Friday June 5th 2009

Yesterday was a long day. We awoke at 6 am to catch an early bus to Cesky Kromlov. Along with breakfast, we usually have two cups of coffee in the morning, but today I limited myself to one cup, as the 3 hour long bus has no washroom facilities.

The metro stop is literaly just a few doors away, however, the underground corridor is almost a block long. The hustle and bustle of people going off to work, is really no different than in most major cities.

At the bus station, we went to the counter we had been told to buy our tickets the day before, so we had to ask at the information desk once again. He directed us to another ticket counter, and told us our platform would be 21.

We bought our tickets, and wondered if we should buy our return tickets as well. Since we were not sure when we wanted to return, we were told we could buy them at the Cesky Krumlov bus station. We bought our tickets, and were told the bus will be leaving from platform 25. A bit confused, we told him that at the information desk, we were told platform 21. He said no, platform 25, and pointed to our tickets that did indeed state platform 25.

We looked around the various stalls, and found platform 25, where the sign said Cesky Krumlov. We sat and waited, when someone with an orange vest approached, and asked to see our tockets. Prague is known for scams, so I held my ticket tight, as I showed it to him. He spoke no English, and waved us in a direction. Not understanding, we stayed where we were, and a few minutes later, another person in an orange vest, again asked to see our tickets. He too did not speak any English except for a few words, and said "no" and pointed towards platform 21, whose sign had the name of another city.

We did walk over, and I noted a small schedule posted on the wall, at platform 21 that did have state Cesky Krumlov. Perhaps the person at the information desk was correct from the start.

The bus itself was a non-descript, but relatively comfortable bus. We listened to a couple behind us as she read sections about Cesky Krumlov, and I knew they had the same book as we. We watched the old city slide into the modern city, then the suburbs, followed by the rolling hills of the country side.

Three hours is a bit on the long side, and we failed to nap along the way, but we finally were at Cesky Krumlov.

Our first goal was to go the the bus station kiosk, and check about our return journey home. But the counter was closed. We asked a cleaner, who with almost no English, managed to tell us to come back later. We knew that hours of the buses, and I figured that since no bus was leaving for a few hours, the counter would only open closer to the times of the departing buses. Since the town centre was only 10 minutes away, we decided to return early afternoon to arrange our return trip.



The town is amazing. A medieval town that has been frozen in time. A winding river almost completely surrounds the town, holding the quaint pretty buidings tightly within its banks, with the lovely Castle and its Tower dominating the view on the other side. Spectacular views were had as we made our way into town.



Our first stop was the Tourist Informatio, to pick up the town map, and ask about sites we wanted to tour like the Castle and the Baroque Theatre. We were informed that the Theatre was at the castle, and for both, we would have to ask at the Castle Ticket counter.

I noticed a sign for bus tickets, and asked if they also sold tickets for our return trip back to Prague. They did, and we were told that only 5 seats were left on the last train leaving at 7 pm. Glad that we asked, as we did not want to be marrooned in the town without a means to get home, we bought our tickets even though we would not be sitting next to each other.

As with any town, the centre is dominated by the town square. The pharmacy on the corner has been a pharmacy since 1620. The square is permeated with history. Plagues devasted a nearby village leaving only two survivors, but happily stopped before reaching Cesky Krumlov. The Jesuits here were a bastion for catholicism, and held back the Protestant Reformation that was sweeping Europe. Later books deemed inappropriate were burned at the square, and of course if there was a bad harvest, it was blamed on witches, who were also burned here.



When France and England betrayed Czeckoslovakia by giving the Sudentenland to Germany in 1938, Hitler stood proudly on this square with Nazi banners behind him. Later Russan tanks rolled in in 1968 in, reasserting their control over Czeckoslavkia. Today, the square is a calm and tranquil square, where one can sit and relax, enjoy the view.



We walked through the narrow streets, and headed towards the small bridge that led to the castle, and watched some of the rafters on the river. One of the fun activities here is to take raft or kayak ride around the town, hitting a few white water areas. I had brought my bathing suit and kayak shirt especially for this, but with the temperature at 15 along with a strong wind, neither Hera nor myself particularly wanted to get wet today.




The bridge to the castle goes over a bear pit, where bears have been traditionally kepted for centuries. The Rozmbergs who owned the castle for 300 years added bears, in the 16th century, to their coat of arms to demonstrate their (fake) ties to the Italian Orsini family. And ever since then, bears have been kepted at the castle.

Entering the Castle, we made a bee line to the ticket booth. We bought our tickets for one of the castle tours, but we were disappointed to learn that the Baroque theatre was closed for the next week.

Europe was studded with these Baroque theatres, where candles illuminated the stage, and smoke and fireworks were used for special effects, and to blind the audience as the backdrops were quickly hoisted and changed during the performance. Being made of wood, almost all these Baroque theatres have burned down excpet for this one, and another at Stockholm, Sweden. If you saw the movie the "Illusionist," it was this theatre that was used for the film.




Having some time on our hands before our castle tour, we walked about the courtyards, and climbed the steps of the Castle Tower, which offered a bird's eye view of the town below. The Tower was the original castle, to defend the river bend and the town, and later the rest of the castle complex was built up.





The only way to visit the rooms inside the castle is with a tour, and unfortunately, no photos are allowed. Our guide was a pleasant young girl, but she did seem almost mechanical in her recitation of the tour. One felt as if she was an animated audioguide waiting for us to press the "play" button when needed. Never the less, she did give us a lovely tour of several rooms of the castle.





With our tummies growling for some food, we walked into a small Czeck pub. The local hometown beer is Eggenberg, and we ordered 0,5 L (just over a pint) of their amber and dark varieties. The nose of both were full and rich, with the flavours deeper than most beers, and long delicious after tastes. Hera said these were the best beers she had ever tasted.




Hera had the smoked pork neck, while I had the roasted pork. Both were delicious, and was served along with their traditional Czeck dumplings, as well as a wonderful lightly sour saurkraut, and a sweeter red cabbage side dish.







We strolled around the small picturesque town for a few hours, walking into a few shops here and there, visiting the town's Church of St. Vitus, and then returned to the pub for one last beer.
We were surpirsed that our return bus was so spectacular. With plush leather seats, it had a stewardess who handed out headsets for the movie with small TV screens above us, and served drinks. But still no washroom on board. Watching Sandra Bullock voiced over in Czech, with English sub-titles did make the return trip much more pleasant. The time flew by, and the spires of Prague were soon in sight.

A quick Metro ride, and we were back home. Tired, and ready for bed.

Cheers,

Hera & Anthony