Check out of our little monastery hotel and walk the three minutes to our pick up point for today's tour - to Cesky Krumlov. The driver puts our luggage in the boot, with raised eyebrows that we are taking such big cases - it's hard to explain that we have everything with us, wouldn't normal pack a full case for an overnight trip.
We hop into our little van with the rest of our group - Edward, the guide, and a lovely family from Adelaide - Peter and Maryanne and their daughter Karla. They do quickly check that we don't barrack for Richmond and are relieved when we say we don't follow the footy!
We head off and for the first part of the ride, there is a really thick fog...
It seems to last for ages and we are hoping it will clear up. Edward tells us about the beautiful area we are driving through and can't see, lakes and forests and lots of holiday homes this way. It eventually clears and we can see...
Edward then explains the plan for the day but with his thick accent and his attempts to explain everything by repeating different parts of the instructions in different orders, it's a bit confusing. Alison does say that she's not sure what is happening and I tell her to just read the blog tomorrow and she will know what she did...!
Our driver is quite crazy and takes insane risks in overtaking. There aren't many overtaking lanes so you just have to overtake when you can - he also overtook when he couldn't... At times he was doing 140km/h and overtaking cars, buses and trucks - sometimes three at once. The white-knuckles in the group, Alison and Maryanne, will not forget that journey for a while. And Edward did it without a seatbelt on - he obviously had confidence.
We arrive at our first stop, the capital of the region, Cesky Budêjovice. Beautiful town square with a little church and Rathaus (or town hall).
We take a stroll around the square and into the little church, then through some of the streets and alleys and down to the water.
And here is our car and Peter, Maryanne and Karla.
The town produces to major exports - Budweiser beer and Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth pencils. It is a cute little town with a huge, interesting square.
We head back into the car for the shorter drive to Cesky Krumlov, first stop, our hotel to drop off our cases, then we start walking. First thing we see is St Vitus Church - it's also the first thing we hear as its bells were ringing...
Cesky Krumlov is the second most important tourist town in the Czech Republic after Prague. It has a population of 10,000 (I think...) and 'krumlov' means meadow or grass. It's a Unesco-listed town. We walk in through the cobblestone streets, with each turn in the road giving more gasp-inducing scenery! It's so gorgeous!
Edward is taking us to show us where to meet for the castle tour, but that is after the souvenir time and lunch but before the family have to meet back at the bus (they aren't staying overnight) but here is where they will be meeting but that is after the 30 plus two o'clock meeting beside the map at the castle for the castle tour which will be after the souvenir time and lunch. But lunch is first... Confused? Yep, so were we...
So lunch, Edward had given us the five options for lunch - goulash, something beef, something chicken, and two other meat choices. I had ordered vegetarian but obviously Edward didn't know or care about that. When we go to the restaurant, I asked if I could just have the veggies that were served with the meat dishes. They said would I like fried cheese - the very dish I wanted to try after Phillip mentioned it yesterday!
First we got a thick and creamy and delicious mushroom soup. We ordered lemonade and got raspberry lemonade, which was unexpected and yummy, and then the cheese...
So that's fried cheese, potatoes, peppers and cucumbers and tartare sauce. And it was really good, it's just...a lot of cheese and I couldn't get all the way through it, but I'm very happy that I got to try it!
After lunch, time to explore and a coffee before the castle tour.
We head up to be at the meeting point beside the map at 30 plus 2:00 where Edward is waiting. He paces until Peter, Maryanne and Karla arrive then shows us the good spots for photos after our tour - we have a castle guide for the tour.
As the family are going back with him to Prague at 4:00 (no later!), he reminds them of where to meet the van, at 4:00! To Alison and I, he says, "I am finished with you." Which was hilarious coz he wasn't saying it as in, "I wash my hands of you", it was just, "you are free to do what you like at the end of the castle tour, our time together is finished for today." Hilarious though - "I am finished with you!"
Then we head into the castle for our tour. Impressive building and unlike anything we've seen before - again! There is a moat that has bears in it - I had been looking forward to seeing the bears but they are hibernating now!
Our guide is a fast-talking lady who reels off dates and names at a rapid rate, impossible to get it all and we can't take photos. Alison got this one of the little chapel before she told us no photos...
Amongst all the history and dates were some snippets of interest - the castle was built in 1252. There were a succession of different occupiers over time. Inside, there are lots of rooms decorated in styles from gothic to rococo to ornate, lots of portraits, all very dark. Lots of tapestries - which were both decorative and for warmth, lots of bearskin rugs.
They did have some protracted of children but they painted them with adult faces - this was to give the child long life, but it looks really odd. They had chess sets and backgammon sets, lots of chandeliers, lots of Asian furniture. We tried to find some postcards of the interior but they didn't seem to sell any. Never mind, it was interesting to see.
After the tour, we went to the best photo vantage point and it was spectacular.
There were so many people up here, it's amazing there are only four of us in this photo. And amazing there are no Japanese taking selfies in this photo!
We say farewell to Peter, Maryanne and Karla as they head back for their journey back to Prague - hopefully they have a good ride! We head down to check into our hotel - Hotel Gold, a four-star hotel - but that is four Czech stars, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's so cute though. And it's called Hotel Gold so of course, it's painted...green.
After sitting and taking it all in for a while, we head back into the little town for dinner and to have a wander around. It's lovely at night! So glad we did the overnight stay.
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