First, sorry for the tardiness in getting this post up. We left our travel laptop at our family’s house over Thanksgiving. Now, on to the post…
Last day in the Czech Republic!
We spent the day in the medieval town of Cesky Krumlov, located in the South Bohemia region of Czechia (if you now have Bohemian Rhapsody in your head- you’re quite welcome). During the two hour drive, it started snowing. It was a winter wonderland and added to the charm of the picturesque village as buildings were snow-covered when we arrived.
Our guide was a wizened older gentleman (kind of reminded us of a gnome), who liked to talk A LOT, but was overall very personable and nice.
This is him:
Our first stop was the Cesky Krumlov Castle complex. The castle was closed but we were able to walk through the museum area. There were the typical museum like displays, which if you’ve followed our previous travels you’ll know that in this part of the world, much of their history was violent and thus they take much pride in their arms and armor. Similar here (although nothing can touch Peles Palace in the Romanian Carpathians). Here are a few photos of both the outer courtyards as well as the museum to give you a feel of the place:
And of course much of the items of the day they used to live (showing bedrooms, offices, etc. along with other curiosities such as this collection… (can you guess what they are?)
And of course all of these castles, manor houses, and palaces had to have a heating system for the harsh winters, so we found the typical heating “blocks” in many of the rooms, all quite warm and radiating off heat, functioning well:
Next we were able to climb the tower for a spectacular panoramic view of the town, almost 300 feet above the Vlatava River. The wind was blowing and boy was it cold at the top (although we were able to stay warm from the 60,000 steps up to the top – or at least that’s what it felt like)! Definitely worth it for the view and the pictures though.
Here are some pics of Cesky Krumlov proper, which is actually on an island, protected by the castle.
The claim to fame for Cesky Krumlov is that it is a very picturesque medieval town, still paved with cobble and quaint as it was back in the day. While this is all of course true, it definitely caters to the tourist crowd, with mainly shops, restaurants, and lodgings along the cobbled paths. Yes, there is still a large church, some apartments and what not, but it is mainly a commercial area.
The rest of the day was spent walking through the town, checking out the quaint shops and restaurants (okay, the ones that were open…..there were a lot of closed businesses that day!!).
Here are a string of photos showing the charm of a cobbled medieval town:
(This is just outside the castle gates, where you first come into the town.)
This was the main square of the town, of which the tourist center, the church, along with many restaurants and hotels were around.
And of course we were on our own to find lunch in the town. We walked past a lot of restaurants that were closed, before we found a quaint (dare-we-say-hole-in-the-wall as it was the width of one archway) gypsy restaurant. (It really was a gypsy restaurant, with items such as gypsy stew on the menu.) We of course opted to have chicken schnitzel because that sounded very good at the time.
Here is the restaurant:
You can see the arch in the ceiling at the end, this defined the width of the restaurant.
And of course our chicken schnitzel:
It was getting dark as we were leaving, but as places began to light up, that made the town even more quaint and lovely. Here’s an alleyway that as you can see was well lit, along with the castle “arches” that we crossed back under:
Upon returning to Prague we decided to go to Old Town for dinner. Arriving in the area, we realized that we didn’t bring a camera or a phone and that we really should have. After eating dinner, we headed back to the hotel to grab said camera/phone and then headed back out to take night time pictures of Old Town and Charles Bridge. Did we mention that we didn’t head back out until almost 11 pm? And that the trams only ran until midnight?? Tim had us on a timed scheduled (x # of minutes on the tram, x # of minutes to walk, etc.) which we were able to adhere to. The drawback to all of this? By the time we got back and packed it was 1 am and we had to get up at 3 am to catch our flight. SO worth it though to see Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock, and other sites at night!!
Here are some Prague-After-Dark shots…
This is Church of Our Lady before Tyn, which is across Old Town Square from Old Town Hall:
The astronomical clocks on Old Town Hall:
This is the Old Town bridge tower for the Charles Bridge:
And although we walked down a lot of dark streets, nearing mid-night, it did not feel unsafe at all (of course you maintain a heightened awareness of your surroundings, but still no feeling of evil doers you might feel in an American big city).
And we of course did our best to try and get a shot of Prague Castle across the river lit up at night. That was a tricky shot, and here’s the best we could get on an iPhone…
Our trip home was long but uneventful. Got home in time to drop off our bags, pick up a new set of luggage, and head to the farm for Thanksgiving.
Another whirlwind Collins vacation in the books! Who knows where the next one will be?! (Jay has ideas of course)