Tag Archives: Český Krumlov

Český Krumlov ~Part 2

Continuing our time in Český Krumlov on Wednesday March 4th, after we broke off from our tour group we made our way to the Tavern of Two Maries.

This short door on the left side was the entrance to the Tavern. We opened the door hesitantly.

There was no welcome party as we entered, in fact we wondered if they were open. As we considered which way to turn a tall woman appeared and pointed us upstairs, upstairs. We went all the way to the top and then she caught us and pointed downstairs. We had gone up one floor too many.

Whew! We made it into the wall of tapestries dining room.

I’m never quite sure what to do with my hands when posing for a photo.

The two gals sitting behind us were also from our cruise and this encounter was the beginning of a few more where we would look at each other and say, “Great minds think alike.” We found out over lunch that these two were friends from their youth. Their mom’s were best friends and their moms had taken this cruise in the past and they decided to join up and do this very cruise in honor of their moms who since were both deceased. What a sweet journey they were on. One of them lives in Oklahoma and the other in Colorado.

Our tour guide suggested ordering the Feast but to make sure we only ordered one and it would be plenty to share. We ordered the Old Bohemian Feast for one with rabbit meat.

Two house beers, a light draft and dark draft.

After lunch we first headed to the main square to get our bearings for where we would meet up with the tour group again for our departure.

Just as we imagined, it was not difficult to find the main square, Svornosti, in old town.

At the heart of the Old Town is the main square, lined with a mix of Renaissance and Baroque homes of burghers (all built on 12th-century Gothic foundations). Lékárna, with a fine red Baroque facade on the lower corner of the square, is still a pharmacy, as it has been since 1620.

The main artistic landmark of the square is the plague column topped with the statue of the Virgin Mary and eight saints, the patron saints of the town and believed protectors against plague. In the upper row there are statues of St. Wenceslas, St. Vitus, St. John Evangelist, St. Judas Thaddeus, and in the lower row St. Francis Xavier, St. Sebastian, St. Gaetano and St. Rochus.

The wind aided temps at this point to drop and we decided to try to find someplace for warmth and a hot drink. We ended up at a counter service for sweets and decided on hot chocolate for our drink and a couple sweets for the road. Heading back to the square we saw St. Vitus church and decided to climb up the stairs for a visit.

Church of Saint Vitus is a Roman Catholic church in Český Krumlov, Czech Republic. It is dedicated to Saint Vitus. It is an important late-Gothic monument built in 1407–1438, with later modifications. In 1995, it was declared a national cultural monument.

In our travels we visit lots of churches and I share photos from them. I can appreciate the history and the art but to be clear, although I love my Roman Catholic friends, my Christian faith differs in practice and beliefs with regards to assurance of salvation, authority of scripture, communion, prayer, intercessors, Mary, Saints, authority of the Pope, etc.

After our walk through this church we made it to the old town square to meet up with our guide and walk back to the bus for our journey back to the Danube (Grein) and dinner on the boat. Before dinner we gathered in the Lark Bar and Lounge for a briefing on our time in Vienna. The AmaMagna would leave this port for Vienna at 9:15 PM. Our arrival in Vienna would be at approximately 2pm on Thursday the 5th of March.

Český Krumlov Part 1

On Wednesday, March 4th, we had a full day excursion to the charming mountain town of Český Krumlov just over the Czech-Austrian border. This was after our short morning tour of Krems.

Our guide grew up in this region and shared his memories of growing up under communism. On our way to our stop, we saw some areas where housing high rises from the past were everywhere.  Current residents were making them more colorful and personal.

We finally reached our destination. From the bus parking lot, the walk to the castle was all uphill and I’m not going to lie, it was a huff and a puff to get there. Thankfully that would be the only uphill trek on this day!

Český Krumlov is a city in the South Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. It’s bisected by the Vltava River, and dominated by its 13th-century castle. The castle has Gothic, Renaissance and baroque elements, an 11-hectare garden and an original 17th-century baroque theater. There are panoramic views of the old town and the river from the top of its round belltower.

We were here in the winter months so the garden wasn’t visited.

Český Krumlov, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1992. It flourished under the Rosenbergs as a Renaissance hub, transitioning to Baroque under the Eggenbergs and Schwarzenbergs, maintaining its medieval layout largely due to slow industrialization in the 19th century.  In 1938, it was annexed by Nazi Germany and after the Second World War, it was part of Communist Czechoslovakia. In 1992, after the Velvet Revolution, Czech Republic was born, and Český Krumlov is one of its crown jewels in the Bohemian region.

The village below is where we would be spending more time visiting and enjoying lunch on our own. But first, we would enjoy the castle and the castle moat with bears!

Plastovy Bridge or Cloak Bridge.

I know I’ve talked about it before, we were blessed with such great weather on the duration of our cruise!

Architecture and figural paintings relating to mythology and Roman history can be seen on the facades covered with colored sgraffito (geometrical or other motives scratched into wet parquet). We would see many types of sgraffito on buildings as we walked into Old Town, too.

Time to move downward to the outer courts.

You can read more about the history of bear keeping at the castle here.

These days we were told they only bring in old bears that have no where else to be cared for. They are cared for well, here.

We didn’t climb the belltower but it was an option.

From the castle we journeyed on cobbled streets to get to Old Town.

Cobbled streets and narrower alleyways.

After being part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it became part of Czechoslovakia in 1918. The town suffered minimal damage in the 20th century, preserving its unique, intact medieval and Renaissance architecture.

By this time, I kept looking at my watch thinking it is lunch time. My brain had enough of tour talk and my ears were tired of the ear pieces. You might feel the same way about this post but I’m not done yet, nor was our guide. 🙂

Many precious Gothic and Renaissance frescoes were whitewashed in Baroque times, when the colorful trimmings of earlier periods were out of style. Some of these frescoes are being rediscovered and restored.

Looking up and back at the round bell tower at the Castle from the bridge over the river. This river circles the town.

Finally at the bridge we saw the spot we were interested in for our lunch meal. Our guide wasn’t winding down yet and he was going to keep going all the way to the square in the middle of town. That would be the spot to meet up with him again after our few hours in town by ourselves. We knew we’d be able to find the square with no problem. My feet were saying, “why go all the way to the center of town and then have to double back to this very spot for lunch?” NYET!

We broke away with thoughts of that good lunch and a nice sit down to rest our feet.

I’ll leave it here and give you a break, too. Part deux (french) or dva (czech) coming soon.

Postcards from the Danube

On Monday March 2nd,  we docked and visited Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia situated on the Danube by the border of Austria and Hungary. It has a pedestrian only old town center.

On Tuesday March 3rd,  we passed the little village we were going to visit and docked further on. We had a short bus ride back to the village of Durnstein.

We also visited the Melk Abbey on this same day.

On Wednesday March 4th, we chose to travel by bus from the boat to the Czech Republic to visit the picturesque town of Český Krumlov.

Here is a sneak peek of the town surrounded by water.

Thursday March 5th and Friday March 6th we were in Vienna.

Carriage rides and Apple Strudel and a whole lot more.

Saturday we cruised back to Budapest.

Throughout our River cruise we were blessed with very decent weather. That was not a guarantee for this time of the year. Looking forward to putting my thoughts together for each stop of our cruise and to post all my photos. That will have to wait for when we get home. Thanks for traveling along with us!

On Sunday March 8th we disembarked from the AmaMagna and were bused to the airport.  We flew to London boarded a bus to Cambridge and checked into our apart/hotel for 6 nights in the college town.

Once checked into our hotel we found a pub close to the apart/hotel for some comfort food before we turned in for the night.