21.05.2013 – 21.05.2013  15 °C

We had a bit of a sleep in today because the day previous we had booked ourselves a car with the plan to head out and see the medieval town of Czesky Krumlov (pronounced, Cheski Croomlov). As it turned out the plan came to fruition but at first it looked like we wouldn’t make the three hour drive down to the southern part of the Czech republic and instead head west to Karlovy Vary (Carlovi Varry), the spa town. We flipped a coin (it told us to head to KV), we checked trip advisor (KV sounded good but we worked out you couldn’t swim in the spas), eventually we asked the concierge and she recommended strongly that we head to CK as it was a quintessentially Czech medieval city. Ok decision made, time for T and I to check out the car.

I’d booked a Ford Mondeo style of car and instead scored a Mercedes B Class. As it turned out, gorgeous car to drive but a bit squishy in the back. The hire company didn’t have any other type of car that we could rent so after stowing our gear we all piled in (or squished in, in the back seat) and T drove us out of Prague. Well, forty minutes later we got out of Prague!!! For starters, she had the usual RHS driving jitters and I got us hopelessly lost near to our hotel trying to get onto the freeway out of the city. Our rented sat nav (a Garmin) was absolutely useless as it lost the satellite almost immediately and so we had to rely on my little map of Prague to get us out of town (without any one way streets marked…). Unfortunately, I lead us down towards Revolutionary Square which is a tram mecca, where we ended up driving on tram tracks that aren’t made for cars!!! Yikes! I really felt for T as she was super duper stressed, not helped by everyone back seat driving. She handled it like a trouper and before we knew it we were finally on our way south west out of Prague- a mixture of my navigating and the sat nav kicking back in. As soon as we hit the freeway we were on a winner and her stress levels dropped back to normal driving stress. The countryside down to CK was just postcard perfect. Miles and miles of green and yellow fields. Green being grass and some sort of root vegetables and yellow being rape seed flowers (rape seed is the seed that Canola is refined from).  The fields were dotted with the occasional country village, many of them clearly poorer than their German or French cousins and fringed by woodlands. Very European and really pretty.

We stopped for morning tea at a road side petrol station, grabbed ourselves a cappuccino and my U grabbed himself a “grog”. We’ve been keen for a few days to find out what a “grog” actually is—we knew it was drink but we didn’t know if it was hot or cold, alchoholic or non-alchoholic. It turned out to be a very alchoholic type of tea. One smell and it nearly took my head off! Strong smell of xmas cake mixed with a weak tea smell.. Taste wise, not a cup of tea I would purchase, but it did get polished off quickly by my A&U so I guess they were fans? For two bucks it would certainly get you drunk quickly—a few grogs and you’d be a happy chappy!!!

We continued south west and eventually arrived at CK after 1pm. The first glimpse of the old town is very impressive. The hillside is dominated by the towering citadel. The base of the hill is filled with twisty windy little medieval streets. Harry Potter, eat your heart out! This is a truly magical little town! We had to cross over the moat to enter the old town and from here we followed this winding cobblestoned street up to near the market square to find ourselves some lunch. We followed my guide book’s recommendation and had lunch in this very Czech little pub where for 8 dollars we consumed a big main meal with a beer. I woofed down a very nice tomato stuffed chicken breast served with yummy cabbage and carrot salad. My U had half a duck with veges and a beer for under $10!!! Seventh heaven apparently!!!!

T, my A and I spent the afternoon up at the citadel checking out the castle’s interior whilst  my U stayed with N down in the town shopping. The walk up to the citadel was thru the main part of town so we got to check out some really cute little souvenir shops and some really lovely restaurants overlooking the moat. All three of us purchased a new scarf (or two) as the scarves were all under 8 dollars each before we started the steep trek up the mountain to the citadel. We almost missed the last tour of the day because we couldn’t quite see where to buy tickets.

Eventually, we had purchased our tickets and were ready to enter the family home of the late Rosenburg family. The citadel in CK is the second largest castle in the Czech Republic and was used by many Austrian and Bohemian noble families, most notably the Rosenburgs. Today it is an echo of its former self. A huge stone building covered in white wash and frescos (in some parts) with original panes of glass and some original tapestries and original pieces of furniture. Plenty of obligatory portraits of this and that Duke and Duchess all wearing their court finery. Interestingly, T found a price tag hanging off the back of one of the paintings so not sure how original some of these pieces of furniture and artwork actually are!! I’m guessing E-Bay has had a good run in this place!

As it turned out I could have happily missed the citadel and just spent time walking around the cute little town shopping! By the time we had walked our way down from the citadel the clouds had moved back in and the rain had started to fall. We took shelter in a pastry store (what a shame) until the rain had let up enough for us to make a run for the car. Trip back was very uneventful, my turn to drive and it was so much easier for me because we now knew where we were going!!! Well, we sort of did! We got to this main town about 15kms north of Czesky Krumlov and as I was driving I started to follow the signs back to Prague. Meanwhile, the sat nav is complaining and wanting me to do a u-turn, we discussed what we wanted to do and decided to stick with the signs to Prague and switched off the Nav. As it turned out, following the signs added about thirty minutes to our trip but the trip back into Prague was a touch easier and it was different scenery to look at, so we all agreed that it had been a worthwhile detour home! We did a stop at McDs on the way home for a quick snack and before we knew it the motorway D1 had turned into the main street in Prague and we were back at our hotel (as it is just off the main road) . No joke, it took us a good thirty minutes to get out of the city and about 5 mins to get back in! Really, really helps when you have travelled the way once!!!!

Anyway, we all fell into bed just after 10pm after spending a very great day out and about in the countryside of the Czech Republic

Cuisine of the Day– Tomato stuffed Chicken (I was tempted to put down my cheeseburger at McDs just for my A but thought I’d better not!! :))