Our relaxing days had us geared up for an excursion to Cesky Krumlov, a small town about three hours south of Prague. The Czech Republic comprises a few regions, and Cesky Krumlov is in the Bohemian region. We set off to catch our 10.30 am bus, jumping on board the number 7 tram, which took us to a part of Prague we hadn’t explored to date – Smichov.
A short walk from the tram and we arrived at the bus station with 45 minutes to spare. Sadly, no cafes were to be seen, and rather than risk missing the bus, we shivered the time away in an open air bus terminal.
Our bus arrived and left a minute early (good idea not to risk taking too much time on a coffee hunt) and we started our journey. The countryside is lovely, especially with the wooded hills so many hues of green and gold. We drove through and past small towns, the architecture clearly suited to snowy winters. For a three hour trip, we didn’t get a rest stop – just pick up and drop off stops in Pisek and Budejovice.
Once we arrived in Cesky Krumlov we trusted the evil blue dot to get us into town. Wow. Even with a dreary, overcast day, our first sight of the old town took our breath away. This was already shaping up to be a very good idea. Being a World Heritage listed town, the streets and buildings are impeccably maintained, and our walk across the bridge and along the street towards the main square promised a special experience.
We stopped for lunch at the ‘Authenic Café’ after avoiding the hordes of Chinese tourists in the streets – that was a bit of a shock – and then wandered around, eventually crossing a bridge to reach the lower castle grounds. The castle complex is, by all accounts, the second largest in the Czech Republic after the Prague castle, so rather than rush through it, we opted to leave it until the morning. A lot of tourists arrive in Cesky Krumlov on day tours, so we hoped we could avoid the crush if we got out and about early enough.
We had a bit of trouble finding our apartment as the street numbering system in the Czech Republic is unfamiliar, but when the evil blue dot insisted we were at the location, we walked through what we thought was a doorway into a business. Our apartment is on a ‘negative’ level, with the outer foyer opening onto an open patio. The apartment was quaint with a single bed in the entrance that led into a tiny kitchette and even tinier bathroom. A couple of step down and we were in a good sized bedroom that looked over the patio. Looked like a great place to spend two nights while we explored Cesky Krumlov.
Settled in, we set off to explore. Every street we walked down was just as lovely as the last, and as the old town is set on a horseshoe bend of the river, there are small waterways to cross. With the beautiful buildings, the waterways and the autumn foliage, is this the most magical town in the world? Even with overcast skies the quaint beauty set our senses alight.
Reviews of the apartment mentioned poor water pressure and it was true – the shower was a trickle but the water was hot and it was enough to wash the day away, although it was a bit tricky as the shower stall was tiny. But it was all made up for by the bed! After a couple of weeks of the bed in our Prague apartment, this bed was like sleeping on a cloud.
We were up early-ish and had some trouble finding a restaurant that was open at 9 am, but we found one and had an almost warm coffee (what is it with the Czech Republic and luke warm coffee?) and toastie to set us up for some exploring. It was just lovely to walk the streets without many people and the sun was shining, so a gorgeous town just shone. We found the ticket office for the tower and palace museum (180 crowns each) and headed up the tower. We almost had it to ourselves, and it was so fun climbing up, especially the parts of the tower stairs that were still the original stone. The view from the top was easily worth the climb and we even discovered the bears that have an enclosure at the base of the tower.
From the tower we headed into the museum which while small, was excellent. The information cards in each room clearly described everything and the history of the families who owned the castle, which was established in the 13th century. The display of weapons was fantastic and, interestingly, the Eggenbergers were granted the right to mint their own coins in the 16th century, so the display of minting machines and coins was fascinating. We also enjoyed watching home movies in the little theatrette that is part of the museum.
As we left the museum to explore the rest of the castle and grounds, the tour groups were beginning to arrive. We are fascinated by the huge percentage of them being Chinese, and we have noted that the mini marts are staffed, and presumably owned by, Chinese. If you’re not interested in eating the local cuisine it is easy to get a Chinese meal as we had already seen a couple of Chinese restaurants in the town.
The castle gardens are huge and we wandered around, discovering what looks to be an outdoor theatre being built. It would be awesome to watch classical plays as it appears that one of the complex buildings would be the stage. It was too early for lunch and Colin had a brilliant idea – pick up some beer and sit on our patio which has a magnificent view over the town. While Colin drank his beer (a bit too chilly for my liking) we also shared the rest of our plum rakia as we pretended that this was our home.
Before we were too tempted to have an afternoon nap, we made our way back into the town on the hunt for lunch. Prices are typical of a tourist town and we wanted to sit by one of the waterways so that added to the cost. We found a nice spot that wasn’t going to blow the budget and enjoyed a lovely meal overlooking one of the smaller waterways with the palace as a backdrop. Have I mentioned how breathtakingly gorgeous this town is?
Over the past few days we have been discussing how we were going to chew up our local currency – problem solved as the restaurant didn’t accept cards for payment. It was something we discovered was quite common in Cesky Krumlov – many of the restaurant only accept cash (Crowns or Euros) so that came as a bit of a shock as we hadn’t had any issues in Prague.
We spent the afternoon continuing to explore more of the town and as we moved out of the centre we crossed a bridge and found a glorious park – being autumn the trees are turning and it just makes the whole scene visually spectacular. This would be such a pretty place to be for Christmas, especially if it snowed…but who am I kidding? I don’t think this town would ever NOT look gorgeous.
We had another morning to explore Cesky Krumlov as our bus left at 2pm and when it was time to find a spot for lunch, the cash problem reared its head. I was keen to try a different restarunat, but after asking at four different places, we ended up back at the Authentic Café as we knew they accepted card payment. Colin got one of the best club sandwiches we had ever seen and I tried one of the ‘wagon wheel’ desserts after my chicken noodle soup. I can’t remember what they’re called, but it was like a goumet wagon wheel and it went down well with a HOT coffee – finally a place that understands the word hot.
The trip back to Prague went smoothly, and it was dark by the time we arrived. At 5 pm I guess people are heading home from work, so the trams were quicte crowded. Cheeky us, we didn’t buy our tickets, figuring ticket checks would be difficult and we hadn’t seen any ticket police to date. Thankfully, we didn’t end up with a story to tell as we got off the tram without any interference.