Today started with a 6am wake up and quick shower and breakfast in the hotel. I stuck to pretty much the same food as the day before and probably will for the rest of the trip. I had already purchased the night before a tour to Cesky Krumlov (Chesky Kroomlov for easiest pronunciation) and had to be in the lobby for 8:30am which I had time enough to relieve myself of the excess coffee before the required time. The real irony is that the main starting point for tours with the company that my hotel uses (Premiant Tours) is literally a 3 minute walk from the hotel yet I have to get picked up in the morning. It might have been easier for me to book the tours right at the starting point but I didn't realize at the time how close it was.
Cesky Krumlov is a Unesco site. It is basically 16th century and earlier through a lot of it and most of the buildings are original if modified for modern use. It was the Unesco bill that sold me to try the trip. The town is basically about 2 and a half hours or so drive from Prague and the tour starts with a brief explanation of some of the city of Prague as we drove through and exited the town. The guide was named Janna and was a retired school teacher who gave the tour in both English and Italian. There were 16 of us on the tour. More than half were Americans, there were 3 Italians and 3 from Barcelona who figured they could follow along with the Italian because I guess their dialect is close enough. Of the Americans I was the only east coaster, the rest being from California. 3 were college girls in Prague for a course they were taking over the last month. There was an older couple just touring Europe as well as a couple of guys also touring Europe for a couple weeks and a mother and son who didn't really speak to anyone. The college girls reminded me why I regret not doing all this at an earlier age... ouch.
The tour started with a long drive to the town of Cesky Krumlov where we got stuck in traffic a couple of times and the driver appeared to have issues with the van stalling or not shifting properly or something where he kept restarting it mid-drive. That said we did make it to the town but where typically the tour gets to walk through the gardens of the castle instead we had to rush straight in because we were late arriving. The guide traded us to a castle guide who ran the tour inside. I think the tour lasted about an hour or so and took us through the various parts of the castle. They did not allow pictures inside so I had to buy a book. The castle started in the mid 13th century and was added to over the years. It is a large complex. Not as big as Prague castle but the second largest in the Czech Republic after it. The castle is built on two large rocky platforms and they built a very decorative bridge between the two parts. Inside the castle was probably rebuilt several times and it was obvious by the styles, most of which was Renaissance or Rococo. Since the castle is older than those period it was obvious a lot of it was redone over the centuries. The castle is quite impressive if more of a palace in style than a castle at this point as with Prague Castle. The guide was nice and knowledgeable and I enjoyed the tour quite a bit. This castle is not as impressive as Versailles and much of the paintings could use some restoration but it was still a very unique and interesting place. They had 3 bears as the Rosenberg family that owned it considered themselves related to the Italian Orsini family and that basically means bears. I did manage to get pictures of one of the bears. For some reason he had a keg in his habitat.
I should point out that the day was basically cloudy and below 60F with sprinkles so far and continued so as we exited the castle. The Premiant guide walked us down out of the castle and through the town to where we would have lunch, in a restaurant that used to be the local jail originally. I am sure it had not been used for that for quite a long time. Their specialty was roast pork and that was what I ordered. The place was dim and had a lot of medieval furnishings that included weapons and animal furs. I ordered a beer and got the Budweiser Budvar we've all heard about. This is the Czech beer that the American company bought the recipe from. The agreement was that the US Bud would not alter the recipe but that fell through many years ago. There must have also been an agreement that this Budweiser could keep its name because obviously the other one never tried to sue them to drop it like most gigantic corporations would. It is a reasonably good beer. Certainly better than the Bud of the US. I could not mark it amongst my favorites but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The lunch was roast pork and a baked potato and I really enjoyed the meal a lot. It was basically a pork chop but it was properly cooked and quite tasty. They served it on a wooden plate as a representation of the fact we were in a prison. We finished with some tart like pastries that were called wedding cakes by our guide.
When we stepped outside from lunch we were told we had about 50 minutes to wander the town. Somehow the grim and grey had turned into about 80F and sunny. It was nice because I got to walk around the town and retake some of the pictures I took with better sunlight than the grey overcast we had before. Mostly that was what I did with my free time only stopping to get a magnet and castle book. The town is actually bigger than it seems at first and the river that runs through it has several bridges to cross and lots of different points to take pictures from. I managed to find the local church but there was some sort of service going on so I really just ran in and out. I was the first to arrive at the allotted spot at the correct time and then the rest of the tour slowly trickled in. We were walked further through the town where our guide explained a few more features and then marched our way to the van where we loaded up and then started the long drive back into town.
They did not take the same route out as they took in. This direction took us through a national park that the Czech Republic shares with Austria (again I was very close to Austria) and then on to the major roads again eventually. This would have been an ok thing but the driver was moving very fast and the roads were very windy and up and downhill a lot. I actually wanted to shut my eyes but I was getting motion sick from it all and didn't get to do so until we got back on the major roads. There I probably catnapped for 20 minutes or so and then woke up with a stiff neck as to be expected. The remainder of the drive in was relatively uneventful and we made it into town a some time after 7pm. This was a long tour but a lot of it was really on the road. Still I enjoyed it. They dropped us off at the starting point rather than our individual hotels which works out best for me of anyone on the tour because of how close my hotel was. I was ready for dinner it being close to 8pm already and opted first to make a quick pit stop at the hotel and drop off my book and use the facilities.
I wasn't sure what to do for dinner but decided to walk slightly askew to the main throughway and found the Restaurant Templar (in English) which was actually an Italian style restaurant. Not really sure how Templars translate to Italian food but who am I to question these things. I didn't even realize the name until I had already ordered. I had another Budweiser Budvar or two and penne aglia i olio. It was actually quite good and I am glad I ordered it. They had red pepper in it to add some nice spice to it. After I finished dinner I had an Irish coffee (not sure why I ordered it but I did) and their ice cream plate which had a berry compote, whipped cream and some chocolate sauce accompanying vanilla and strawberry ice creams. I liked both quite a bit. When I finished I took an indirect route back to the hotel to hit a couple souvenir shops because I was in the neighborhood then headed back in to crash for the night.
The pictures from day 3 can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment