Cesky Krumlov

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Day 23 (Saturday, September 27th)

Today was our last morning in Vienna, and we had a 10:30 train departure to begin our journey to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. We awoke early as we had hoped to visit Hundertwasserhaus, which was an apartment complex whose façade had been colorfully designed by an Austrian artist named Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The apartments were located outside of central Vienna, so it took about 20 minutes to get there via the metro. After we left the metro station closest to Hundertwasserhaus, we walked the wrong way. By the time we figured out which way to go, we determined that we did not have enough time to finish walking to the building, walk all the way back to the metro, and then take the metro back to our hostel to check out. It’s a good thing that we made that decision as in the end, we only had 20 minutes to spare before our train arrived, which would not have allowed enough time to accomplish what we had wanted to.

On a side note, while on the metro ride to Hundertwasserhaus, we sat across from an old lady who had a permanent scowl imprinted on her face. When we sat down across from her, the scowl became even more defined, and she looked straight at me for at least ten minutes with utter disgust. We weren’t exactly sure what her problem was, but whatever it was, she wasn’t happy to see us! Quite a strange and unusual experience.

Our train left Vienna and we got off two hours and 15 minutes later in Gmund, Austria. According to the train schedule I had researched, we should have only waited about one hour until the next train arrived, which would take us to Ceske Budejovice. However, after waiting 70 minutes and realizing that the train wasn’t going to arrive, I walked up to the attendant to see what the issue was. The schedule I had looked at was a Monday through Friday timetable, and today was Saturday, so the train schedule was completely different. We then had to wait another hour for a train to come. I was quite irritated and angry with myself, but eventually realized that there was nothing I could do to change the situation and that there could have been much worse things to have happened.

The tiny and ancient train headed for Ceske Budejovice arrived an hour later. We took the train for about 45 minutes. At one of the stops, we noticed that most of the passengers were disembarking, which I thought was unusual, but I didn’t give much thought to it. However, I quickly realized that a local man was standing next to us, attempting to tell us to get off and “bus”. His hand was pointed across the way, and we saw two buses loading passengers.

Apparently, some of the rail lines were undergoing maintenance , but no one nor did the schedule notify anyone of this. Luckily, the bus ride into Ceske Budejovice only took about 15 minutes. Once in that town, we were supposed to take a train into Cesky Krumlov, but low and behold, a bus was waiting for us instead. I loaded Mike up with Dramamine to prevent motion sickness, and our one hour bus journey to Cesky Krumlov began. However, about 10 minutes into the ride, the bus stopped at a train station. A few people got off, and then a man motioned and told us to “come” and “train”. So, we got back on a train. The entire experience was very strange, the back and forth nature of it all. In total, our entire journey lasted about eight long hours.

From the train station in Cesky Krumlov, we decided to walk into town versus taking a taxi cab as Rick Steves had indicated it was only a 20 minute downhill walk. Seemed simple enough at the time, but hindsight made us realize we should have taken a taxi. The first part of the walk wasn’t bad, and slightly downhill. Eventually, we came to a cobbled lined street that was at a very steep incline. The suitcases couldn't handle the uneven surface, so Mike had to carry them all the way down the hill. We continued to encounter cobblestone, but decided to pull the suitcases behind us as Mike’s arms were killing him.

We made it to the gates at the beginning of the old town, and followed the main street as it curved around the river. The cobbled streets were full of people and I was blown away with the town. It was completely gorgeous and visually stunning with medieval and baroque architecture of every imaginable color. The Vltava River curved beautifully along the walls of the city, and overlooking everything was the castle on the top of the hill. It was beyond all expectations I had of the town and I instantly fell in love with it.

We finally made it to the hotel about 30 minutes later. The name of our hotel was Castle View Apartments and we stayed in the ground view apartment for 1800 Czech Crown ($106 USD). The room was quite nice, recently remolded with loads of character and even had an extremely comfortable bed, which we had sorely missed throughout our trip.

After dropping our bags off, we walked to a nearby restaurant called Na Louzi. It appeared to be full when looking through the windows, but Mike was able to snag a small table in front. Due to the expense of dining in Vienna, we hadn’t really had a real restaurant meal since Ljubljana, Slovenia (excluding the meal on the boat the night before) so we were very excited to be eating again in the cheap land of the Czech Republic where huge glasses of beer only cost $1.50 USD! We ordered two appetizers; sausage with mustard and potato pancakes. For the main course, I had the Czech version of chicken cordon blue with delicious potatoes and Mike had a plate that included a medley of meat topped with gravy and potatoes. For dessert, we ordered ice cream and poppy cake, which we figured would be similar to a lemon poppy seed muffin; however, it was not, and was basically a white bread stuffed with poppy seeds. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the sweet dessert Mike had been hoping for. For all of this food, plus two beers, we spent about $30 USD; such a deal compared to the cost of dining in a country on the Euro!

