Cesky Krumlov/Prague - Three Theatres and a Tower.

After our included continental breakfast and average coffee, we set off into town. All the guide books and forums had said it was worth staying overnight to see it without a lot of the tourists and we think they are right!

First, up to the town square and a peek into St Vitus church, can't take photos in there, but it's another ornate church...

I had emailed Brenton this morning as I remembered him telling me of something he and Margaret saw while they were here but I can't remember what it is. Thankfully he emails back right away and tells me it is the Castle Theatre - the oldest baroque theatre in the world. So we head up to see if we can get in to see it, via the prettiness...

We get to the castle and we can take the tour, there is one at 2:00, so we book tickets for that. Excellent! 

Had another peep as we went over the bear moat and happy days, there is a bear! It's like she is posing for us, she's obviously not quite hibernating yet. 

After the ordinary coffee at breakfast, it's time for a good one so we go into one of the little castle cafes. The guy in there asks if we would like some of his freshly baked ginger cake. He looks so proud of it and it looks so good that we say of course, we would love some but will share a piece. And it is so good!

Here he is. He was so sweet, brought us over a cut-up apple as well.

He has a fabulous 1900s cash register that he has to ring up - gorgeous! He also gave me a ticket for the bathroom so I didn't have to pay 80 crown, you have to pay in a lot of the toilets here - I would not like the job of sitting in there collecting the money. 

We get tickets to go up the castle tower - it's quite a task, climbing up to the top but we conquered Blarney, we can certainly do this one! And the views are spectacular.

Next on our agenda is to see Otáčivé hledištê, or the Revolving Theatre. And it appears that the actual theatre is rotating its location all over Cesky Krumlov as we have quite a hard time finding it - according to the map, we thought it should have been down, to the right of the castle, so we head that way. Nope. Through and under the amazing 'corridor' of the castle...

..not over here either. We end up working out it was actually back, through the castle and behind, in the castle garden. So back we went - and by 'back', I mean up the load of stairs and up the really steep entry to the castle grounds.

We find the sign for the theatre, finally, and as we head off to it, in front of us is another hill! We are certainly working off that ginger cake!

Up to the revolving theatre and it is pretty amazing and such a shame it closes in September, otherwise I would have booked us tickets to come here - even if it was Shakespeare! 

As we were walking around it, a tour came by, so I slowed up and took a lot of pictures of nothing while I listened to the guide... It was built in the 18th century and it literally revolves as the play goes on. So it might start at a house scene...

..then the auditorium revolves around to the next scene, while you sit there, maybe a port...

..see the dome operator spot on the left... It might then revolve around to a forest scene...

..it just keeps revolving around. Apparently it used to be moved manually by the actors but they protested and said they weren't robots, they were performers, so they brought in machinery to turn it. It looks so cool!

We walked back down through the castle garden - very pretty spot.

Here, we noticed the phenomena we had seen a lot of yesterday - the tourist with camera, often with the selfie stick. These guys took it to the next level - we saw them earlier, setting up their tripod right in the middle of the street...

And more...

And heaps of people risk their lives for a picture - look at these two sitting on this ledge - one on the left and a girl in the centre...

Next stop - the Marionette Theatre museum. Another winding turret staircase but when you get in there, the marionettes are amazing and there is an amazing variety in them, much more than I had imagined. There's also a little marionette theatre...

And of course there's the ubiquitous gift shop on the way out.

Next stop, lunch and we went back to yesterday's coffee place as they had sandwiches - and you can't always find a simple sandwich! Well, these were not simple but they were absolutely delicious - two types of cheese (a mild blue cheese and a cheddar), lettuce, cucumber, tomato and Dijon mustard and the bread was lightly toasted. Delicious!

After lunch, we headed back to the castle via these stairs and that slope for the fourth time! Each time I peeped into the bear moat but didn't see her again after the first time so thank goodness we saw her then! 

There's time for us to have a sit and rest up a bit before the tour of the Castle Theatre begins. 

Our guide, who is great, lets us in and we have time to take photos before he comes in and says, 'no photos'. Our castle guide did the same yesterday and it's as if it's really is okay to take a couple of pictures and then they say stop. Anyway, here are the pictures, which saved us having to buy a postcard...

This is an astonishing theatre. It was built some time in the 15th century by the Eggenbergs, who liked theatre. When the Schwarzenbergs took over the castle and the theatre, they didn't like theatre but wanted the best and most up-to-date so they modernised it and used it once.

This is one of the reasons it is still standing in almost perfect condition - it was hardly ever used. Other theatres of the times used to burn down as they like explosions and fire and excitement in the performances and the theatres all burned down.

Our guide showed us examples of sound effects - rain, thunder and wind, all on wooden wheels and trolleys. He showed a video of how the theatre would have worked - even in those times, they could change scenes, fly things in, have trapdoors for things to appear out of, just incredible.

They also have a huge collection of original costumes, props, musical librettos and so on. They have to find the balance between using it as a theatre and it being a museum so they do have some performances in there - baroque performances done as they would have originally been done. It is an amazing theatre and tour (or sit and talk, really) and we thank Brenton so much for the tip!

It's then time to head back to our hotel for our 4:00 pickup and return to Prague. There are a few worrisome moments when he doesn't arrive until 4:25, but we are finally off. Some shots from the road, they do love their flag...

It is a much more sedate drive than yesterday's craziness - that was quite ridiculous, to be driving like he did yesterday when he has a van full of people! 

Everyone is pretty crashed out on the bus and it makes me very glad we stayed overnight and broke up the ride - we also saw so much of town!

I asked today's driver if he was dropping us at our hotel, as was the plan. He seemed quite gruff and not sure so we were happy when he did, after dropping everyone else off. He even gave us a bit of a tour, pointing out things of interest along the way.

We checked into our new hotel, got our own little single rooms for this one and went for a short wander before retiring for the night.