We stayed in the following hotel - Pension in the Tower, which used to be the part of the old town wall. It was really nice, spacious, roomy and although it was a 'shared bathroom' no one else was staying on our floor, so we had it to ourselves. If anyone stays at cesky, I recommend this hotel. It's right next to the Eggenberg Brewery, so those interested can do a tour, and within walking distance to everything you want in the town.
Breakfast was part of the hotel stay, so we were up sat 7.30 and down to breakfast by 8.00am. We got a huge basketful of fresh bread rolls, and plates of different cold meats and cheese, tea, and juice. Really nice, except neither of us were over the bug from morocco completely, and we didn't have much of an appetite! Anne made a couple of rolls for lunch and sneaked them into a plastic bag from her handbag, and while she talked to the hotel staff, I smuggled them up to our room!!
We checked out, packed the car up, then walked into the township towards the square where we were going to buy our tickets for the walking tour. Over the bridge - this is the township on the river - the same river Prague is on - the Vltava.
And looking the other way down the river towards the castle...
The castle during the day from the bridge - the same photo I took at night from the bridge the night before...
We met up with two Hong Kong girls wanting photos, so we exchanged cameras. Note the bag - I had bought another pair of shoes here. Again great shoe shops!
The main square - again - I had taken a similar photo the night before (you can see them on the previous blog)...
Our tour guide was Oldriska Balouskova and we were very lucky that we were the only English speaking tourists there that day, so we had her all to ourselves. Especially lucky for me as it meant that I could hear more easily without fighting for a place at the front!
Oldriska was a fantastic guide very knowledgeable having lived in Cesky all her life, apart from when she went to university in the USA. If you are in Cesky Krumlov and want a guide, you can email her at oldriskab@gmail.com.
The town is now a Unesco world heritage site with 300 protected buildings in the centre, and the 2nd largest castle in the Czech Republic.
Oldriska explained to us that the 'bricks' are actually stone, covered in plaster, then the top layer of plaster cut to produce the lovely patterns on the buildings. I'm sure it has a name, but I can't for the life of me remember...
It certainly makes the buildings very striking.
Without our guide, we wouldn't have found perfect places to view the town. The following you can see the castle, and the buildings that have the big orange roofs, were all part of the castle at one stage.
We couldn't resist being tourists...
Through another building and onto a terrace we got views of the rest of the town, which has a population of about 15,000. Very very pretty place.
Beautiful parks...
These 'bricks, rather than plaster, were instead painted. I was struck how much time it would have taken!!
But oh so effective...
We stopped to have a Trdlo - a traditional pastry. Anne and I bought one to share between us. They were hollow with sugar dusted on the outside. Eaten hot they were rather nice.
This building is in the process of being reconstructed. You can't see it here, but under the paint pealing off, you can see the original 'brickwork' underneath.
Part of the castle - the Autumn leaves made it so beautiful.
Over the river...
The castle again...
The bear pit in front of the entrance to the castle. Unfortunately the bears didn't show for us that day - they were under the bridge.
From the castle grounds above the township, we were able to get fantastic views.
Inside the castle - and once again the painted 'bricks'...
Close up...
More views...
An ancient sun dial. Unfortunately, there was no sun the day we were there, so we weren't able to tell the time...
And this is Oldriska with Anne inside the castle walls.
We decided not to do the castle tour as we wanted to get on to Salzburg and have a bit of time to explore when we got there. Instead we walked through the castle gardens.. They were rather nice.
We found a maze...
And shaped hedges...
And a lake at the end. We saw very skinny squirrels that were almost black as well but they were too fast for the camera.
Last view of the township as we were leaving the castle.
We got back to the car about 2pm and headed to Salzburg. Our time of arrival should have been about 4pm - about 2 hours away. Unfortunately, 20 minutes into the trip, a bridge we had to cross had 'disappeared'. No bridge at all, so we had to divert. The GPS wasn't particularly helpful at this stage, so we stopped by another person also obviously diverting and Anne got the names of the towns we had to divert through which we plugged into the GPS. This added another 2 hours to our trip. I'm quite pleased this happened though, because instead of going on the highways, we were going through little towns, some really interesting and old, some run down, some I don't think has seen as much traffic as that day as the road was just about gone!! Kids playing in the street as well. The Czech Republic is actually very beautiful.
We had to pass through a town called Frymburk. I stopped to take a photo at the top of the dam. Its obviously a resort town on the lake, lots of cyclists, hikers, tracks through bush along the lakeside. Beautiful hotels etc... We wouldn't have seen this had the bridge not been out...
I took a photo as we went over the border to Austria. We came out through the Alps. I was struck immediately at the differences between the Czech Republic and Austria. the landscape was 'normal', a bit like New Zealand, then all of a sudden in Austria, everything was very neat, very tidy. Everything 'just so'. The grass so green in comparison too.
We stayed in the Villa Von Trapp - the original house of the Von Trapp family of Sound of Music fame. We had Agathe's room. Anne sat in the window seat and asked me if I was going to make her some clothes out of the curtains....
Here is the entranceway...
We put our bags in the room, then headed out to Salzburg town for a look around and some dinner. Parked our car in a carpark then walked. Some shops were still open so we did a bit of looking around and bought some Christmas gifts. We did find this arcade though, and wondered if the name of it was for the people that walked through...
We had dinner at a small cafe type restaurant and chose the local cuisine much to the delight of the owner, especially when he found out where we were from. We asked for the Apple Strudel for dessert, but he was sold out. Our disappointment must have shown, but he gave us some Berry Strudel instead which was beautiful and refused to let us pay for it. Said it was on him. What a lovely guy!
Back to the villa where we used the internet, which was insanely difficult to log into. It was a 'hidden' one, and most difficult to find, set up, and use. Our room was very comfortable but sleep was difficult for me for some reason.
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