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Published: September 12th 2007
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We have now had 5 nights in the Czech Republic and it has been great. Where else can you eat out for all your meals, stay in double rooms with en suite each night and still stick to your budget???. Plus have meaty meals and cheap beer, we have lived like kings! We spent 1 night in a pretty little town called Cesky Krumlov (our favourite in the Czech Rep so far), 2 nights in Pilsen for a beer pilgrimage and finally two nights in Prague, the 'Mother of Cities' herself.
We crossed over the border without any problems, the Czech Rep hasn't adopted the Euro yet so it was a bit of a novelty having to get a local currency again. Cesky Krumlov was a pretty little town that we read up was a mini Prague. For us it was much nicer than Prague and made a pleasant first stop from Austria. It's basically just a historical town in the bend of a river with a cathedral in the middle. It also has a 'castle' overlooking it but we struggled to understand how you could call it a castle, it looked more like a palace. It's main draw card
Ceske Krumlov
Our favourite Czech City... and it's easy to see why... was it's winding cobblestoned streets, which almost had a Venice feel to them. Except the temperature made it feel more like a snow resort village. That night we stayed in a hostel right on the river and went out for a tasty dinner of local Czech cuisine.
The next day we made our way to Pzlen or in German (and now English) Pilsen. It is, as the name suggests the home of the original Pilsen beer which was first brewed here in the 1800's. We had a bit of trouble orientating ourselves and we didn't have any accommodation booked, so we did what we do best, walked. We walked and walked and eventually found the old town where we knew we would find some cheap accommodation. We found a double room in an old hotel with a grand staircase and large rooms. It looked as though 40 years ago it would have been the best place to stay in town, but it also looked like it hadn't changed in those 40 years. That night we went out for dinner to a place recommended in the lonely planet and it payed off. The food was awesome, I had the red
Charles Bridge, Prague
It was a pretty little bridge that looked even prettier at night... wine goulash (the tastiest goulash I have ever had) and Holly had roast pork with assorted dumplings and tasty gravy.
The second day in Pilsen was spent on a tour of the famous brewery where it all started. It was quite interesting, not as informative as the self guided Guinness tour in Ireland, but they took you to actual active components of the brewery. This included the washing and filling complex, the brew house and the underground cellars. It was good to hear about how they still brew beer the original way, in wooden oak casks, which they use as a taste differential to the modern brews. It was such a treat to have a glass or 2 (holly wasn't too keen on it) of beer poured straight out of a wooden cask, unfiltered, unpasteurised, just full on taste (I actually prefer the old stuff to the new stuff). For lunch we ate at the brewery's on site restaurant which was pretty decent and for dinner we went back to the restaurant we went last night (couldn't resist) for more tasty Czech food and beer.
Our next day we headed up to Prague. It took only a few
Beer Bath, Pilsen
Not quite but the thought came to me... hours to drive. It has been such a pleasant change to only have to drive a few hours between towns, rather than a few days as we did around the larger countries like Spain. We parked the van in a suburb outside of the main city along the tram line. We got a tram into the city however just as we were coming into the main city our tram got hit by a car. Not badly but badly enough that all the passengers had to get off and walk. This meant of course that we walked pretty much the rest of the way to our hostel. We eventually found it, checked in and then hit the town. We spent that afternoon / night wandering the old town and the bridge area and seeing some of the tourist sights. There were many pretty buildings but nothing really new from our trip. Prague Castle (supposedly the no 1 tourist sight) looked more like a bunch of connected Palaces than a Castle. The bridge was pretty, especially at night but it was absolutely crowed. Even just wandering around the new town looking at shops at night we noticed that there were more casinos
Czech Building Decoration
A weird thing we have seen in the Czech Republic. The details of this building are mostly painted on and not real, such as the bricks, some of the windows and even some doors... and suss looking 'caberet' shows than decent looking cafes or restaurants. We found that Prague didn't live up to the hipe that it had around it. We don't know if it was the poor weather, our travel exhaustion or the seen it / done it factor.
Our second day in Prague was a bit better. We did a 3 1/2hr walking tour of Prague which took us again to the main sights but this time we learnt quite a bit about the city and it's history. We learnt about how the old town hall was set alight by retreating Nazi's and a whole wing collasped (never to be rebuilt). We saw many buildings that had interesting stories behind them such as the Russian Casino that as soon as the soviets left McDonalds moved in (almost symbolically). We continued across the River and finished up at the 'castle' with a commanding view over the city. From there we were on our own. Our tour had finished so we checked out the St. Vitus Cathedral where Saint Wenceslas is supposedly burried. It was very pretty but again, we have done Cathedrals. We continued back to the Old town and headed back
There's a Bear in There...
The 'Castle' in Ceske Krumlov had a Bear moat... very cool... to our hostel for a rest. We had been walking pretty much all day. After a quick shuteye we headed out for our last dinner in the Czech Rep. We found a traditional looking place near our hostel and Holly had the Pilsen Goulash and I had a pork knee (giddy up!!).
Tomorrow we head for Germany and then on to Berlin where we have 2 nights accomodation already booked. We then continue on to Denmark where we are hoping to meet up with Inge and Jesper, friends we met on our Honeymoon in Fiji.
Cheers,
Lew and Holly
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