Czech Republic

20 July – 24 July

 

Our first stop in Czech was a great spot for lunch. A lake about 30km South of Cesky Krumlov, suggested to us by a random Austrian man who had sought us out in a supermarket after seeing the Aussie car in the carpark. The lake was a big local tourist area, also looked like it would be popular for the ski season. Lots of people out cycling, rollerblading...

 

We headed to Cesky Krumlov for the afternoon, on what was finally a nice sunny afternoon. A beautiful old town, lovely old buildings, cobbled streets, people rafting along the river through the town. We ended up camping a little way down the river just out of town. Was nice and quiet and watched as the rafters continued on down past us.

 

Then to Prague, which I have to say was a little bit of a let down, just didn’t get the ‘wow’ factor that I was expecting. I think with a group it would be more fun, checking out the bars and clubs... and maybe it was the weather (very hot, humid, and stormy)... or the groups of English lads after out for the bucks weekend... It is a very pretty city, but as I think I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve become a bit of a travel ‘snob’, after 2 months through Europe you get to the point where a castle is just another castle, a beautiful old bridge is just another bridge. Which is terrible I know. Really enjoyed our cycle though. For anyone who’s been to Prague, you know the hill the castle is on? Our campsite was 3km further up so the cycle back from the centre of town took quite a lot out of us. Collapsed next to the car when we got there.

 

We had a little Czech cash left so picked a random town, Karlovy Very (Karlsbad) West of Prague. It’s a town with natural springs, where the water is meant to have great healing properties. I tried it, tasted horrible, but now I must be healed from whatever it was that I had. The springs got hotter and hotter the further up the river you went, to the point where it was too hot to touch the pipe. A great worthwhile stop, even the random campsite we found where we felt like we were in someone’s backyard. Felt a bit sorry for the group on a canoeing trek whose dinner got washed out. Yep. Raining here too!