Lednice is a palace, a park and a surprising piece of luxury in the south of Moravia. The palace belonged to the princes of Liechtenstein, who ruled these lands for centuries and turned them into a vast landscaped estate, and the building that stands at the end of the village today is a neo-Gothic confection of towers and pinnacles, rebuilt in the nineteenth century in the English style. Around it lies a huge park with ponds, avenues and follies, and together with the neighbouring Valtice, the whole area is a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 1996 as the Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape.
The park is full of curiosities. One is a minaret, around sixty metres tall, built in the early nineteenth century as a romantic folly, a strange sight in the middle of Moravian fields and one that visitors can climb for a view across the park. There are also a Chinese pavilion, a hunting lodge, a romantic ruin and a huge greenhouse, all part of a composition planned over generations. Water runs through the park in channels, and swans, herons and kingfishers live along them.
The countryside around is flat and fertile, a place of vineyards, orchards and fields of corn and sunflowers, with the Thaya river wandering through. Cyclists are everywhere, because the area has a network of paths, and drivers have to be patient. The roads are straight and the corners gentle, and a motorbike here is a way of linking sights rather than an exercise in cornering. The hot summer sun can be strong, and the flat land offers little shade, so the early morning and evening are best.
Lednice has a couple of thousand people, and fuel is better found in Břeclav, a bigger town about seven kilometres away. There are cafes and restaurants in the village, and the wine cellars of the surrounding area offer tastings, though a rider will want to keep it to a sip. South Moravia produces most of the Czech Republic's wine, with whites such as Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, and the local reds are improving.
Visit in late spring, when the park is green and the lilacs bloom, or in September during the grape harvest, when the vineyards are busy and the new wine appears.