Day 5, from Cesky Krumlov to Benesov
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
This hotel is one of the best I have been in. I slept very well in my
comfortable room and at nine o'clock we had a tasty breakfast.
After breakfast, we checked out and started looking for a gas station to
fill our tanks for the ride to Benesov.
Leaving a fine hotel in Cesky Krumlov
At a quarter to ten, we stopped at a gas station and soon we had our tanks
filled and were on our way to Benesov to visit the JAWA motorcycle museum.
We had hoped for good weather but we were not very lucky today. We had quite
some rain today but to be honest, between the showers, we also had a little
sunshine.
Rain.....
Dark clouds on the horizon....
A big power station
.....and more rain
After we ignored a sign "do not enter", we found out why the sign was there.....
The road was blocked because they were working on a railway crossing so we had to
turn around and find another route.
To big an obstruction to ignore
In the end it turned out very nice because via a narrow road we came to a nice
village, Bechyne, with a castle on a hill, a nice town square and a restaurant
were we bought cappuccino and cake.
The castle of Bechyne
Nice houses on the bank of the river Luznice at Bechyne
Riding up the hill to Bechyne
In this restaurant we had cappuccino and cake
After we left Bechyne we rode to Benesov to Hotel Atlas. The rooms were
available from two o'clock but we were there at one o'clock....
Fortunately, the guy at the front desk offered to take care of some of
our luggage before we went to the motorcycle museum.
Hotel Atlas in Benesov
From the hotel is was only five minutes to the Jawa Motorcycle Museum at
Konopiste 30 in Benesov. We parked our bikes at a big parking near the museum
and went to the front door......that was locked.....
We walked around the building and on the other side of the building was the
entrance of a "pension" (guesthouse). We asked at the guesthouse how we
could get in the museum and the friendly lady sold us tickets and let us in
the museum via the guesthouse.
Outside the high season, the museum is only opened in the weekend..... We were
lucky the lady of the guesthouse was so friendly to let us in.
It is a small but very interesting museum. They have a lot of old JAWA's and
it is surprising to see how high tech the JAWA's were before the World War II.
There were a lot of competion bikes like motocross, roadrace and speedway racers,
with pictures of the riders. Very nice done.
The JAWA motorcycle museum
Also very interesting were some prototypes. I liked the 420cc four stroke boxer
with shaft drive and disk brakes very much.
A 420cc four stroke boxer
I wanted to buy a t-shirt but the only size t-shirt available was XXL and that is
to big for me so no souvenir t-shirt this time.
I knew there was a big castle near the JAWA museum and when I asked about it, they
told it was about a fifteen minutes walk from the parking lot.
Normaly I have no problem with walking but on motorcycle boots, with leather
motorcycle pants and a warm jacket, it is much to warm so we asked if the tourist
train went to the castle.
It did and after they woke up the driver, who was asleep in his car, we went to
the castle by "train".
We were the only passengers in the tourist train
The entrance of the Castle Konopiste in Benesov
The Castle Konopiste in Benesov was a Gothic castle in the 13th century and in
the 17th and 18th centery, it was changed in what it is now. One of the people
who lived here was Franz Ferdinand. Inside the castle is his collection of more
then four thousand historical weapons.
It is a very beautiful castle
The courtyard
We payed for a guided tour through the castle and it was worth it. All the rooms
were the same as they were, when Franz Ferdinand lived here and the collection of
historical weapens was magnificent.
Italian statues in the castle gardens
A black bear in a moat near the entrance
After we finished the tour we left the castle and tried to find the way back to
our motorcycles on the parking lot. Fortunately, an English pensioner, who lived
Benesov, showed us where to go and with a little help of the GPS on my Nokia
smartphone, we found our bikes.
After a short ride, we were back at the hotel and found the fenced parking behind
the hotel.
Our bikes behind the hotel
We checked in and collected our luggage. As soon as we had our luggage in our rooms,
we got on the internet to book a hotel for the next two days in Prague. The hotel we
found is a boat in the river Vitava (the Moldau) in the city center, Hotel Albatros at Nabrezi
Ludvika Svobody 1 in Prague.
At six PM, we both had a very big pizza in the restaurant of the hotel. It was so
big that I could not eat it all and all we took for dessert was an espresso.
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