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Published: December 4th 2013
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A well in Karlovy Vary
We started our trip in the spa town Karlovy Vary, a town where people for more than a hundred years have come to drink water from wells Palaces, churches and some more
We have for many years known that if you wish to go to a place where it is easy to find good cheap quality beer Czech Republic might be the best place in Europe to visit. What we didn't know was that it is even possible to bathe in beer. We'll tell you more about that experience later on in this blog entry. But we will begin this blog entry by writing about another beverage namely water.
We started our trip in the spa town Karlovy Vary, a town where people have come to drink water from the various wells for over a hundred years. To walk the streets of Karlovy Vary almost felt like getting warped back to the turn of previous century. Parts of the city centre really has changed very little since the days when Beethoven and Goethe could be seen roaming the streets of this pretty little town in western Bohemia.
In
Karlovy Vary there are 13 different major wells that dispends warm and salty water that is said to be curative for various diseases. The curative benefits of drinking the Karlovy Vary water in purely medical terms is disputed
Karlovy Vary - the biggest well
The biggest of the wells is also the hottest. It is in fact so hot that the water from it is ejected in a manner similar to that of a geyser. but it sure is a nice place to visit and the mental benefits of walking through the town can not be doubted.
The biggest of the wells is also the hottest. It is in fact so hot that the water from it is ejected in a manner similar to that of a geyser.
Another town in western Czech Republic that for over a century has attracted visitors from far and abroad to come and drink curative water is
Mariánské Lázně. We also paid this town a visit. Mariánské Lázně is very similar to Karlovy Vary, a pretty town with several wells where you can go and drink water. We found Mariánské Lázně to be even more "turn of the century-esque" than Karlovy Vary and we also liked Mariánské Lázně better.
The water from the wells in both towns is often very salty and many people find it quite disgusting.
In between the two spa towns is a village called
Loket. Loket is a pretty village set in a bend of a river and the main attraction is a surprisingly large palace. We went to this village and spent a while walking around the cobbled streets enjoying the
Karlovy Vary
To walk the streets of Karlovy Vary almost felt like getting warped back to the turn of previous century views and the beautiful houses surrounding the palace.
The name of the village, Loket, sounds a bit funny to us. In Swedish "Loket" means "the Locomotive". So for obvious reasons we had to go to the train station in the village and take a photo of the station building. We are perfectly aware of that it makes no sense at all to most people reading this blog but we still put that photo on the blog.
The main attraction in Loket is, as we said before, a palace. We would not be surprised if it turns out that Czech Republic has the highest number of palaces per capita in the world because every town and village seemed to have at least one. We decided to only visit a few of all the interesting palaces we read about. If we had tried to see them all we would have gotten an overdose of large and lavish residences and would have grown very bored and tired. Instead we tried to squeeze in various things in the few days we had.
One thing that definitely falls in the category "various things" is the beer bath. In Chodová Planá there is
Karlovy Vary
Parts of the city centre really has changed very little since the days when Beethoven and Goethe could be seen roaming the streets of this pretty little town in western Bohemia. a brewery that also runs a small spa where visitors can soak themselves in a bathtub full of dark lager while enjoying a glass of beer. The beer bath is supposed to have some unspecified medical benefits and also make the skin soft and smooth. We thought having a beer bath sunded like a cool thing to do and since we are not ever likely to get a chance to bathe in beer again we decided to have a go at it. It was an interesting experience and a fun thing to do. We are not sure it really made our skin any softer though but that doesn't really matter.
Another beer related site we visited was the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Plzeň. The reason we stopped in Plzeň in the first place was to go on a tour in the caves that runs under the old town. Since the Pilsner Urquell Brewery is only a few blocks away from the old town we decided to go there as well. There isn't much to see there to be honest but it was a bit fun to see the gate that features on the Pilsner Urquell logo.
In the
A well in Mariánské Lázně
Another town in western Czech Republic that for over a century has attracted visitors from far and abroad to come and drink curative water is Mariánské Lázně. Southwest corner of Czech Republic is the Šumava National Park. Šumava NP is very popular for various outdoor activities such as hiking, horse riding and bicycle riding. When we drove through the area there were hiking trails and groups of bicyclists everywhere and it was never far between camping sites. We made a few stops on the way to enjoy the scenery even though hiking was not on our agenda this time.
In or near Šumava National Park we visited two other sites that we would like to mention, one is a canal and the other is a covered bridge.
The canal is called the
Schwarzenberg Canal and was built in the early 19th century to simplify transport of wood from the vast forests in the Šumava region to Vienna. Today the canal is no longer in active use but the section of it that we saw was in good condition so we believe it is a protected historical monument.
The covered bridge is as far as we know just a local bridge which is interesting only because it is covered. If you have seen
The Bridges of Madison County you know why we stopped to have a closer look at the
Mariánské Lázně
The water from the wells is often very salty and many people find it quite disgusting bridge. By the way, one day we just have to go to Madison County and check out those bridges.
Český Krumlov is one of the most popular cities to visit in the south of Czech Republic and we made a stop there too. The old town and the palace is a world heritage site and we had big hopes that Český Krumlov would be an interesting place to visit. We weren't very impressed though. It was a nice place but it was far too touristy for us.
The other world heritage site we visited in southern Czech Republic,
Holašovice, we liked a lot more. Holašovice is a small village with houses built in a traditional style. Most of the houses are from the mid 19th century but have recently been renovated. The renovation has left the houses looking a bit artificial and that took away some of the charm. But we still liked it. There wasn't much to see there though so after half an hour we felt that we had had enough and left the village.
This was some of the things we did in the days we were in Czech Republic last summer. Hope you enjoyed
Mariánské Lázně
We just love those cast iron details. Can't get enough of them reading about it.
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Tara Cloud
Lucky car travelers!
How fabulous that you traveled by car and so got to stop in all the charming, little towns, canals, bridges, etc! As a bus traveler, I generally miss all but the biggest places. Thanks for taking us on your summer holiday!