| Description: | Plan for day 2 of our trip to Valtice was to ride west and north. In the end, we only did the western part and did not get to Pavlov and Lednice more to the north.
We first headed towards the Austrian castle Falkenstein, which is a ruin that sits on a hill not too far from the Czech border. On the way, we rode through a pictoresque country and lucked out by bypassing the busy Brno-Vienna highway. The climb to the castle was tough, and at the top we found out that its opened only during the weekends. So, we hanged around, ate something, and in a little while came an electricians truck, which tried to get to the castle. An old man came to open and invited us in as well - for free since we did not have any euros (entry is 2 E). The castle is a ruin, but, it's maintained by a nonprofit group and as such is in decent shape. We explored it all and then headed down towards Czech town of Mikulov. We crossed an interesting border crossing, and in Mikulov explored the nice historic downtown and the castle. Here I ran out of power in the camera and it was getting late, so, we opted for having a late lunch in town and then head back to Valtice on a series of bike routes, partly paved, partly dirt that head through the fields and vineyards. |
