Finally snow arrived in Prague on the first of December and we could not resist going out and test e-bikes on the fresh snow-covered roads in Letná park. Yes, e-bikes behave a little differently mostly because they are heavier. So, no maps for that little trip, just a couple of pictures.
However, only two days later the snow was gone and just frozen ponds were left behind. So we decided to rerun one of our favorite rides around Krčský les (Krč forest). That forest is crisscrossed by dozens of little paths, so you can make different choices at almost any intersection. However, we believe that you may enjoy our selection. If this ride is too short for you, you may add to it our earlier ride to Hostivař (which is of course more suitable for summer days when you may enjoy some swimming or sunbathing on the Hostivař dam beach).
We started from the tiny parking lot in front of Thomayerova nemocnice (Thomayer’s hospital) and checked the frozen lake Labuť (Swan). The whole trip was on very nice uncomplicated surface paths, so there is really no need to point to any challenging parts of the trip. At point 2 you will be passing a very rare natural feature that does not look like anything worth looking at. However, this is one of the places where, due to the local land formation, the temperature in the summer may reach up to 60 degrees Celsius and the local flora and fauna had to adapt to that possible anomaly.
You will be passing by quite a popular restaurant “U krále Václava IV”, which got its name from the ruins of the “Nový hrádek” (New Castle) on the opposite side of the valley, founded by Václav IV in 1411. King Václav IV also died in Nový hrádek in 1419.
At point 6 you may visit the restaurant Šeberák, which recently became quite famous for rejecting the Covid-19 regulation and stayed open during the lockdown. The trick that the owner used for letting people to his restaurant was to “hire” the guests as employees. Anyway, the restaurant is open for now and we had “svíčková” which was one of the best ever.
On the way back through Krčský les, you should definitely stop at point 14 to check the view at the Thomayerova nemocnice from above.
https://en.mapy.cz/s/hojaravoku 14 km, 160 m elevation gain. To see this ride in context, check our interactive maps.
