Today Tom S. picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the village
of Palov to start our hike. The trail led us up to the top of a moderate
hill and the ruins of of the castle "Divci hrady" built around
1222 to protect the road from Austria to the Czech interior. From there
the trail followed along the gently rolling ridge line. Just as the
trail was to descend from the ridge to the village of Klentice, we took
a detour around the back side of another hill to pick up a few extra
miles and two more castle ruins. The more interesting ruin of the two
(called Novy hrad) required a very steep climb up a narrow rocky gulch
while pulling yourself up with chains that had been anchored to the
rocks. Going back down the gulch was a lot like rappelling. There was
very little of the castle left to see at the top, but the views out
over the countryside were great.
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> To the right is the castle "Divci hrady".
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^ The view from the top of the hill by Novy hrad. The town
below is Horni Vestonice and the lake beyond is the Nove Mlyny
Reservior. The lake is a major recreation area.
> To the right is Diane "rapelling" down the chain
from the top of the hill.
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Continuing on we eventually picked up the trail back into Klentice
where we walked along the road into town for a short ways before we
ascended the foothills again. The trail led us to the ruins of "Sirotci
Hradek", the Orphan's Castle, built around the 13th century. It
consisted of two parts, each part built on top of two large rocky promontories.
^ Above is Sirotci Hradek, the "Orphan's Castle".
The main ruins were on the central rock promontory. You could
walk around to the right of the rocks and easily climb up to
the top.
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Leaving the foothills again, we descend down to the main road leading
us to into the heart of Mikulov. After a refreshing rest at a street
side cafe, we took a guided tour of a catacomb under an old church and
the old Jewish cemetery in Mikulov. The catacombs were filled with human
bones piled two layers deep from floor to ceiling along one wall. It
was kinda creepy to me seeing all those bones that had once belonged
to living, breathing people
^ Entering the town of Mikulov.
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Then Tom picked us up and took us to the Pension Anita in the village
of Vranov nad Dyje. That evening we enjoyed a great supper at a sidewalk
cafe from which we could look up at the town's chateau on the hillside.
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^ Above is the Pension Anita where we stayed in the town of
Vranov nad Dyje.
> Just a short walk into town and we got this great view
of the chateau on the hill. Right behind me was a great sidewalk
cafe where we ate supper that night.
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