Průhonice is a village on the south-eastern edge of Prague, close enough to the capital that you can hear the city's hum, and yet its park feels like a separate country. The park was shaped from the 1880s by Count Arnošt Emanuel Silva-Tarouca, a passionate plantsman who worked with the landscape designer Adolf Vaněk to create a naturalistic landscape of lakes, meadows and woodland. He collected trees and shrubs from across the temperate world, and the park is especially known for its rhododendrons, which bloom in a riot of colour around May.
The castle at its heart, with its old pond and mirror-like reflection, is a modest and rather pretty building. Today the grounds belong to a botanical research institute, so there is a serious working side to the place as well as the pleasure of the walk. Old oaks stand beside the water, and the paths wind between plantings that were designed to look as though nature had made them. In the early morning, with mist on the pond and birdsong in the trees, it is very hard to remember that the Prague ring road is only a few minutes away.
The riding in this area is easy but not dull. Roads fan out of Prague through small villages and farmland, often with a gentle roll, and you can leave the city traffic behind quite quickly if you start early on a weekday. The surface is generally good, corners are mild, and the main hazard is commuter traffic around the ring road. If you are heading toward Saxony and the Erzgebirge, as the ride to the Pöhlberg mining landscape does, this is a good place to warm up and stretch before the long run north-west.
Průhonice is a small place, about two thousand people, so you will find a petrol station and a few places to eat, but for anything more you should look to Prague or the nearby larger towns. Czech cooking is simple and filling, and a lunch of goulash and dumplings is the sensible choice before a day on the road.
The best time to come is late spring, when the rhododendrons and azaleas are in flower, though autumn colour is also splendid. Winter has its own stark charm, and the park is far less crowded.