Forty Kilometres over Říp

A 40.6 km flat winter walk along the lower Ohře and over Říp to Roudnice. A distance day with one hill in the middle of it.

This is a walk for when the goal is kilometres. You get 40 of them, flat except for one famous hill in the middle. Start early from the Bohušovice nad Ohří station. In winter that means leaving in the dark. The first leg follows the lower Ohře through Hrdly to Doksany. The convent and the village shop there are the only stops on the plain for a while.

Then come the small villages of the Podřipsko. Břežany, Vrbka and Straškov-Vodochody are each a church and a bus stop in the fields. Říp grows slowly ahead the whole time. The climb itself is short, the one real ascent of the day, and in dull January weather you may have the rotunda on top to yourself. I walked it exactly for that. Sometimes the point is just to walk something longer, and this route is good for it.

The descent leads to Roudnice nad Labem. The finish is simple. I had a burger and beer at Peppers Monkey, my favourite restaurant in town, and took the train back to Prague from the station ten minutes further.