From Prague to Vienna - week 11, Nedvědice to Tišnov

Evening all

I was on the same 'mid-morning' train which I caught last time. That's the 0603 not the 0445, which I tell myself means that I can have more sleep. I am always grateful for small mercies.

The map has been edited to include Week 11. 

Scores on the doors.

Starting point: Nedvědice
Time from home: 3h 57m
Number of trains caught: 3
Distances from: Prague: 176km Brno: 40.2km Vienna: 165km Bratislava: 176km

Ending point: Tišnov 
Time from home: 3h 6m
Number of trains caught: 1!
Distances from: Prague: 189km Brno: 24.9km Vienna: 150km Bratislava: 160km

Distance for the day: 24.2km
Total distance travelled: 312.1km
Equivalent distance in the UK: London-York (well London-Fulford, but near enough)

It always amazes me the number of people who are up at this time on a Sunday morning.

1000 - start of journey reached.

You will remember from last time that Pernštejn Castle will be our first destination, so here we go.

The first thing you notice is that the castle is closed! Looking at it, it's closed for the season. Back 29 March 2024.

This car park - empty because the castle was closed - had been planned to be the place where I took close up pictures of the castle. Plan foiled - no view of the castle as it's on a cliff. On we plod.

A Mother and Child painting on the cliff edge. As you do.

I'm attempting to convey just how high up this thing is.

That's as close as you get on a day when the castle is closed. I'll be back next year to visit when it is open. 

It's hard to describe. The castle gives the overall impression of having been created by AI.

Back to reality with a bump - I've been walking 85 minutes and I've travelled the sum total of 150m. Ho hum.

The same spectacular mountainside as last time. 

 

First village. That's a manhole cover, not a pothole.

Just a few logs for the winter.

Cow and calf.

A sign of approaching civilisation - a petrol station in the countryside. The last one was a number of trips ago.

Contrary to appearances, we are not in Croatia.

It's pretty, but not as pretty as its Croatian equivalent. 

We leave Doubravník, the railway and the river, and head uphill. For the first time since leaving Prague, we have no yellow signs to guide us. Route 1 has followed the river, and Euro Velo 4 has no signs in this area. Quite why we didn't follow route 1 and go a few extra kilometres is beyond me...

 

...but the view back to Doubravník is very pretty.

The colour contrast in the colour of the trees really is beautiful.

I partcularly love the larch trees, being the only local deciduous conifer (at least that I know of).

After our brief visit to Croatia, we visit Kazakhstan.

We leave the main road (at long last...), cross the river...

...and rejoin the railway.

A nice new path makes a pleasant change from the main road.

We still have the amazing steep hillside on the edge of the valley.

The rock from the hillside looks like it might be joining us on the path soon...

...or maybe ending up in the river, as it seems a few of the rocks have here.

As we approach Tišnov, we go under a real railway with overhead wires...

...into serious civilisation.

For the first time since Prague, the route is closed. You might be able to see that they are building houses in the distance. It means a 2km detour.

However, the detour did mean that I had this rather wonderful view in the late evening sunshine.

As well as this rather scary walk on the side of a main road.

Not for long though - we were soon back to this country path.

An example of South Moravia being different - a white sign (rather than a yellow one) for a cycle route.

Arriving in Tišnov, a bus on a Sunday. That's something which we haven't seen, rail replacement buses aside, for many weeks.

Journey's end, and a direct train home. I had planned to go another 6km, and I certainly had the feet, but I didn't have the time. My lack of understanding about Pernštejn and the diversion towards the end of the journey meant that I would be running out of light. 

The next instalment won't be until mid-January. In the next episode of Walking with Sergeant:

• we finally reach Brno
• we visit a villa named after a British politician
• we visit a castle named after an American film director
• we note the difference between the Prague and Brno astronomical clocks

Until then, good night all.

