Ceske Krumlov

My alarm never went off (well, it would have, had it been Saturday.. Oops!) I bolted awake with Kim's alarm and raced to get ready. Thankfully I had packed last night.

One hotel car picked us up promptly at 6:15 am and we checked out and were on our way to the student agency bus to Ceske Krumlov. The bus is huge and bright yellowing was surprisingly full for leaving at 7 am! We made two stops ans got into town just under three hours.

We dragged our suitcases over the cobblestone street, thankful it was after ten am. We weren't sure where to go:there was a sign that said Centro which we figured would take us in the right direction, but we asked once we got in to be sure we were headed in the right direction. It was only a couple hundred meters ahead. We checked in and surprisingly our room was ready at Hotel Konvice, a very cute place in the center of the tiny town. The lays spoke a little English and some German, so we got settled in up a narrow flight of stairs.

The room is adorable and feels almost like you are visiting your old grandparents' place. It has parquet wood floors and a large wood armoire. Nothing really fancy, but all cozy.

 We headed out to explore. This town is breath-takingly beautiful and so quaint, with mostly white, but some colored homes all lining cobblestone streets and orange terra cotta roves. The streets all wind around each other. Most bottom floors are storefronts of some kind, with coffee shops, souvenirs, restaurants and other stores. Just like in prague, dogs seem to go with their owners everywhere.

We crossed the river and went directly to the castle,which dominates the landscape of the town. We got tickets for a tour, the only way to visit the castle, and stopped for a cup of coffee with a piece of cake. It was kind of a cherry coffee cake of sorts and surprisingly good. We met up with the tour,which was well worth it.

The castle interestingly is painted on almost the entire external surface to look of stone and pillars. It's quite a sight. It started to drizzle when we got to the castle and began to pour right before our tour started, thankfully it just drizzled after. This castle is the second largest in the Czech Republic. It was only owned by four families before it became public. In 1753, the formerly gothic-style castle was updated during the Renaissance in the Baroque architecture and made into a residence. The Rosenbergs owned it, and were the richest family in Bohemia and head of the Catholic party during the Hussite War.

In 1602 it was sold to the Viennese Emperor Ferdinand II, and was then given to an Austrian Family. The Schwartzenbergs were the last owners. We toured the Chapel of St. George, used for residents for religious services from 1334 on. There is a believed tie to the Orsini family in Italy, and the RosenberGs decided to bring in bears to live in the moat area of the castle (Orsa means female bear in Italian.) When we walked to the castle and crossed the moat, we saw a pile of fruit and bread, which is to feed the bears. Many of the rooms had bear pelt rugs, as a reminder of the former furry residences of the castle.

We decided to go on search of a nice warm boul of soup and found a really cute place with an even more adorable waiter. I think Kim wanted to wrap him up and take him home. We both got goulash, Kim in a bread bowl with a side of sauerkraut, and I got it with bohemian dumplings and a salad. Yum! Very different than the goulash I has at the base of the Charles bridge, this was thicker and richer with chunks of meat. Yum!

We walked around for a while, toured a church, and made our way through the beautifully picturesque streets. We went to the eggenberg brewery, which was unfortunately closed. We peeked through the large wooden doors to see large tents set up with a lot of seating, assumedly for Oktoberfest festivities.

This city is incredibly beautiful and I can see why it's a unesco world heritage sight. People were riding boats down the river, laughing, talking, eating. Garnets and amber shops are everywhere and coffee shops too. We stopped to get a snack of a pastry we've been seeing everywhere. It's a thin dough woven around a wide round metal, pushed off and rolled in cinnamon sugar. It's maybe six inches wide, less than half an inch thick. It was warm and tasty.

We were both quite tired from going to bed late and our early wake up call, so we took a nap, then decided to head out. We went downstairs first to have a gluwein (warm mulled wine) and ponder our dining options. A couple we met in the castle raved about an italian place, though we couldn't remember the name. After a quick tour of the tiny town we learned that very little was still open and few people milled around, so we headed back to Hotel Konvice to eat and were glad we did.

We got glasses of wine, salad, and Kim got pesto pasta, while I got pork schnitzen and potato salad. We split a dessert recommended by our adorable and flirty waiter called livanze, which is pancakes, blueberry sauce, and curd. It was an interesting dish with two doughy small circles with blueberries surrounding, and a bland cheese sprinkled on top. We have been seeing honey cake around and it looked really good, but Alex said this was better. I got some apricot schnapps that they home make in some beakers that were as you entered the restaurant. Alex recommended the apricot, and the decanter said "42%" on it and wow, it was strong! Interesting, and I'm glad he gave me a small drink in a cordial glass. It was fun to try but man, I wouldn't be having more than one!

We met two women who were great: one was from Virginia and the other, her cousin, from Austria. They rotated between German and English and we got to talking with them. It is always so wonderful to connect with people on adventures like this as you meet so many really lovely people that you might not otherwise meet.

We walked for a little bit, took some night pictures in the cute little town square, then headed back. Another fairly early morning headed to Vienna and we wanted to catch up on our reading and connecting with people.

This city is incredibly picturesque and well worth the trip. Prague was SO crowded yesterday, on Saturday, that the change of pace was really nice too. It was well worth coming and we were both really glad to be here.

Tomorrow in Vienna...:)
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