Eternal Youth? Karlovy Vary

---

Lucky Cats Blog

Eastern Europe Summer 2008

16-08-08 - Day 3

We are sending this first update from Karlovy Vary from a Hostel that was once called the Titty Twister - we are a bit disappointed they changed the name to Quest, and we didn’t find any vampires. Karlovy Vary is the kind of place that rich people hope they can go when they die. Lots of posh shops and diamond stores with carpet outside so you can look through the windows in comfort. It has some lovely buildings, and lots of special medicinal spring water, but interestingly on Saturday night most of the pubs seem shut by 10pm. Most the people here seem more keen on the water anyway… We’re going to give water sampling a try tomorrow…. Well I will anyway (Scott), Jen is thinking about it - its just too hot!

So the trip is underway - 30 days all together touring around east and central Europe. We have a pretty flexible itinerary - on motorcycle and carrying a tent, so hard put a route on a map just yet. Plan is to head from CZ into Poland (maybe) through Slovakia, Hungary, down to Romania, back into Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, then back over the alps and home…. Sounds straight forward enough… Main issue is weight; we have tried to cut down by leaving a chain behind (8kg) and replacing it with something more lightweight… I think it has increased our top speed by 3 mph, we had plenty of time sitting on the autobahn today to check.. By the way, the autobahn is sehr boring.. We did get into out first switch backs today, Jen scraped her shoe on the pavement, but it was OK because the panniers weren’t damaged.

We came to Karlovy Vary after spending last night in Leipzig - at a camping site. Nice campsite but they were a little strict about meal serving times. We opted to get the tent up while it was light then get some food, unfortunately after spending 5 min trying explain “Ich habe hunger..” or something similar to the waitress, in a pub / disco blasting cheesy German pop we went 1 minute past food serving time… But they had good cheap dark beer, a couple of them and some chocolate biscuits, and off to sleep, having travelled most of the day across Germany from the Ferry landing at Amsterdam

Leipzig is a pretty run down sort of place, some nice buildings but look like they were left to ruin for the last 40-50 years, Jen took some photos of a Jachymov, just in to CZ, which bear a lot of similarity, lovely buildings, but falling to pieces.

It is good to be back in the Czech Republic again, great food and fantastic beer, and friendly people who put up with our poor German and Czech skills. We are heading to Plitzen today to sample the world oldest lager at the source - Pilsner Urquell, and then on to Cesky Krumlov - we went there a couple of years ago on a day trip from Prague and are very keen to stay for a bit longer..

Na Shledanou!

---

Photos

Karlovy Vary
Hot spring water running into the river.

Karlovy vary
Hot springs on display

Comments

[Elin]

Good trip
It feels like you are having a good time and that you are visiting some nice places. Even though you are traveling so far every day. We hope that you are finding some really nice places to stay at. Mum and Dad are now in Riga for some good time : ) Take care. // love Elin and Pontus

[mark davey]

Images
Lovely pics Jenny I see you are enjoying yourselves