Cesky Krumlov by Bike

Many of the tourist facilities in Cesky Krumlov are closed on Monday, so we rented bikes from the pension and headed for a mountain called Klet. It felt pretty strange to be riding without helmets, gloves, or cleats and the bikes didn't come with pumps, patch kits, or water bottles, so it was definitely a minimalist experience. I think I missed my rear-view mirror most of all -- I kept glancing up to see what was behind me and there was nothing there to see.



We had a map of bike routes and found the proper way out of town, but things kind of went down hill from there. The scale on the map was fairly course and it was hard to make out the detail, so we eventually just started following the road signs -- always a bad omen.



The road was paved and the scenery excellent, so the riding was very good. Eventually we passed a sign saying that Klet was only 2.5 km away (almost there!) and that was followed by a *long* stretch of no signs at all. The next sign said that Klet was 3 km away, and the one after that pointed up a steep dirt path through the woods (just 2 km!) that was marked with signs prohibiting hiking, biking, and cross-country skiing. Exactly how was one supposed to use the path? We decided to play fast and loose with the law and take the path regardless -- we figured that if anyone caught us we could just claim to be French.

We eventually got back onto the paved path and found graffiti on the road encouraging cyclists to keep pushing for the final stretch. Almost there!



The top of the hill had a restaurant (as expected), but it was closed for the day (not expected). We wandered around the summit for a bit but weren't really able to see much -- the visibility was limited by the haze. The trip back down was 10 km of coasting with no wrong turns; we even found where we'd lost the route on the way up.



We got back to the pension by mid-afternoon and took a nap after cleaning up. When we headed into town for dinner it was still too early to eat, so we walked through the narrow streets and back alleys. The river makes a series of big loopy S turns through town, so there's lots of river frontage and bridges going from one "peninsula" to another. The town has the requisite tourist zone, but it also has scads of tiny narrow cobblestone alleys, paths along the river, and elevated roadways crossing over stone arch bridges. We took a path that crossed over itself several times -- going under an arch down low and later on crossing the bridge up high. It was a very pleasant walk.





The map below is a track of our bike ride to Klet. It is missing the first part of the route, so it appears to start in the middle of the woods. The return from the top of Klet to our pension is complete.


View 2009.09.21.track in a larger map