08-OCT-2007
Rojsin
My main reason for going on a day of biking was to cruise through some of the small towns, like Rojsin. Not that I knew that I'd come across anything special- I just wanted to get away from the grand tourist destinations for a day, and see some countryside. I rode from Cesky Krumlov through Plesovice, Trisov, Holubov, Mric, Kremze, Rojsin, over Mt. Klet, and back to Krumlov. The area around Klet is the Blansky Les protected natural region, so I spent the day cycling between small towns, farm fields, and pine forests.
09-OCT-2007
Mt. Klet
That bump in the background is Mt. Klet. It doesn't look like much (from the other side, it looks even more like an anthill), but it's the highest point around, so the people in the area are proud of it. At a whopping 1054m, it's a little less than half the elevation of my house. The summit is about 500m above Cesky Krumlov (the modern part of which forms the foreground here). In rertospect, though, it's impressive to me to think that I rode around it well to the right of the picture, passed along the plain on the opposite side, gained the ridge on the left, and pedalled up to the summit. It was something more that 800m of climbing, once all the ups & downs are included, about half of that climb being on rocky dirt paths. I was pretty wiped out by the time I reached the top, which featured views too hazy to be of much use, and a small summit house. The keeper at the summit was just closing as I rode up, but opened back up so I could climb to the roof. The coast back down to Cesky Krumlov just before sunset was a quick one.
11-OCT-2007
Nabytek
After a few nights in Cesky Krumlov, I caught a very early bus back to Prague, arriving at the Roztyly station and taking the metro up to Cerny Most. At first I was worried about getting to & from all of these far-flung bus stations- until I realized that they all coincided with metro stops, making it easy. It took a bit of effort to figure out the schedules, but soon I was on a bus through Mlada Boleslav to Turnov. Mlada Boleslav was an interesting place, at least to ride through- it looked like the whole city was the Skoda auto factory. Right next to it is Kosmonosov, which I assume dates from the 60s, and features a number of factory buildings made up to look like rockets and spaceships. Too bad the camera was locked away in the bottom of the bus.
Finally- Turnov, and a dilemma. I had no map of the town, which turned out to be of pretty good size. My guidebook just said to leave the bus/train station and head up the street and across the river. So I did, heading for some spires that I figured must be important. After some bridges and roundabouts, I found myself at Turnov's main square. The photo I've shown here is just a view along a the walk from station to square. Like the rest of Turnov, it is nothing all that special- but interesting for just that reason.
.
By the way, if you ever try to duplicate this itinerary, beware when asking about bus schedules in Cesky Krumlov. They may try to send you towards Brno- evidently there's another town down there called, I think, Trnov. And Turnov with an American accent, sounds like Trnov. And since Turnov is nothing special, they just assume you must mean Trnov. But pronouncing it Toooornov seems to work.
10-OCT-2007
Turnov
This is the church on the main square in Turnov. I spent a couple of early evenings watching the activity on the square, as people left work, did their shopping, and walked their dogs. Just ordinary things as the sun set. Turnov seems to pride itself on its school for artisans, and on sports. Both are the result of its position near the mountains and the "rock cities."
If you walk up to the steps in this picture, then go left up the street, after a few minutes you'll come to the Hotel Karel IV, which unexpectedly was the best lodging I found in the Czech Republic. It was inexpensive, had clean, spacious, very nice rooms (even in the "old" section), at least one staff member with very good English, and a nice Italian restaurant downstairs. The breakfast was uninspiring, but that was its only flaw. Plus- they have mountain bikes available for rent to guests, for only 100CzK/day (about $5).
11-OCT-2007
Cemetery, Turnov
I went on a long hike out of Turnov; the first site (or sight, your choice) I passed was the Jewish cemetery. You can't tell in this picture, but the cemetery lies in part under a highway overpass. Obviously the graves were there first; I suppose it was a case of "Well, it's just the Jews..."
11-OCT-2007
Walking Routes
Long walks or rides in the Czech Republic are no problem, at least as far as route-finding goes, since everything is well-marked. This example from near Valdstejn is a bit extreme, of course, but it does show it's hard to get lost. The white signs are walking routes (usually forest paths), and the yellow signs are cycling routes (usually secondary roads). Each path has a color, and many of the cycling routes have numbers. All of the routes are shown on maps (which can take a little work to find, at least before you arrive in the area). Signs like this show up at intersections, but all along the paths, the routes are marked with colored bars (or numbers) every 50-100 m. The marks can be on fenceposts, buildings, trees, rocks- whatever's convenient.
11-OCT-2007
Fall, Cesky Raj
My trip was in early October, so there was still some fall color. Much of the area I hiked through was pine forest, but there were also areas of oak, giving nice yellow-brown colors like this. The forests had very little undergrowth- just a carpet of red-brown dried leaves, for the most part. That was most evident around Zbirohy and Kalich- but that's another day.
