South Bohemia

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9 August 2009

We have left Prague and are heading for Cesky Krumlov a quaint little medieval Czech village to the south in the region of Bohemia. We were amazed by the Krumlov Castle which looks as though it has been work in progress since the beginning of the 14th century on top of the hill overlooking the village. The village is in the crook of the river Vltava, the same river that flows through Prague and presents a series of rapids which seem to be a favourite during summer.

The first stop for us was to climb up the 126 steps of the old watch tower before continuing up the hill past the castle to the gardens and an outdoor amphitheatre. The amphitheatre looks as though it was a summer house that has in more recent times been converted to a classic stage set. The gardens include an indoor horse riding centre and a covered walkway back to the castle buildings, one wouldn’t want to get wet or cold while looking at the flowers.

We spent the rest of our short time walking around the village streets full of jewelers’ shops, hostels, backpacker hostels (looks like a great place for some fun), patisseries and souvenir shops. Walking down the street Al could smell some great pastry cooking and we found a traditional treat that is made with a sweet pastry cooked on a steel roll over a gas fire and then rolled in sugar and cinnamon - yum!!

The other treat we found was the church of St Vitus with the pipe organ playing.

We continued on our way towards Vienna initially through farming back roads and back onto the highway. Once in Austria things changed nearly instantly, the farmers are obviously much richer with large beautiful farm homes and the quality of the surrounding towns is obviously much richer.

We’ve driven down through the Vienna Woods into Vienna for dinner. Dinner was in the Marchfelderhof, a crazy, family run restaurant that has been entertaining European and international dignitaries since the early 1800’s - Napoleon, Emperor Franz Josef, Bill Clinton, the Weatherley’s…. The restaurant is full of pictures and memories from all these visitors, so much so that it must be close to being a fire hazard. A great night was had by all with music, singing and some more dancing. A visit to the mens or ladies was an interesting exerience with the temptation to take the camera for all the paraphernalia, in the interest of certain censorship laws I won’t put in the photos of the scantily clad and even naked women from the men’s room, but the chandelier was too hard to resist.

Tomorrow we’ll get a closer look at the concert halls and musical side of Vienna.

Au revoir

Al and Tess

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Photos

Cesky Kromlov Castle
Southern Bohemia

Castle Bell Tower
285 steps, same as the Arc de Triomphe

Cesky Kromlov town
from the castle bell tower

Eating those fantastic pastries
covered in sugar and cinnamon

Dogs are everywhere
This could be a little mate for Zack

Marchfelderhof
Arriving at a 'Mansion' for dinner

The mens
Second largest chandilier I've seen in a men's toilet