Small-Town Castle Ruins, the Czech Way

As I’ve said many times – and I’m nothing if not redundant – every Czech town, no matter how small, has a castle. Some are grand. Others are small. Many are in ruins. Hukvaldy had really interesting ruins for my sister Lori and I to explore. We took a tram and then bus there, maybe an hour all-told. The castle is in a wooded game park and we hoped to see some of their strange deer, but no such luck. But the ruins were fun to wander around. For a long time we were the only ones there (my usual experience with Czech sites). There was a makeshift path along a steep (read: scary) hill along much of it.

Part was closed off with a huge solid iron gate, but there was a big gap at the bottom. I’m too old to enjoy getting on my knees. But that’s what my camera is for. So I just put it on the ground and took a shot. Here’s what it showed me:

That’s the drainage ditch cover, but more importantly – it’s cool, isn’t it?

Wandering through the woods on the way up and down from the castle were random interesting things like a carved tree trunk that turned out to be a Little Library (and I thought those were just in Minnesota!). Or a xylophone made from different types of wood. Or the liška (fox) statue with the well-rubbed shiny nose. For good luck? Or just curiosity? Just in case, we contributed.