11-OCT-2007
Mouse Hole
Most of my hike was up and over the top of the sandstone that rises to the south of Turnov. ALong the edges of this very broad ridge are the "rock cities" that make the Cesky Raj famous. At Hruba Scala, you get from the top of the ridge to the bottom of the city by walking down through the "mouse hole." As far as I can tell, anything in the country that is a narrow passage winds up being called a mouse hole. This view is actually looking back up the mouse hole, from the bottom. It has stairs built into it now, but even before the stairs, it was obviously ann easier passage than the sheer, 200-ft walls of the cliff.
11-OCT-2007
Sv Prokop
Down at the bottom, you can wander around the big rocks, and occasionally find a little shrine like this one. Besides the statue, there are reliefs carved into the walls here, now almost vanished. One appears almost like a dragon- I don't know anything about Sv Prokop, so I don't know its significance, or if that's really what it is, or just what's it's eroded into.
Going the way I did (up the hill from Turnov past Valdstejn to Hruba Scala and down the Mouse Hole) actually brings you to the bottom of the rocks well south of Hruboskalsko, the main rock city along the route. So if you want to wander through there, you'll need to head downhill closer to Valdstejn. The Mouse Hole going up to Hruba Scala isn't well-marked, but it is the only set of stairs heading into the cliff (as far as I know).
.
The hiking/biking map sold at the Turnov info center (Kompass Cesky Raj 1:50000) covers the whole area, but is a little too large-scale to really tell what's what. Exploring a particular area might be easier if you can find something at a better scale.
11-OCT-2007
just a cow
After passing throgh many kilometers of forest (and not seeing a single other person since I left Hruba Scala) I came out into farm land near Tachov. Here there were sheep, cows, horses, fields, log farmhouses- quaintness all 'round.
Besides the farm animals, I saw several deer (near Mt. Klet, actually), some swans and other waterbirds, and of course squirrels and so forth. One thing that I didn't see was any hogs- surprising, given their pride of place on all the menus. Maybe they just get eaten too fast...
11-OCT-2007
pod Troskami
The destination of my hike this day was Trosky- that's the ruined fortress on the hilltop, not the farmhouse. The distance from Turnov was I think 12 km- maybe a couple more from the Karel IV, plus a few more spent exploring. And when I got to the top- it was closed. When I was in Prague, everything was still on an in-season schedule, but out of the city, everything seems to go off-season at the beginning of October. In this case, Trosky turned out to be only open on weekends. I wasn't too surprised, since Valdstejn had been closed as well. But the hike up to trosky was more important than getting inside Trosky, so it wasn't too much of a disappointment.
Fortunately the little restaurant at the fortress was open. The place was run by a big bear-like guy with a bushy beard, who seemed like he might be -very- disappointed if you left without a snack. So I had him boil up a sausage and some coffee (don't worry, separate water for each), and sat down inside the restaurant, warmed by a wood stove (my host told me it was too cold to eat outside). Pictures on the wall showed the building of the restauarant, back in the 20s. Afterwards, I headed down through the fields again.
12-OCT-2007
Castle Grabstejn
There is actually a Grabstejn, but this isn't it; this is Fridstejn, north of Turnov. But I started to think of it as Castle Grabstejn after the old codger of a caretaker short-changed me. I didn't re-count my money until it was too late to do anything about it, but I did tell him off on my out. In Russian. I figured I might as well offend him.
The castle ruin is king of interesting- it's built partly on the rock and partly in the rock, has some interesting old grafitti, and lots of places to climb over and around. So it's worth a stop, so long as you count your change. I expect that the views are nice, but I really couldn't tell...
..
The picture looks so atmospheric because- it was atmospheric. In fact, sort of in-your-face atmospheric: it rained for more than half the day. Actually, it was a little more than a mist, but a little less than full rain most of the time, and chilly. And this was the day of my second bike ride, so I spent most of it cold&wet. I climbed from Turnov up to Fridstejn (actually way past Fridstejn, until I realized that I'd missed the turnoff to the hrad), then over to Mala Skala, by the Suche Skaly, then through Besedice and Zbirohy back to Turnov. The bad weather made it tough to get much out of picturesque villages like Mala Skala, but it was still a worthwhile ride.
..
For this ride I rented one of the $5 bikes from the Karel IV. It turned out to be a plain but nice little Diamondback mountain bike, in pretty good shape. Getting air into the tires was an adventure- I had to ask the the English-speaking woman at the desk, who then called an older guy (Czech & German only), who then had me bring the bike into the basement. The lights in the basement didn't work, so he went off to find a flashlight, found a place to plug in an actual air compressor. After some fiddling, he got the compresor to work, and we got the tire pumped up. Somehow I was expecting they'd just hand me a floor pump... Supposedly there are also bikes available at the train station, but I couldn't quite figure out where in the station that might be, and judging by the looks of the train station, I doubt that they would have produced a decent bike. I'm glad I syated at the Karel IV, and glad I asked them about bikes.