This portion of the route cycling through Novohradske Mountains can be summarized in short as from depressing to impressive. It’s not the landscape, the scenery is wonderful, with pristine nature, forests and lush greenery around, vistas to lift your spirit, but I refer to the manmade.
Pohorska Ves is a village where time seems to have come to a halt forty years ago. As you enter it you feel being in a time warp straight out of Cold War era. Decrepit multi-family prefab housing built at the height of post Bay of Pigs standoff, with paint still peeling, lining the main drag. Even the machinery, from tractors to plows, passing through still seem to belong to some kind of agricultural cooperative, men in blue overall and rubber boots still strolling down the street, only the red stars, hammers and sickles are missing.
Once you leave Pohorska Ves, the local townscape gets little more upbeat in Malonty and Rychnov nad Malsi, where a handful of residents spruced up a bit their homes though you still feel as if you are traveling in the 1980s at best. Rychnov could be a nice village, has a 14-century gothic church, but everywhere you look major funds are needed to renovate, to make the place look more uplifting, and that will take years.
Dolni Dvoriste gets more Austrian tourists and has an aura of more money and it shows in a number of hotels and B&Bs. Although the colorless gloom of bygone era still permeates the ambiance on the fringes, and the only occasional semblance of prosperity comes from “brothels” (and a casino!) that cater to truckers passing on the E55 (yes, prostitution is one of those business ventures that took a solid root very early on after Velvet Revolution all over the borderlands of Czech Republic), Dolni Dvorsite is not the place to stop unless perhaps you are driving.
But the highlight to this point is Svaty Kamen, a short way off the main route and well worth the detour. In the 90s renovated pilgrimage Church of Our Lady of the Snows and nice views of southern landscapes from here make for a nice lunch and cold glass of cold beer at local “Hostinec”. If you should continue further south from Svaty Kamen, you will reach the Czech-Austrian border. The route makes for a fine bicycle day trip through northern Austria.
Undeniably the best is the destination for the day, Rozmberk on Vltava River. Situated right at a sharp left turn of Vltava and dominated by an impressive Rozmberk Castle, it makes for a wonderful overnight stay. The castle was originally built in gothic style of 13th and 14th century, but renovated over the centuries it possesses elements of 16th and 17th century renaissance and baroque as well as neo-classical features of 19th century.
Rozmberk has number of nice small inns that sprung up after 1990, with owners renovating scores of fine historical buildings. The inns get lots of traffic from Austria, especially from those living in Linz and near the Czech border, as the overnight rates and sumptuous dining at half the price what it would be in Austria lure them for short getaways, especially on weekends.
