Písecko

The middle Otava country of gold-bearing sands, granite woods and the deep Orlík arm of the Vltava — with Písek's medieval stone bridge at the centre.

Days here organize themselves around the water: river paths up and down the Otava — whose gold-bearing sands gave Písek its name — and forest tracks over the Písecké hory, the wooded ridge between the river and the flooded Vltava canyon of the Orlík reservoir on the region’s eastern edge. Most routes touch the town sooner or later. Its stone bridge, the oldest surviving in Bohemia and standing since the 13th century, is the crossing you will use anyway.

The walking is South-Bohemian easy-going — forest roads, river paths, villages of preserved rural baroque farmhouses (the Vráž and Smetanova Lhota country, with the Schwarzenberg tomb at Schwarzenberg Tomb nearby). Rail through Písek and Protivín keeps entries and exits simple.