Český Krumlov to Nové Hrady

 Ride day 5: 47.5 miles, 4449’ elevation

Lodging:  Penzion 1670

Today was the first day where our ride seemed at all strenuous. We are on the Rosenberg Family Greenway, a side route off the Prague Vienna Greenway.

After breakfast in our hotel, we packed our bikes and headed out the cobbled roads. Immediately we were on a climb that was more than a mile long and up to 18% grade. This woke us up and was a preview for the day’s ride through the Gratzen Mountains. We wound our way up and around hills. Most towns looked very small, only a handful of houses. For each town there is a welcome sign and a leaving sign, sometimes the distance between signs is only 100 meters or so.  The fields where hay had been harvested looked like open meadows between patches of forest. We’ve seen a lot more hay bales than livestock, but there were some cattle and a few horses. Every tiny village seems to have a historic church.

We rode alongside a river where there were two large, mostly empty campsites. One had teepees, which seemed absurd, and both had stacks of boats. With school back in session, we didn’t see any boaters. We passed a man hiking who told us that there’s a great brewery and cuisine under the castle at what we think was Rozmberk. We don’t know for certain where he meant, but we laughed and thanked him for his recommendation. He was a regular long distance hiker.

We stopped at a historic site on the Austrian border where there were some signs about the local history in Czech and German. We read a few with the help of google translate. The area was known for smuggling between Bohemia and Austria after WWII. A few other cyclists stopped too, including a pair of Czechs who said we were far from home and adventurous for Americans. They told us that the sparse population in the area is because it was a no man’s land after WWII when it fell under the iron curtain. The mountains were under the control of different countries. This part of our route crosses the Iron Curtain bike route, and we later saw some signs about it. 

After riding some narrow paved and gravel roads, we had to navigate a section where our road was being replaced. We had cheese sandwiches on a bench outside a church across from a market. After more forest climbs, we came to a small town where we went slightly off route to find food and had ice cream bars. From there we took some minor detours to our destination, Nove Hrady, another historic town. It was a steep climb up the hill, so today both started and ended with good climbs.

Our penzion is another historic building, but less upscale than the one in Cesky Krumlov. The tilt to the floors indicates some settling over the years (centuries?). We bought ingredients for breakfast and lunch and snacks for tomorrow at the local coop, then had a really good dinner at the restaurant on the main square recommended by our host. While historic, this town doesn’t seem too touristy. After a walk, we headed back to our penzion. We expect a weather system to arrive tomorrow.