Elbe Spring

The Labe, which becomes the Elbe, is marked as rising at about 1387 metres on the Labska louka, a broad open peat meadow on the Krkonose ridge near the Polish border. The actual water emerges over a wide area of bog rather than from one point, so the marked spring is a formal designation rather than a hydrological fact - a stone-ringed basin with a plaque - but it is the accepted source. Beside it stands a curved stone wall built in 1968 carrying the painted coats of arms of twenty-six towns and cities along the river's course from here to Hamburg, which is the thing people photograph. The ridge around it is arctic-alpine tundra, treeless, with peat bogs, dwarf pine and species left from the last glaciation, and it is a strict reserve zone with access restricted to marked paths. From here the river falls over the Labsky vodopad a short distance downstream.

What you actually see

• A stone-ringed source basin - the formal marked spring at 1387 metres.
• A wall of coats of arms - twenty-six towns along the river, painted in 1968.
• Arctic-alpine tundra - treeless ridge with peat bogs and glacial relict species.
• Labsky vodopad below - the waterfall a short way downstream.

When to go

June to September. Half a day.

Honest expectations

It is several hours on foot from any road, on an exposed ridge where weather turns fast. The spring itself is a formality - the interest is the ridge and the wall. Strict reserve rules: stay on the path.

Nearby

Spindleruv Mlyn is below; Snezka is east along the ridge.