From Prague to Vienna - week 10, Bystřice nad Pernštejnem to Nedvědice

Evening all

Saturday was the last day before the clocks went back, so it was a 'now or never' situation if I wanted to reach Brno this year, as it was a necessary 30km between railway stations. The good news was that I didn't have to catch the first train, or, more to the point, catching the first train would have been pointless as I would have reached the starting point at the same time. The bad news was that I still had to rise and shine at 0515.

The map has been edited to include Week 10. 

For those of you who remember my Scunthorpe match reports, I always liked to start with some statistics (including balls out of the ground). I'll do something similar here.

Starting point: Bystřice nad Pernštejnem
Time from home: 3h 40m
Number of trains caught: 2
Distances from: Prague: 166km Brno: 50.4km Vienna: 172km Bratislava: 186km

Starting point: Nedvědice
Time from home: 3h 40m
Number of trains caught: 2 (and a rail replacement bus)
Distances from: Prague: 176km Brno: 40.2km Vienna: 165km Bratislava: 176km

Distance for the day: 30km
Total distance travelled: 287.9km

I've added Bratislava in as it is two days along the Danube from Vienna. 

SPOILER: If you don't like views of mountain scenery with autumn colours, stop reading now.

The usual pictures of a quiet early morming in Prague. 

The branch line train to Bystřice nad Pernštejnem.

Starting point reached, with a rail replacement bus outside the station due to repairs beyond Bystřice.

Fairy tale characters by the side of the path in Bystřice. They liven up an otherwise uninspiring town.

We join the route after about 2km, and say hello to route 1 again, which left us at Hlinsko. Hlinsko was two days past, and there are no railway stations in between - so the slightly longer diversion has been welcome. The destination of Nedvědice is signposted from the start, which is always good.

The sun threatened us with its presence.

Our dalliance with route 1 was brief. We continue straight on towards Vír. It's good to see a sign showing the distance to the destination so early in the day. And only 70km to Brno - except of course it isn't, as we're going the long way round. Again, but as you'll see, with reason.

The week's first tree. No autumn colours, so I thought it was a Holm Oak until I took the lower photo. Google tells me that it's a hazel, but I've never seen one that size before. I can see it from the leaves, though.

Something gnarled. I think that it's a willow. (EDIT 2 Nov 2023: It is actually a wych elm. I don't remember ever having seen a mature elm tree before.)

A village in the distance. But, much as I like going through the first village of the day, the road ahead is going in another direction.

Conifers are often more beautiful when dead.

Nothing could have prepared me for the beauty of the scenery beyond the turn of the road towards the village. We dropped with initially a valley being to our right...

...round a hairpin bend to a sheer rock face...

...and we start to see beech as the dominant mature species, as often happens in the mountains.

Eventually, we reach Vír, the first village - almost two hours after leaving Bystřice - ...

...with its cobbled street.

A village at the bottom of a mountain pass is not where I would have expected to find a Japanese Maple, but every day is a school day. 

I'm here just early enough to see the Sumach before it loses its leaves.

 

 

Another hillside view with autumn colours.

Half way, crossing the Svratka river.

A pretty cottage.

A swan on the river. 

An angler in the river.

The road, somehow, keeps going downhill...

...with yet more autumn colours.

Lower in the valley, we see an oak sapling.

Wood for the winter. The hills are alive with the sounds of chainsaws.

Japanese maples are often grown in sheltered conditions. Using conifers as shade and a windbreak is novel.

Mandatory picture of a fern.

A bellflower (campanula) is flowering late in the season.

A rose and a sweet pea. In late October.

Hilda Ogden style flying ducks for outside. Or not.

The rocks remain.

For the first time since Bystřice, we leave the road.

Another two examples of the visual impact of dead conifers.

Two kilometres to go.

We reach South Moravia (Jinomoravský Kraj). We are now in Brno Outer District.

The Virginia Creeper is pretty on the outside of the house.

We reach the station for the trip home, with an hour and a half to spare.

The contrast between the industrial and the beautiful.

First destination next time - Pernštejn Castle.

Good night all.