Český Krumlov Day 1

On Saturday and Sunday, 9/13,9/14 Karen and I took a trip to Southern Bohemia to the town of Český Krumlov

The trip actually started the day before with us trying to buy bus tickets. Details on that in another post. The bus left at 9am from Florenc bus/metro station. Pretty easy to get there from our apartment. We got there about 1/2 hour early and walked over to the platform listed on the ticket (by platform I mean sidewalk with metal bars that guided people to form a line. It seemed like a lot of people were on line for the small bus. So I asked the person ahead of me in Czech if this was the bus to Český Krumlov. The young lady said yes and then fired off a bunch more words in Czech. I said in English that I don't understand that much Czech. She just went on reading her book. Hmph... So I asked another person in line and she answered "Oui". She probably wasn't Czech but at least she understood "Český Krumlov". This same lady happened to sit down in front of us on the bus. After a few minutes she turned around and exclaimed, "You speak English". Turns out she was American. I chatted with her awhile on the bus ride while two young Czech teens in the seats next to me alternated between sleeping and making out.

Karen and I were in the last row of the bus which was actually quite nice. I got some neat pictures through the back window of a nuclear power plant in Temelín. The bus was actually a "mini" bus but the ride was comfortable. It took us about 3.5 hours with a couple of stops to pick up or drop off passengers but without any pit stops. So you know the first thing we looked for when we got to Český Krumlov.

The tourist office was great. They helped us find a hotel because we didn't have any reservations and pointed Karen to the nearest public WC. We stayed at an awesome little hotel called Hotýlek U Malého Vítka or "Little Vitek's Hotel". Each room in the hotel was named after a character from Czech fairytales. They had numbers too since the key-ring labels would have to be huge to print room names legibly.

Our first task was finding food. We went to eat at a hospoda called Na louzi which was recommended in our guide book. What a great place. The local beer served in most places is Eggenberg. It came in light and dark flavor both of which were tasty. The place was full at lunch time, with locals and some tourists. The place is also a hotel so no wonder.

After eating we strolled over to Hrad(castle) Krumlov. The castle has a moat but it isn't filled with water. Instead it has two bears living in it. How cool is that? See the fuzzy wuzzy pictures.
It was about 3pm-ish and too late for a tour so we decided to climb up the tower instead. That was a great idea. The weather was beautiful Saturday and the views were great.

After the tower we went back to town to explore it and to have some coffee. We found a cafe that served fair trade coffee. Yay! Karen ordered a crepe with blueberry sauce... it wasn't very good. I'm not sure if the blueberries are fair trade too but they didn't taste too good. The cappuccinos we had were good. After that we headed over to Hotel Růže to see a classical concert. The flyer said horn concert or something like that. By concert I thought a group of players, featuring french horn or trumpet or brass. They meant a pianist, violinist, and french hornist. They played about 6 pieces, half of which featured the violinist soloing. So I wouldn't call it a horn concert or anything special really. I'm not trying to be mean. It was nice, but meh... I'll leave it at that.

When the concert was over Karen and I headed out to look for a place to eat dinner. We tried a couple places, including Na louzi but they were all full. So we ended up eating at our hotel. There was a guy playing piano, and a lady joined him later on to sing. They played/sang mostly oldies, I mean old oldies, what was probably pop music back in that day. Karen and I liked it. The food was ok. It came with more vegetables than the average Czech meal we had so far on our trip. And they served Eggenberg beer.. yay! Karen wanted to try the fruit filled knedle(dumplings) for dessert. Guess who ended up finishing them? Ahyup... Maciej. I was so stuffed after dinner. That's been a general theme on this trip for me.

So anyway.. that was our first day in Český Krumlov.