Moravia: Lednice, Pálava, Telč and Olomouc

Brno is a student city that wears its history lightly. Start on Petrov hill, where the needle spires of the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul ring noon at eleven, a habit kept since the Swedish siege of 1645, then walk down to the Cabbage Market, where stalls still sell vegetables around the baroque Parnas fountain. Under the Capuchin church the crypt keeps its monks dry and in rows. The afternoon belongs to Villa Tugendhat, Mies van der Rohe’s glass house of 1930 with its onyx wall that glows at sunset. Charge at the Teplárny Brno fast hub by Galerie Vaňkovka.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: Teplárny Brno (Teplárny Brno Galerie Vaňkovka) — typical arrival 30%, about 25 min to 80%. Why stop here: Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Villa Tugendhat, Cabbage Market. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

A day under the ground and above it. North of Brno the road climbs through beech woods to Křtiny, where Santini’s pilgrimage church rises out of a small village like a ship, and on into the Moravian Karst. At Skalní mlýn leave the car for the little road train to the Punkva Caves: a walk through dripstone halls ends at the bottom of the Macocha Abyss, 138 metres of sheer rock with a disc of sky at the top, and the return is by boat along the underground river. The cable car lifts you to the upper bridge, where you look straight down into the same hole. Top up at the ČEZ charger in Blansko on the way back.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: Teplárny Brno (Teplárny Brno Galerie Vaňkovka) — typical arrival 30%, about 25 min to 80%. Why stop here: Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Villa Tugendhat, Cabbage Market. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

South-east of Brno the land flattens into the fields where Napoleon won at Austerlitz. Stop at the baroque chateau of Slavkov, where the armistice was signed, and drive up to the Peace Cairn on Pracký kopec, a stone memorial with a view over the whole battlefield. Then the road runs on to Lednice and into the strangest garden in Central Europe: the Liechtensteins turned some two hundred square kilometres between their two chateaux into a park of temples, ponds and avenues. At Lednice the neo-Gothic chateau stands beside a cast-iron palm house, and a boat glides along the canals to a sixty-metre minaret. Charge at the Ionity by Břeclav, ten minutes away.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: Ionity (Ionity Ladná (D2)) — typical arrival 35%, about 20 min to 80%. Why stop here: Lednice Chateau, Lednice Minaret, Temple of Apollo. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Valtice is the other half of the princely garden. The baroque chateau hides the National Wine Salon in its cellars, where you can taste the hundred best Czech wines of the year; whoever drives keeps to the sniffing. Above the town the Reistna colonnade stands on its ridge like a stage set, and the climb to its terrace opens the vineyards all the way to Austria. Between the two chateaux, by car or better by hired bike, look for the follies: the Border Chateau on the old Moravian–Austrian line, the triumphal arch of the Rendez-vous in the woods, the Temple of Apollo above a pond. In the evening the road reaches Mikulov, white houses under a chateau on a rock.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: ČEZ (ČEZ Mikulov) — typical arrival 40%, about 30 min to 80%. Why stop here: Holy Hill, Mikulov Chateau. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Climb the Holy Hill early, before the heat, past the stations of the cross to the white chapel of Saint Sebastian: below lie the roofs and the chateau, the Nové Mlýny lakes and the long line of the Pálava. Walk through the old Jewish quarter and its hillside cemetery, then drive the few kilometres to Pavlov, a wine village tucked under the limestone. A path climbs to the ruin of Děvičky, the Maidens’ Castle, the best viewpoint on the hills. In Dolní Věstonice the Archeopark tells the story of the Venus of Věstonice, a clay figure fired some 29,000 years ago. End the day in a cellar lane with a glass of Pálava. The ČEZ fast charger is on the edge of Mikulov.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: ČEZ (ČEZ Mikulov) — typical arrival 40%, about 30 min to 80%. Why stop here: Holy Hill, Mikulov Chateau. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