Day 24 (Sunday, September 28th)

Mike and I awoke on our first morning in Cesky Krumlov to beautiful blue skies but a freezing cold temperature! Nevertheless, I was so happy to see the sun once again!

We had several things planned today, including a few tours at Krumlov Castle. As these tour required a specific entrance time, Mike left to buy the tickets as soon as we woke up to ensure that we would have tickets to both tours we wanted to participate in

After Mike returned with our tickets, we took a short walk next door to Grand Hotel, where we each had a voucher for a buffet breakfast. The breakfast was amazing, definitely the best of the entire trip, and included eggs, bacon, delicious bread, yogurt, juice, fruit, and several other items.

After breakfast, we left and walked around the city for awhile, as the first tour did not begin until 11:00. I immensely enjoyed being able to photograph the beautiful and colorful buildings with a bright blue sky as the backdrop. I was thoroughly impressed with the entire town; it seemed as though almost every building had been meticulously restored with immense care and pride. There was also amazing views to be seen from so many different points around the city, all of which provided me with ample photo opportunities. What I liked most about the town though was the lack of commercialism and the overall authentic atmosphere. It's obvious that the Czech people have gone out of their way to make sure that the appearance of Cesky Krumlov will remain as original as possible.

After walking through town, we headed towards Krumlov Castle, which took a good 15 minutes to reach by foot.

The first tour we had received tickets for was the Baroque Theater, which is one of only a few theaters that still survive in Europe today. The reason why so few survive is because the theaters used only candles for lights and special effects, so many ended up burning down. I was very excited to be able to tour the theater as I am obsessed with the Baroque time period but have never visited a theater like this before.

The tour lasted about 45 minutes long and we had 15 people in our group, although the maximum they will allow is 25 at a time as they want to ensure a constant temperature in the theater to protect it's fragility. As we sat on wooden benches, the tour guide described the history of the theater, the many props and tools used during performances, and an explanation of the recent restoration. We were not allowed to take photos inside the theater, but you can view photos of it here.

After the theater tour concluded, we waited in one of the courtyards of the castle for our next tour to begin. The interior of the castle was only viewable via a tour, and although it didn't come highly recommended in the travel books, we decided to go ahead and partake anyway. Unlike the prior tour of the theater, this tour had a ton of people; probably at least 40-50. Unfortunately, this large group made it very difficult to enjoy and hear our tour guide as it seemed as though we spent half the time moving from room to room. A highlight of the tour for me however was the ballroom (known as the Hall of Mirrors) which was covered with beautiful paintings and drawings of scenes from a 18th century party.

After visiting the interior of the castle, we walked through the castle grounds to the Round Tower, which can be seen throughout my photos. We chose to climb the 162 steps within the tower and were rewarded with amazing and panoramic views of Cesky Krumlov.

Afterward, we left the castle complex and walked back down into the town, stopping at the Puppet Museum which had more than 300 puppets to view and a staff member who liked the puppets a little too much. She kept waving the puppets in our face and pretended to be in character, which was slightly uncomfortable for both of us. Strange lady aside, we did enjoy looking at the multitude of puppets, from tiny to large, and simple to detailed. Most were in amazingly good condition, given their age.

We walked through town for a little longer, stopping in at a chocolate shop before settling down for a late lunch/early dinner. After much debate and thought, we decided to eat at a place near our apartment called Satlava, which was located in a cellar-like space with a fun medieval atmosphere. The restaurant served some traditional Czech food, but it was best known for it's huge slabs and hunks of meat which were cooked in an open fire pit in the center of the restaurant. Mike had a medley of pork, chicken and beef while I opted to eat just pork. The meat was delicious and we wished that we had more time in the town to eat at the restaurant again!

We sadly and reluctantly left Cesky Krumlov around 17:00, and took another combination of train/bus/train to Prague. Unfortunately, both train rides were very crowded and uncomfortable, which did not allow for any sleep or rest.

We finally arrived in Prague at 22:00, where a driver was awaiting our arrival on the platform of the train tracks. Although we could have easily taken the metro to Konza Apartments, having the driver ready to assist us was more more relaxing and efficient use of our time since it was so late at night.

We were once again back in Prague, where we had begun the long journey more than three weeks prior. It was strange but also welcoming to see Pasquale greet us again at the apartments. Walking into the apartments was even more strange because it felt like "home"! As we had so little time before we needed to be in bed, we quickly walked out to Old Town Square, enjoying it for one last time. At the last minute, we decided to have a late take-out dinner at same Italian restaurant near the apartments that we had eaten at previously.

We finally closed our eyes sometime around 23:00, knowing that 04:30 was just around the corner...

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