Bike ride to castle Pernštejn

8/4/2001

This ride was organized by my cousin Mirek, who is a big trekking bike enthusiast. In general, it seemed to me that treks are more popular in Czech Rep. than mountain bikes, a lot of people like to go for an easy day ride, mix of paved road and dirt country road, stopping for a beer or a meal occasionally in some village or a small town. There are numerous options to do such things in the countryside, there is a village say every 3 kilometers and most of them have a pub or a restaurant. It seemed to me that this kind of activity has gained an increasing popularity since I have been there last time in the summer 5 years ago. Very much different from the US style of recreation.
This ride was set up in a similar fashion. My dad gave us a ride to a small town of Bystřice nad Perštejnem, about 40 kms north-west from our village, to make it easier for the inexperienced. In this I would count my brother and Mirek's wife. From Bystřice we rode about 10 kms via a nice wooded valley to another valley of river Svratka, and up to see a dam, which is used as a water supply for Brno. From here, we rode another 10 kms to Štěpánov, where we had a meeting in the restaurant with the remaining female members of our group, who travelled by car. Then it was another 8 kms to the castle Pernštejn, which has not been significantly altered from early 16th century and kept its late gothic look. We went for a tour of the castle, during which it started to rain pretty hard. Since the rain did not seem to stop soon, we called home to get my dad to pick us up and drive us home, although the original plan was to ride home on the bikes, probably about another 20 kms away. For reference, here is a map (200 kB) of the ride.

Fotos

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Getting ready to depart in front of an Albert supermarket in Bystřice. Note my cousin's Škoda Forman in the background, with a nice 4 bikes roof rack, made by a local company for under $50.