Day 22 Cezky Krumlov-
8 kms of walking and 6 hours of sitting on a bus.
I woke before the alarm and tried to upload photos while I
was at breakfast, but it was still so slow.
I was to meet the day tour to Cezky Krumlov near the Powder Tower. And
of course I got hopelessly lost yet again, but arrived with time to spare. 26
in the tour group. A range of ages, sizes and abilities and, as became obvious,
those who were interested and those who must have had a spare day and decided
to catch the bus to “who cares”? We set off with our guide Jan. The countryside
was just beautiful. Green crops and yellow rape flowers. The rape is used for
machine oil. We passed by four nuclear cooling towers. Czech gets its power
from coal and nuclear.
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| Lovely Czech countryside |
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| Powder Tower |
At the first toilet stop I met my guide from yesterday and
my two Russian/ Israeli companions. Back on the bus and three hours later we
arrived at Cezky Krumlov another UNESCO heritage site. The second largest
castle after Prague castle. The driver drove up behind the castle to the garden
area and we walked down.
We walked through the formal gardens and down through each
court-yard , through the gorgeous little village at the foot of the castle and
up the hill to the church. The party by this time had already started to
decrease. Some got off the bus and basically wanted a restaurant. Some just
wanted to shop. I stayed with the tour guide and saw and heard it all. I even
had lunch with him in a gorgeous little restaurant that was underground. I had
the “naked chicken” and a salad-, which was actually covered in gravy. €13.70
And who should come into the restaurant but my Israeli friends. They didn’t
stay long because they were looking for a specific soup, which was not
available.
I talked with Jan over our meal. He told me about his
experiences living in Czechoslovakia. He was a boy during the German
occupation, then lived in post war Czech, then Communist Czech and now in post-
Communist Czech.
After lunch we walked back through the village to wait for
our turn to see inside the castle. One
thing that was NOT mentioned when I booked, was that you were not allowed to
take photos. However at least 1/3 of our group did when the castle guide was
not watching and I found a lot of photos online that others had taken. The
castle guide was quite difficult to understand and she had a very strong
accent. The tour whingers started straight away. The castle decorations were as
you would expect- very ornate. All too soon we were out the door, off to the
toilet, walked down the hill to the bus and off we went back to Prague. Back
through the beautiful countryside. We had to slow for a while for an accident.
We arrived back in the town at 6:30 and I promptly got lost
twice before finding my way home, even from the Town Hall. A quick shower,
washed my clothes and hair. Then typed my diary, edited the photos until late/
early next morning.
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| Lower Cesky Krumlov |
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