The road west follows the Austrian border through vines and poppy fields to Znojmo, a town built on a cliff above the Thaya. In the chateau grounds the little Rotunda of Saint Catherine keeps twelfth-century frescoes of the Přemyslid princes, and below the streets runs a maze of medieval cellars you can tour by lamp. In the afternoon drive into Podyjí National Park: from the village of Podmolí a path drops to Šobes, one of the oldest vineyards in Central Europe, hanging on a sunny meander of the river with forest on every side. Nearby the Hardegg viewpoint looks down on a whole Austrian town and its castle across the water. Charge at the E.ON fast station in Znojmo.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: E.ON Drive (E.ON Drive Znojmo) — typical arrival 40%, about 25 min to 80%. Why stop here: Rotunda of Saint Catherine, Znojmo Underground. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Follow the Thaya upstream to Vranov nad Dyjí, where a baroque chateau sits on a rock seventy metres above the river; inside, Fischer von Erlach’s oval Hall of Ancestors is painted to the top of its dome. A few bends further, Bítov castle stands over the long, fjord-like Vranov reservoir, and the lay-bys on the dam road are worth a stop. Then north across the hills to Třebíč, where the Jewish quarter climbs a slope above the river in narrow lanes and the Basilica of Saint Procopius shows its Romanesque portal; both are on the UNESCO list. Arrive in Telč at dusk, when the ponds go silver. Charge at the E.ON station in Třebíč; Telč has ČEZ points by the old town.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: ČEZ (ČEZ Telč) — typical arrival 45%, about 35 min to 80%. Why stop here: Telč main square, Telč Chateau. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Walk Telč before breakfast, when the long square of Zachariáš of Hradec is empty and every gable, scalloped, stepped or painted, has the light to itself; the Renaissance chateau and the two ponds that wrap the town finish the picture. Then cross the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, a quiet country of fish ponds and spruce, to Žďár nad Sázavou. On Zelená hora Santini built a pilgrimage church to Saint John of Nepomuk on a five-pointed star, with cloisters drawn in the same geometry. Charge at the E.ON hub in Žďár and drive on to Kroměříž, the archbishops’ town, for the evening walk through the Flower Garden and its long colonnade of statues.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: ČEZ (ČEZ Kroměříž) — typical arrival 35%, about 30 min to 80%. Why stop here: Archbishop’s Palace, Flower Garden. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Morning in the archbishop’s palace at Kroměříž, where Titian’s late, dark Flaying of Marsyas hangs among the state rooms, then east as the hills begin to rise. Štramberk is a village of wooden houses packed under a round castle tower called the Trúba; climb it for the view over the Beskydy, and buy a bag of Štramberk ears, the spiced gingerbread rolled like a cone. In the Beskydy leave the car at the lower chairlift station in Trojanovice and ride up to Pustevny, where Dušan Jurkovič’s carved wooden lodges look like something from a fairy tale and a treetop walkway runs along the ridge; on foot, Radhošť and its chapel are an hour away. Sleep in Rožnov, below the open-air museum of Wallachian villages.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: PREpoint (PREpoint Rožnov pod Radhoštěm) — typical arrival 30%, about 35 min to 80%. Why stop here: Radhošť, Wallachian Open-Air Museum. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.

Give the Wallachian Open-Air Museum the first hours, wooden cottages, a timber church and smoke from real chimneys, then drive west out of the hills onto the wide Haná plain. Olomouc is Prague without the crowds. On the Upper Square the Holy Trinity Column rises thirty-five metres in gilded baroque sculpture, and the astronomical clock on the town hall was rebuilt in the 1950s with workers and athletes in place of saints. Six baroque fountains are scattered through the squares; find Caesar and Hercules. Before dark, drive up to the basilica on Svatý Kopeček for the last long view over the plain, and order tvarůžky, the fierce local cheese, with a dark beer. Charge at the fast station on the edge of the centre.

Why stop hereCharge nearby: PREpoint (PREpoint Olomouc) — typical arrival 35%, about 20 min to 80%. Why stop here: Holy Trinity Column, Olomouc Astronomical Clock, Saint Wenceslas Cathedral. Access: walk from the overnight — leave the car.