Turn Your Face To The Sun And Leave Your Shadow Behind…

An Important Anniversary For The Czech Hikers And Bikers!

The contemporary exhibition in Pilsen (Plzen) at the Town Hall about the Sumava trails commemorates the founding of the KCT or the Club of Czech Tourism 120 years ago in 1888 by Vojta Naprstek.

In Czech, a “tourist” is someone who loves exercising outdoors for health and pleasure and enjoys observing historic sights, plants, trees, flowers and animals along the way. Many marked hiking trails, overnight cottages, and observation towers were developed over the years mostly in the border regions. Later the club was expanded to include also skiing, mountain climbing and rafting enthusiasts. After the 1938 Munich Agreement many of the developed trails were lost when the mountain regions were occupied by Nazi Germany. Unfortunately not much was done even during the communist era. Since 1989 much has been accomplished to improve and expand the trails everywhere.

The highlight of this year’s KCT celebrations will happen on June 11 in the Betlemska Chapel, in the Naprstek Museum in Prague and on the Old Town Square on June 14. For more details consult the website www://web.kct.cz.

The trails are being built and maintained by the so-called “trail blazers” At the present, there are about 37000 km of marked hiking trails available. In addition about 6000 km of marked bicycle trails are being built and developed.

On April 12th 2008 a Pan European bike trail was officially opened in Nuremberg, Germany which will be 1537 km long. This trail basically follows the so-called “Golden Trail” of the Middle ages. It starts in Prague, passes through Karlstejn, Dobriv, Pilsen, Stribro, Kladruby, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, Strasburg, Nancy and ends in Paris.

Happy trails to you!