Introduction

Rambling is a European term for walking usually implying some sort of exploratory journey, whether it be a day outing in the countryside or a cross-country trek. Our plans for the next month seem to fit nicely in that category and thus the name for the blog. I rather like the "bouncy", carefree feel that the word suggests and hope that our journey lives up to the connotation.

When exploring various options for a European walk I ran across the Prague to Vienna Greenway system. While most of the Greenway literature focuses on the bike route I discovered that the Czech Republic has probably the finest system of walking trails in Europe, many of which are centuries old routes from town to town from long before the time of the automobile. The routes are excellently marked, color coded, and there are fine hiking maps available in just about every bookstore in the country. Excellent!

Though we will not be following the Greenway bike route per se, we will roughly follow the same route, for lack of any better idea, deviating as we see fit based on knowledge we gain along the way. Our route will take us through the rolling countryside of Southern Bohemia, South Moravia, and on into Austria, through medieval towns and forests, past ancient castles, churches & remnants of the cold war. We have allocated enough time to walk the entire way from Prague to Vienna (where we fly home from after a month) but have no qualms about changing our plans en route if we come up with other ideas. So...we have a rough plan but fully intend to "go with the flow".

There is an excellent online mapping tool for the Czech Republic, from which you can follow our progress. If you activate the "turistika" maps and turn on the "turisticke trasy" (tourist trails) you can see the hiking trails, though you have to be zoomed in pretty far for the color-coded trails to appear. I have a few links to the right for informational sites to get you acquainted with the area and trails system.

Next post from Prague...