As part of our vacation we headed to Valdštejn Castle.
Valdštejn is one of the oldest castles in Bohemia and the oldest castle in the Bohemian Paradise. It was founded around 1260.
We drove to the Pelešany parking lot, which is about 1 km from the castle.
From the car park we followed the green tourist trail.
After 200 metres of walking on asphalt, we turned onto a forest, slightly hilly path that led up to Valdštejn Castle.
We approach the stone bridge in front of the castle.
A stone bridge with statues of Czech patron saints leads to the entrance gate (these are copies, the original statues are kept in the castle in the Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk).
The castle offers guided tours of the exteriors and interiors, or unguided tours of the exteriors only, with the possibility to look into some of the open rooms.
Since our dogs are with us almost all the time, we chose the unguided tour of the exteriors.
Entrance fee with a guide is 130 CZK, without a guide 110 CZK, dog 20 CZK.
From the first courtyard, a second, shorter bridge with two statues leads to the classical house, which is only accessible with a guide.
So we walked through the ground floor to the second courtyard, where the chapel of St. John of Nepomuk.
We continue on the staircase and terrace to the oldest part of the castle. On the terrace we descend the staircase to the beautiful billiard hall.
The oldest part of the castle consists of the ruins of the castle walls, cellars and a lookout from which you can see the ruins of Trosky Castle.
On the way back we had a small snack in the pub U Hradu in front of the first stone bridge and then went down the same way back to the parking lot.