Like people had told us, Cesky Krumlov turned out to be a wonderful little tourist numbers were well down which meant that the little streets were quite empty and it was a great place to kick back and relax. The town itself has about 14,000 residents and usually has 1.2 million visitors per year.
The trip to Cesky was quite interesting. We caught a nice train from Prague to Ceske Budejovice, and then an old rattler to Cesky Krumlov....miles apart from the 1st class comfort that we have been getting used to. We rattled along, very loudly, with the 28 km trip taking us just on an hour! The scenery was lovely though and we spotted a deer jumping through the grass and into the forest.
On Rach and Dan's recommendation, we stayed at Penzion Svet, which was wonderful. We had a room in the loft and had a fantastic view over the old town. Michal was extremely helpful recommending things to do, places to eat and ways to travel around. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and after checking in had lunch and headed straight to the castle, as we were aware, that like many places, it was closed on Mondays. The walk to the castle, through the little narrow cobblestone streets was just gorgeous. The castle itself is very close to the main square and from the tower, offers beautiful views of the town. The castle gardens were also beautiful and reminded us a little of Versailles, but on a much smaller scale.
For dinner we went to a Czech restaurant that cooks their meat on an open fire. We decided to try the mixed grill for two people – it was absolutely enormous and cost us about $22. Check out the photo – if you can't make it out, there were two bits of steak that was mouth watering, two pork steaks, two turkey steaks, 3 huge baked potatoes with sour cream, about 8 hash browns, french fries and salad. It was ridiculous, but we had a crack and felt absolutely disgusting afterwards.
We had the quietest nights sleep that we have had for the entire trip, and woke to a great breakfast prepared by Michal. We spent the better part of the day, sitting around, soaking up the views and having drinks in the riverside cafes. We also hired a raft and paddled for 15km down the river. The scenery was beautiful and the paddling a lot of fun. The river was quite high compared to normal and was running very fast. This made going through the weirs pretty interesting and a little scary at first. I was certain that I would wake up like a cripple this morning, but I have surprised myself – not feeling too bad at all!
Michal suggested that we catch a shuttle bus to Linz and then a train from there to Vienna, which has chopped a good couple of hours off the traveling that we need to do today. That said, we are now sitting on the train to Vienna which is less than a 2 hour trip, so we will arrive just after lunch.
We are having a fantastic time and are loving all the comments on the blog. It's wonderful to hear how much rain we are having at home, but have to be honest and say that we are not worried at all about missing the freezing temperatures! The last couple of days have been about 30, which is just perfect and is topping up my tan just nicely!
Be good and take care,
Ange & Turls xx
