After two months (!!) of living in the tourist filled, busy streets of Prague, Lydia and I jumped at the chance to leave the city for a weekend and stay with my friend Johanka in her Mum's cottage in the beautiful nature reserve of Kokořínsko.
Kokořínsko is a wide expanse of woodland situated around 30 miles north of Prague, not too far from the town of Mělník (where the Elbe and and the Vltava rivers converge) and is well known for its scenic views and sandstone sculptures.
We arrived on the Saturday around lunchtime, and first went to some riding stables where Johanka's Mum keeps her horses. Lydia was looking forward to seeing the horses, but was perhaps not expecting to spend an hour riding them, something she hasn't done since she was 16. Mercifully, she was allocated the slightly less boisterous horse, a mare named Sissy and she managed not to get thrown off.
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| A slightly grainy picture of Lydia enjoying her horse ride. |
Next we headed to Bludiště, a kind of forest maze in which you have to follow the colours marked on the trees until you reach the optimal viewpoint. The weather was pretty warm and we aren't particularly used to rambling around in the great outdoors, but a few scrapes and wrong turns later we ended up at the top. We took a few moments to savour this view.
After all of this exercise, we headed to a nearby pub where I enjoyed bramborák s pikantní masovou směsí which is basically a typical Czech potato pancake filled with spicy meat. After we'd been suitably stuffed, we drove home through the winding, narrow country lanes. I should add that I had been nominated as designated driver for the day, and had only my second taste of driving on the wrong side of the road. I lost count of how many times I reached down to my left for a gear stick that was never there.
The next day began with a visit to see the animals on Johanka's Mum's farm, which included some very nice sheep.
As well as some very cute rabbits that would unfortunately one day end up in a stew.
After seeing the animals we headed out for the last part of the weekend which was to see the famous sandstone sculptures Kokořínsko is known for. The ones we went to see were located directly to the west of a small village named Tupadly. Following the marked trail, we walked for around 45 minutes until we came across the sculptures, as well as some caves. The sculptures on show included snakes, a harpist, a sphinx, seven breads and a series of scary faces. They generally date from the 19th century, and are well worth a look.
Kokořínsko is a really nice place to visit and handily placed for those living in Prague, being only an hour's bus ride away (and a cheap one at that). We had a great time and are extremely grateful to Johanka for taking us there.
Unfortunately, there's not a great deal of information about Kokořínsko available in English, this is probably the best thing I could find. Thanks for reading, comments are, as always, most welcome!
