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A walk littered with ghosts of communism’s past – Metro US

A walk littered with ghosts of communism’s past

The summit of Snežka, which straddles the Czech Polish border still looks haunted by its previous life as a communist environmental disaster zone. Acid rain created by the belching chimneys of countless industrial plants in Poland and Northern Bohemia wreaked havoc here.

Nature is fighting back, but the desolate trail which winds its way up the craggy sides of the mountain to a peak topped by sinister cold war installations still seems bare and threatening.
Even its name — The Friendship Trail — has wonderfully Stalinist double-think overtones which Le Carre would have revelled in.

Because this 30-kilometre trail, which was a clandestine meeting place for Polish and Czech dissidents, is anything but friendly.

The Trail is a public footpath in the Karkonosze Mountains, which runs on both sides of the Czech-Polish border. The best place to start is to take a three hour bus ride from Prague through the Bohemian countryside, past various Soviet eyesores, to Pec pod Snežkou, the country’s main ski resort.

From here join the Czech families making the ascent on the country’s highest mountain. It’s not an easy climb but there’s a pub at the summit serving warm rum. Oddly there’s also a Post Office and a church.

Rum downed, you can start the Trail proper. Red-toped border stones, with a large P chiselled on one side and large C on the other, meander across the border and back until, after about 10km, you’ll drop down into the undeniably magical village of Malá Úpa. Unless you’re a serious hiker you might like to take the bus back to your guest house about now.

Because on Day 2 you’ll be covering a slightly tougher part of the Trail. And it’s the part which, according to legend, is defended by a pipe-smoking giant called Krakenos.