Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
coffee and munch sweet Moravian crêpes under the blue sky (open
daily, enter from left side of same house as Restaurace Alfa and
walk through the passageway).
TRANSPORTATION cONNEcTIONS
From Mikulov to:
Pavlov
(4 buses/day Mon-Fri, 1/day Sat-Sun,
30 min),
Va lt ice
(10 trains/day, 15 min),
Lednice
(2 buses Mon-
Fri afternoons only, 20 min),
Moravský Krumlov
(2 trains every
afternoon, 1.5 hrs, transfer in Hrušovany),
Vienna
(8 trains/day,
2 hrs, transfer in Břeclav).
Lednice and Valtice
The twin towns of Lednice and Valtice—connected by a lush,
walkable greenbelt—each boast a proud castle. Located along
the Austrian border southeast of
Mikulov, they make up one of
the Czech Republic's most visit-
worthy castle regions.
Since the 1 200s, Lednice
and Valtice have been part of
the Mikulov-based Lichtenstein
family. The Lichtensteins were
to S out h Mor av i a w h at t he
Rožmberks were to South Bohe-
mia: either caring benefactors
who turned marshes and beech woods into the promised land,
or despotic aristocrats who mercilessly impoverished their serfs...
depending on whom you ask. While the Rožmberks died out in
the early 1600s, the Lichtensteins thrived during the Thirty Years'
War (they wisely stayed loyal to the victorious Habsburgs) and
continued to enrich the region until the 1940s. While Valtice was
their winter residence, they summered at Lednice (even though
Lednice means “fridge,” so named because this stretch of the Dyje
River is known for frequent frosts). Of the two castles, Lednice is
more interesting to tour.
An even more compelling reason to make the short side-trip
from Mikulov or Břeclav is the spectacular 19th-century English-
style park, which extends for miles between the Lednice and
Valtice castles. Native oaks and exotic cedars span their gnarled
branches over wild meadows and green lakes, Romantic castles
and Taj Mahal-style minarets rise in the middle of woods like
apparitions, and rare birds silently glide through the sky.
