Eastern Europe - Day 31 - Cesky Krumlov

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Today we headed off from Vienna from towards the Czaech Republic. We were meant to have our private mini van transport arrive from us at 9:30am. However our tour leader left a note for us in the morning saying that the bus had been delayed until 11:00. And then when we got downstairs for the 11:00 bus that the bus had been delayed until 12:00. So Susan and I decided that we would walk into town and check out the shops for a little while until we had to catch the bus. This of course meant that we managed to find the Zara store and of course I had to purchase a couple of new t-shirts.

The day was actually quite a bit of a transport day in the end with the drive to Cesky Krumlov taking about 3.5 hours, so we didn't end up arriving until about 4:00pm (with a couple of comfort breaks on the journey). Once we got to Cesky Krumlov we checked into the cutest hotel/pension in the world. Our room is just gorgeous and bascially has hobbit style beds, with the most enormous bed ends. The help us settle into the town, and to also help diguise the horrors of the long van journey we went to a little cafe to get a snack before our walking tour. This is where I had a quiet apple strudel and mini bottle of champange.

We then set off on a walking tour with a lovely local guide called "Ollie". Her true czech name is a lot longer and far more complicated, but she told us to call her Ollie, so Olllie it is. She walked us around the old town of Cesky Krumlov and told us about some of the history of the town. One of the more interesting facts that she told us was when she showed us the statue of the president of the country immediatley after the 2nd world war. Apparently the bust of the person (which is shown in one of the pictures) is acutally incredilbly contraversial and many, many people are very unhappy with it being there. This president is the person who presided over the decision to exile the germans from the czech republic at the end of the 2nd world war. This seems to make sense as during the war Hitler exiled many Czechs to Siberia to make room for new germans to settle in the beautiful lands of the Czech republic. And at the end of the war the Czechs then in turn exiled the Germans. However this second exile caught up a number of german families who had been living in the area for hundreds and hundreds of years. This is because apparently the official language of the region was german for many hundreds of years as they were a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire. And at the end of the second world war all the people who couldn't speak Czech, and instead spoke german as a first language, were exiled. This was obviously very hard on some families so there is still to this day some very sour feelings about the whole affair.

We also wandered up to the castle where our guide showed us a few parts of the castle complex. The castle is huge and apparently has one of the two best preserved baroque theatres in the world. Hopefully we will get a chance to visit the castle tomorrow for a tour as by the time we got there today it was closed.

The streets of Cesky Krumlov are also totally cobble stoned, and to continue on my tradition of falling over on these cobblestones and trying to sprain my ankle I managed this afternoon to completley fall over and would had landed splat on the tiles if Dave hadn't caught me. As it was I twisted my ankle, luckily there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage and I can still walk.

Tomorrow we get to spend the day in Cesky Krumlov exploring.

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