Very short ride around the most visited and historically important castle Karlštejn. This castle was founded by Karel IV, the Holly Roman Emperor, the king who changed the history of the country in many ways. Castle served as a treasure vault for the Czech Crown Jewels. Its appearance is quite unique and there are speculation of who the architect really was. And besides its important historical significance, it became the stage of the greatest real estate swindle. It was sold in 1945 to an American couple by notorious cheater Harry Jelinek for $30k. The couple soon realized that it was all a scam, but they did not even report it to the police as they did not want to look like a complete idiots to believe that this castle was for sale.
We started the ride from a tiny parking place next to the Amerika, the flooded quarry, close to Mořina. In the last ride we used the yellow tourist path, but this time we avoided the mud ride after the rain. There are several places marked on the map as “No entry for bicycles” but in reality there is no restriction to use bicycles on these roads. The only part where you should respect the limited use of bikes is from point 12 uphill, due to the number of pedestrians walking up to the castle.
At point 10 you will be passing the “Oak of seven brothers”, a significant tree where the seven robber brothers were usually meeting after successful raid to split the proceeds. At point 11 you can stop and have a lunch or just Kofola at the restaurant “Under dragon rock” (Pod dračí skálou). If you stop later under the castle after point 12, you may have to compete with the hordes of tourist for a bite or a drink.
From Karlštejn you will be following the red tourist mark on sometimes pretty narrow path. Just before the point 16 pay attention to quite steep ride down, which can be slippery after the rain. From point 17 to 18 you will be complaining about our choice of the path (by walking your bike uphill), but after 18 it is again rideable. At point 20 you may take a shortcut to 23 using the yellow mark to the left, avoiding fighting very narrow uphill climb through the nettles from 21 to 23. The last really bad part is 27 to 28 where you will have to walk your bike uphill for a little bit. Avoiding this is easy by going down on the road to Dolní Roblín and turning left on a blue tourist mark.
https://en.mapy.cz/s/junocugobu, 21 km, 540 m elevation gain. To see this ride in context, check our interactive maps.
