is one of my favorite little snapshots that I took from 2019, which was also one of my favorite places that I visited along my three-month travels throughout Europe with my boyfriend. I never thought that I would end up visiting Europe for another 20 years, yet alone visit 11 countries while I was there, including the Czech Republic!

This snapshot was captured on my iPhone, while we took a rowboat through the canyons of the Bohemian Switzerland National Park in the Czech Republic. During our trip throughout Europe, we had visited many of the larger cities in several countries. I loved the history and culture that all of these old cities offered, such as the art in Amsterdam, the bathhouses in Budapest, and the culture in Barcelona. However, once we got to the Czech Republic, we were craving some nature, and that’s what inspired this day trip to the Bohemian Switzerland National Park.

We started off our day bright and early in Prague, where we were staying for a few nights. We had seen several tours offered to this particular area, but little information was available in English on how to get there. We opted to try our luck with public transportation and opted out of the tour for more flexibility and to save a bit of money. We were super happy with that decision because the transportation ended up being fairly easy to navigate. In Prague, we walked from our hostel to the train station, and took an hour and half train through the countryside of the Czech Republic to a small town. From there, we took a bus and got off at the trailhead. We walked for a few miles on the trailhead before making our way to the Natural Bridge, one of the big attractions within that hike.

After seeing the Natural Bridge, we made our way through thick forests of pine trees to a beautiful canyon that was dripping with all different shades of green. In most parts of the canyon, there was a small foot-trail that you could walk on just above the gentle flow of the water. However, in two sections of the river, there was no room to walk, and rather you paid a small fee to take a rowboat to get from one section to the other. This photo was taken on the first of two rowboats, with the quaint looking ticket office being seen in the background. The transport was a small wooden boat that fit around 20 people and was gently pushed along by a large stick that the captain was using to move us forward on our journey. While the captain was rowing the boat, he was singing and telling jokes in Czech, adding to the magic of the experience. Neither myself or my boyfriend spoke Czech, but a kind passenger translated his jokes and stories for us into English.

While on the boat, I was mesmerized by the beauty of this canyon and the amazing adventure that we had experienced throughout our day trip. I took this photo while sitting at the back of the rowboat, looking back at the ticket office in the background. I took this photo with my iPhone eight. After I got home, I did slight editing of the photo on the Camera App in my iPhone. I brightened up the photo a bit and added a little bit of saturation to the photo to make the colors really stand out. However, I feel that this editing depicts the way that I saw this place. This was such a special photo to me that my parents got it framed and gave it to me as a gift, so I could see this photo and be reminded of the adventure every day.