Český Krumlov is shaped by a river. The Vltava makes a series of tight S-bends in a rocky valley in south Bohemia, and the old town sits in one of the loops, with a castle on a cliff above it, so that the whole place feels like a stage set. The castle is the second largest in the Czech Republic, with a round tower painted in Renaissance style, a bridge across the moat where brown bears live, and a Baroque theatre from the seventeenth century that still has its original stage machinery. The town was owned by the Rožmberk family and later the Schwarzenbergs, and the painter Egon Schiele lived here for a time in 1911. UNESCO listed the historic centre in 1992.
The centre is a tangle of cobbled lanes, with red roofs, gabled houses and little squares, and it is mostly closed to cars, so leave the bike in a car park at the edge and walk in. Fuel is available in town, which has about fourteen thousand people, and Kájov, a small village nearby, is quieter. Summer fills the streets with tourists, so go early or stay overnight to see the town in the evening, when the lamps are lit and the crowds have gone. Rafting down the river in an old canoe is a local summer ritual.
For riding, the Bohemian Forest, the Šumava, is the real reward. The roads around the Lipno reservoir and up into the hills run through spruce woods and meadows, with smooth surfaces, moderate bends and light traffic, and they cross into Austria with no border checks within the Schengen area. The ride list pairs this with the Enns Gräberstraße, a Roman cemetery road in Upper Austria, and a day that crosses both countries gives a feel for the old frontier between the Roman empire and the northern tribes.
Try roast pork with dumplings and cabbage, a thick garlic soup in a bread bowl and a glass of local beer, which is excellent. May to October is the best season, with September offering the quietest roads. Winter brings snow, and the town looks even better in white.