Many of our bike trips are fairly close to Prague and Beroun is no exception. This town is only a quick 30 minute drive from the center and easily reached by train as well. Beroun has everything it takes to make it a nice visit even without biking. In former times it used to be an enclosed fortress and you can still see the remains and ruins of the fortress walls just along the outskirts of the city center. The two main tower gates which were once connected to the fortress walls still stands and there is a nice big square inside. After seeing the remains of the walls, you can go and check out 3 bears that are residing in Beroun. These bears are in care of by the city as “the bear” represents the city. The annual Beroun pottery market is huge and worth a visit. Unfortunately this year it was cancelled due to covid.
The area itself is rolling hills with deep valleys. So we paid closer attention to our battery usage. Michal and I have a deal that once it reaches 50% battery on his he should make a decision to trade with me or live with the consequences! It makes sense that being a smaller person I use about 15% less than he does. Michal is the type of person that will run a car on fumes and I will fill a car up at ¼ tank. So he knows that he cannot trade batteries with me at less than 50%. Today I made the exception as he gave me 49%. The trip was 47 k total and there was about 30% left on the trade.
We parked near the river and bridge into Beroun as there is plenty of free parking. The first 9k goes along the small Litavka river and is a paved road. Its nice but you will hear the interstate that runs parallel until you get to Zdice. We had a late lunch at U Zímů (https://www.restauraceuzimu.cz/) which fits our requirements of sitting outside which we have done the majority of time over the past 6 months. This building was mentioned as a farmstead from the 1600’s. Zdice also has a small town square to look at.
After lunch we continued through some fields where you will see at a distance the Točník Castle and soon after you will see the ruins of Žebrák castle. They are so close together because King Wenceslaus IV had one as his private residence and when there was a fire he thought he needed a fortress castle nearby. Well, why not???? They are both worth the visit and it is always good to get two castles per trip at least.
After leaving the little villages (point 5) the trip gets a bit quieter through a nice forest on a dirt road. And another little village and more forest that is behind Beroun which is quite lovely looking over the town. We ended up back in the square of Beroun to look for a geocache that has eluded us for years. We have been there over five times and still cannot locate it. In fact, there were several other people searching and annoyed with the owner of this cache as it is rumored he changes the camouflage often to keep people coming back.
Speaking of caches. There is an amazing series called the Žebrácky stroj casu. Each one of the 26 hides is representing some important day in history. They are not difficult to find, but the creativity of the guy that set up scenes from history to put it in a small box is really impressive. We recommend this series to families and anyone who can really appreciate the cleverness.
https://en.mapy.cz/s/lazapuvesa 47 km with 623 m elevation gain. The part marked “No entry of bicycles” is a small bridge over which you should just walk your bike. The only part of the whole trip where you should be very careful with your riding is between points 17 and 18 (just after the two UFOs on the left).
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