I just had to break out Cesky Krumlov into two posts because it's such an interesting, fun place. We arrived there on a Saturday afternoon and boy oh boy the tourists were out in droves. It's a touristy place but worth a visit. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site so it gets a lot of visitors.
If you read my previous post, you would have seen the giant medieval castle wall that is a gate into the city. The city itself is one filled with old buildings, narrow cobblestone streets and alleyways. It is very compact, but big enough where we had trouble finding our hotel. Because of the cobblestones and the many, many tourists, we ended up walking our bike as soon as we rode over the river and into the old part of the city, which made navigating to our hotel difficult because we were barely moving. After picking the correct direction, then deciding it was incorrect and going in the opposite direction because we seemed to be headed out of the older part of the city and into a dubious alleyway (and uphill), we had to turn back around to head up that alleyway, which was a street, to our hotel, the Pension Gardena. It was located just across the road from the old city but very convenient to what we wanted to see.
I'm mentioning this pension because they treated us so wonderfully. First off, our hotel room was actually in a building across the street from the main hotel. We had the entire building completely to ourselves, so the proprietor told us to put our bike inside the hallway right outside our room. He showed us a great balcony we could use on the second floor of the building and apologized that their garden could not be used as he was working on the landscaping. We commiserated with him about that type of work, having done it ourselves also.
Our biggest concern was a train that we needed to catch at 8:18 am the next morning. We were not crazy about the route shown in the GPS, as it looked long and confusing, so we asked him the best way to get to the train station, how far it was and how long he thought it would take us to get up there. We knew it was going to be a climb out of town because we had one hell of a descent into town, having to stop and cool the bicycle's brakes off on the way down a steep hill. I was very anxious about it taking too long to ride and missing this train because we had tickets for the early train, which would be taking us almost to the German border where we would continue riding to Passau, Germany to conclude the Czech Republic tour. If we missed the two-hour train ride, we would have added miles to a fairly long day. The proprietor pulled out a local map and showed us the route he would take up to the train station. He said there would be very little traffic on Sunday morning so we should be fine. Then he said that breakfast was at 7:30, but we probably were not going to be able to eat that late, so he offered to let us get breakfast at 7:00 instead. His wife, who ran the pension with him, was very accommodating and cooked us some scrambled eggs to go along with all the other buffet foods they had laid out for guests. We truly felt like they wanted to help us as much as they could. They truly went above and beyond for our stay there.
Our minds at ease regarding the logistics for the next day, we showered and headed out to explore the town. We just had to climb up on that castle wall we saw riding into the city. We walked back across town and into the castle. We chose not to tour the interior rooms as it was afternoon. We were not sure if the tour was guided or not and weren't sure we wanted to spend the money if we couldn't understand who was guiding the tour.
The view was pretty incredible from up there on that wall. It was worth the climb.
After our visit to the castle, we walked around town for a bit. I realized that this was our last night in The Czech Republic, and I hadn't bought a single souvenir. I usually try to buy a Christmas ornament from each vacation/tour we do. I love looking at them every year and remembering the places and experiences we've had. We were very close to the weight limit on all our bags coming over so whatever I bought had to be small enough to put in a carryon bag or not heavy enough to put our suitcases over the limit. In a small shop, I found some small wooden Christmas ornaments that were traditionally Czech. We got quizzed (jokingly) by the Lebanese proprietor on our Czech language skills (I was able to say please, thank you and beer by then ha ha). I did tell him I spoke a little French and we exchanged a few French words but his English was very good, so our exchange in French was just in jest. We went into a pastry shop where I bought a kolache and told the proprietress that they are different in Texas. I tried to convey that clearly hers were authentic and the Texas ones were not, but I think she took it the opposite way, so then I over-explained.
I should have heeded my earlier advice in this blog about having two ears and one mouth and said nothing.
I really loved wandering around the streets there. There was so much to see. We didn't get to see everything we wanted to.
We found a tiny Italian restaurant and had some great lasagna that night and then went for a walk in the dusk. I think we found the one restaurant in town that didn't take credit cards but took Euros and Czech Currency. Thank goodness we had some Euros because we were out of Czech currency.
After dinner, as we were wandering down a winding cobblestone street, we could hear accordion music and singing. We came around the bend and found an impromptu concert going on outside a restaurant with a small crowd gathered. There were three men performing at the entrance to a restaurant. We were guessing they were singing a traditional Czech song as most of the crowd was singing along with them. I have a great video of it that I wish I could load here. What a treat!
I was truly sad that we could not spend more time here touring the cathedral and the interior of the castle.
Tomorrow is our final day of our Czech Republic tour.
If you care to see more photos, you can go to Instagram and see them under the handle 7th_decade_redhead.
If you would like to read more about our three week-long bicycle tour starting in Prague, Czech Republic and ending in Budapest, Hungary, here are the links to our entire adventure:
Day Zero in Prague (Weather or not I wanted to)
Day One.... The Hills are Alive .... and I am not
Day Two....Vistas and Grocery Stores (and an angry cashier)
Day Three.... Are we Hiking or Cycling? (Today it was hard to tell....)
Day Four.....My Favorite Place on the Entire Tour (and a nod to the Beer of Kings along the way)
Day Four and a Half (I couldn't do it justice in one post)
Day 5 ...... Will This Day Ever End???
Day Six... Pausing in Passau (AKA This is the way we wash our clothes.....I think....)
Day Seven - Off down the Danube (If we'd only had that meeting.....)
Day Eight - We needed a day like today.....
Day Ten Cycling the Danube - Cloudy With a Shot of Melk
Day Eleven Cycling the Danube... A rare short mileage day!
Day Twelve Cycling the Danube - Aahhhh Vienna!!!
Day 13 - Our Day in Vienna (It's not supposed to be this HOT)
Day 14: Vienna to Petronell-Carnuntum (Apparently, I can speak some Italian.....)
Day 15 Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia (Rain and broken Chain...)
Day 16 Bratislava, Slovakia to Gyor, Hungary (There's a snake in the grass....)
Day 18: Komarno, Slovakia to Esztergom, Hungary (A tense tummy and a tense moment......)
Day 19: Esztergom to Budapest, Hungary (A long ride for the last day)
Day 20: A Day in Budapest (We had to see the last of the "Stevens/Stephens")
