Yesterday, our guest from America, Geoff, Marco Gregory and I made a day trip to Lednice Castle in Southern Moravia.

Lednice Castle

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The drive down was three hours. It was a great day, sunny all the way down and to within 30 KM of Prague, when it started to sprinkle. The weather was almost hot. When we arrived, we decided to do lunch at the castle restaurant. We were surprised that the castle has only been partially restored. The backside is pretty much done, but they’re just starting on the front side. The farther one strays from Prague, the more one finds Communist practices still holding on. We sat down in the restaurant (al fresco) and ordered drinks. The waitress disappeared into the building and we all decided what to eat. After several minutes, she returned and said, ‘we have a small problem. We’re expecting a group of 50 people in a few minutes, so the kitchen is closing, and you have to leave now.’ I would say that’s a small problem.

After walking around and inspecting the menus of several other restaurants, which served only snacks, we found another on outdoors and enjoyed a pretty good meal. We were joking about the ’small problem.’ Marko Gregory said, ‘well, we wouldn’t dare eat there if we’d gotten into a fight with her.’ Good point. After finishing, I insisted we walk back past the restaurant we’d been thrown out of. I wanted to see the group of 50 people. No body there.

We went onto the castle cashier and she said ‘There’s a group of 50 people with a reservation for a tour in about 20 minutes. You can come back then, and maybe they’ll let you join their group.’ So, we walked around for 20 minutes, returned and waited for 15 minutes when the lady said, ‘I guess they’re not coming. I always hate it when they make these reservations and don’t show up.’ Guess it was the same group over which we were thrown out the restaurant. We had a very nice semi-private tour. There were only two other ’sisters’ from Berlin who were in our group.

After the tour, we decided we’d stroll towards the famous ‘Minaret Folly’ a little over a mile’s walk through the Castles canals. As we walked, we were reminded it was quite hot. We made it to the Minaret in the heat and plunked ourselves down at the snacks shack right outside. We’d seen signs for a horse drawn cart. I asked Marek to find the sign and see if they had a telephone number and could come pick us up. He called the guy who said he’d be there in 15 minutes and his calling was no problem, lots of people did it.

When he arrived, the cart filled up quickly with everyone else who’d made it to the Minaret. And we drove back on the rather bumpy road, better than hoofing it back in the heat. Lednice is a great day trip from Prague, but only about 20 pc of the castle has been restored. A walk in the gardens is great. Be prepared to hire the cart to get you back.