Blogs from Karlovy Vary, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic, Europe - page 3

Karlovy Vary is a quiet little spa town situated on the northern border of Czech Republic, very popular in summer with western tourists and film stars, who come for the annual film festival. For us three little travellers, however, Karlovy Vary was a sleepy Czech town in winter, with just a few young families and elderly couples. The town is set around the River Tepla, in a basin surrounded by visible trees and hills. Along the main street are lots of quaint jewellery shops and deluxe (read unattainable) hotels. The spas are fed by thermal springs deep underground, and their water is said to have healing properties. We gave it a go. We got sick! It tasted purely of salt and metal and Ciara had to spit it out into the river - a cardinal sin! ... read more

Thursday night, almost all of NYU in Prague went to Prahapalooza, a party set up by four of the NYU kids at a local British pub, Three Lions. It was a lot of fun... maybe too much fun. Friday morning, as expected, was a little dead around the dorm as everyone nursed their hangovers. Never one to miss an opportunity to travel, I decided to leave all the corpses sleeping and head out on an excursion to Karlovy Vary, a mountain spa town in Western Bohemia about two hours outside of Prague. Karlovy Vary, also known as "Carlsbad" in German, is a spa town known worldwide (?) for its healing thermal mineral springs. The town is completely filled with old people. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that at least 75% of ... read more

A few more photos of Karlovy Vary .... read more

We enjoyed Karlovy Vary, seeing the sights and sites, watching the people, looking in the shop windows and simply walking around. But what we enjoyed most was hiking through the woods. The mountains around the town are full of walking trails and the forest is beautiful at this time of year. For the most part the trails are well marked and we were able to find our way through the woods, down the mountain and back to the town. And yes, we were careful to stay on the marked trail and not go wandering off on any one of the many unmarked ones. We particularly wanted to see the statue of a mountain goat, a Chamols, that sits on a high rock pinnacle overlooking the city and is one of the prime viewing points. Is ... read more