After all the craziness last night, today was calm, the weather was mostly sunny, and we had some delicious beer. All good things. Cesky Krumlov appears to be mostly famous for being very cute. It has a huge castle dominating the hill above the old town.
We started off the day with a walking tour - I continue to be blessed with fellow travelers who will do this with me - and we had a great tour guide. She was born in the 70's and has lived in Cesky Krumlov all her life; she talked about life in the "socialist times", her relatively happy childhood, and lots of little anecdotes and tidbits that made the whole thing so worth our short time here. We finished off the tour near the river, and we found a place to eat lunch near where folks were floating by on the Vltava River that loops around town. The best thing about lunch? The dark Budweiser beer we had - nothing like Bud at home, AND it cost $2.
There were several interesting sights around town:
The main square, surrounded by baroque buildings and location of some amazing historical events. Hitler stood on the square to celebrate the annexation of the Sudetenland, the church burned Jesuit books, Russian tanks rolled through, witches were burned...and in modern times, McDonalds has tried three times to open here and been turned down.
For D. Cunliffe and fellow CWOWers - I saw this in a few places around town. This in particular was at the town hall.
The place we're staying in Pension Olsakonsky, the white building in the right foreground.
Very old Jesuit sundial. You can tell the time (obvious) AND the date (small round shadow in the middle)
The castle had bear pits. This bear looked pretty tired.
We spied this delicious looking treat and waited in line to get one...rolls of dough are put on a revolving metal drum over an oven, then rolled in cinnamon, sugar, and almonds. Very clever, very good.
After an afternoon siesta (me) and more walking around (Donica), we headed out for dinner and a mission - to taste the very local hometown brew. (We saw the brewery on our walking tour). We walked around to a few crowded places, we finally found some at a bar. I chose a liqueur that's very popular here, the taste of which I can best describe as...Christmas. I love it. Donica had the local stuff and reports that it tastes like...Bud Lite.
2 comments:
SO glad your next day was wonderful. I think this is my favorite of your posts - the 3 kings, the good beer/pastries, & the bear. What a trip!
I remember those cinnamon roll things from my Christmas time trip. Prague was teeming with vendors of those and meat skewers. I was taken with the sweet and my mom the savory.
Glad you had a yummy, less stressful day!
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