After our visit to Modrava last week end, my feet have been itching to get into some open space and soak in the last rays of Autumn. After the visit to Roznov where Sarah stuffed her pockets full of Autumn leaves, she has been pining for forests instead of city pavements.
A long week-end was upon us with a Monday holiday, and in true fashion, I commenced my search for the week-end location on Friday night! The search was driven by looking for national parks with walking trails and then doing an accommodation search within the surrounds, and Lukov was the chosen destination with a B&B on the perimeter of the National Park Podyji!
On Saturday morning we collected the car and set off.
Along the way, the small country roads were lined with apple trees which were in full fruit. The girls hopped out the car and set off to pick fruit while we crawled along behind them. Maagies vol, we then continued to find our little village which was proving problematic as the GPS found 2 towns with the same name and we were left in the predicament of having to choose which one to try first. We got to the guest house in the late afternoon and settled down for the evening.
Sunday morning we bundled the girls into their kit and piled into the car to look for the parking area for the reserve (assuming it would be a little way away). To our surprise, we had gone no further than reversing the car out of the b&b driveway, and we saw the parking sign on the verge opposite, and so travelled a whopping 5 meters, parked the car and all piled out again.
We walked alongside a farmer’s field before getting into the forest where we would look for the trail that led to a ruined castle “Nový Hrádek” which ironically means “New Castle”, although dating back to 1358 (some history on this link).
So our walk begins (Colin’s photography is stunning!!!):
After a 2km walk, we arrive at the forest (seen above the green in the picture before) and see the path to Nový Hrádek, which is another 2km further. At this point I begin to wonder about the capacity of the smaller among us to go the whole way, but decide to see how we go.
There was much talk about looking for deer and finding bunnies (we even had to pack carrots and bread especially for the occasion). The girls were animated the whole way, hunting for the invisible creatures.
There was a point when the girls claimed that they were tired of walking and would go no further, and I managed to get them to go past one more bend to see if the castle was there. My lucky day – it was!
As we left the castle, we now decided it was time to leave behind the bunny feasts and Sarah skipped along very merrily the whole way back, planting carrots and bread, and reciting all manners of carrot delicacies that the bunnies would enjoy… “carrot cake; carrot cup-cakes; carrot juice; carrot stew; carrot soup; carrot pancakes”. Believe me when I say this did not stop the whole 8kms back – A Forrest Gump moment.
Meanwhile, Amber just munched her carrots.
After the walk we travelled to the neighbouring town of Znojmo to find some lunch. We enjoyed the scenery along the way:
And there’s always time to fit in a sunset or two before going in for din-dins. This one reminded me of an African sunset, although is nothing like it really. 
On Monday we visited Vranov nad Dyji which borders the park on the West. Again, the passing scenery got Colin’s trigger fingers jumping, forcing him to pull over and take some snaps. 
This is the approach to Vranov nad Dyji and the view of the Castle(dating back to the 11th century) on the hill overlooking the town.
The town is linked to quite a large lake, which we braved the cold long enough to walk over the dam wall and explore a bit, followed by lunch in a small and cozy restaurant that beckoned us with it’s roaring fire inside.
Home time, with our lungs full of fresh country air and the camera full of happy smiles and sunsets :)
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