Czech This Out, Part IV

In Český Krumlov

As charming as Prague is, there is more to see in the Czech Republic. Which is why, even on a short visit such as ours, we left the capital on a Thursday morning, and found ourselves after a three-hour bus ride in the South Bohemian town of Český Krumlov:

Lonely Planet describes Český Krumlov as "arguably the Czech Republic's only other world-class sight and must-see". The attraction here is the Renaissance castle overlooking the 17th-century townscape; this was our first view as we toted our luggage from the bus stop to our hotel:

We would only stay a night in Český Krumlov, so we splurged a bit for a room at the Hotel Dvorak:

The view from our windows:

Lunch was had at the hotel's ground-floor restaurant. I went whole-hog with a selection of various pork meats, supplemented by dumplings and beer:

My daughter, of course, had no complaints when it came to dessert:

It was mid-afternoon by the time we'd finished our midday repast, so the decision was made to save the castle for the following day. Instead, we spent the remainder of the daylight hours strolling through the town:

Along the banks of the Vltava, the same river that runs through Prague, but not nearly as wide here:

The Regional Museum may have been closed for renovations, but the view from the grounds was open for all to enjoy:

Despite the crowds thronging the streets of Český Krumlov, I had the Church of St. Vitus, with its neo-Gothic tower, almost entirely to myself:

Náměstí Svornosti in the center of Old Town, site of the 1716 Marian Plague Column:

With darkness rapidly descending, my wife opted to return to our hotel, but Amber and I continued on, ducking into the Egon Schiele Art Centrum to see what was happening there:

Egon Schiele was an early 20th-century Austrian painter who lived in Český Krumlov, his mother's birthplace, in 1911. He didn't stay long as he and his partner were driven out by angry townspeople, in large part over his use of young girls to serve as nude models for his artwork. He was definitely ahead of his time in his explorations of sexuality:

While the museum has an extensive collection of Schiele's work, I found the two temporary exhibitions to be more interesting, namely those of Věra Nováková...:

...and, especially, the amazingly prolific work of her husband Pavel Brázda:

Walking back to the Hotel Dvorak:

Considering all the meat I had at lunch, for dinner I took Amber to Laibon, a rustic vegetarian restaurant. I ordered the spicy chili, which lived up to its name, so much that I needed to order a banana lassi midway through the meal in order to help put out the fire, as the beer wasn't up to the task. Memories of Thailand:

After dinner, my daughter and I crossed over the Vltava and headed toward the castle:

The courtyards were still open, and the views over the town below were impressive at night. We were definitely looking forward to the next day's adventures:

Back at the hotel and retiring for the night:

Czech This Out, Part III

Karlštejn Castle

On the first day of November (and our third day in the Czech Republic), we traveled outside of Prague, taking a train from Prague Main Train Station. While waiting to learn which platform our train would be departing from, I ventured upstairs to have a quick peek at the original art-nouveau entrance hall, designed by Josef Fanta and finished in 1909:

A plaque dedicated to Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States. Unlike Neville Chamberlain, Wilson is fondly remembered for his Fourteen Points, which played a key role in the establishment of Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War:

Another foreign hero, Nicholas Winton, is commemorated with a statue on one of the platforms for his role in helping Jewish refugees flee the Nazi occupation of Prague:

Getting ready to board:

Forty minutes after pulling out of Prague Main Train Station, we alit in Karlštejn, a town situated along the banks of the Berounka River in Central Bohemia:

The purpose of our visit was to see the castle which gave the town its name. It's a 25-minute walk uphill to the castle, but alternative means of transport are available:

Like something out of an Akira Kurosawa 黒澤明 film, Karlštejn Castle sits atop a small hill, looming over the market town below:

We reached the castle with about an hour to kill before our scheduled 12:40pm English-language guided tour (the only way to see the interior), so I snacked on a vanilla wafer:

Ahem...:

Some history: construction of Karlštejn Castle began in 1348 as a safe haven for the crown jewels and treasury of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor. The castle also served to keep the Bohemian and Holy Roman Empire jewels safe during the Hussite Wars of the early 15th century, but eventually modern warfare technology advanced to the point where the defenses were no longer effective, and the buildings fell into disrepair before restoration work was undertaken in the late 19th century:

Our guided tour first passed through the Knight's Hall...:

...followed by Charles IV's Bedchamber and then the Audience Hall:

Pausing between buildings:

The final stop was the Jewel House, containing treasures from the Chapel of the Holy Cross. The skull on the bottom shelf of the display case was thought to have been that of a dragon by people who had never seen a crocodile:

The above-mentioned Chapel of the Holy Cross is the star attraction of Karlštejn Castle, but it wasn't included on our tour. If planning a trip to the Czech Republic, keep in mind that a number of sightseeing spots shut down or scale back their activities at the close of the tourist season, which seems to be at the end of October:

Chapel of the Holy Cross

All three of us were pretty hungry by the end of our tour, so we descended back into the town and had the best Czech food of our entire trip. In my case, it started with a bowl of garlic soup, then proceeded to roast chicken covered in ham, cheese and pear, and served with Czech-style dumplings. All washed down with Czech beer, of course:

We then returned to the train station for the ride back to Prague. Notice the Budweiser sign in the photo below - definitely not an advert for the worse-than-piss American brew of the same name:

That evening, my wife decided once again that lunch had been enough, so I took Amber out in search of dinner, this time crossing over the river into Nové Město (New Town):

Our entrance into Nové Město was marked by the Dancing Building, built in 1996 by Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry, and nicknamed the "Fred & Ginger Building" after Astaire and Rogers:

The two of us ended up at the Globe Bookstore & Café, which is Prague's finest English-language bookstore. The Essential Kafka and the Classic Globe Cheeseburger satisfied my intellectual and physical appetites, respectively. If the conversation between the young American man and his French female companion at the table next to ours was any indication, Prague seems like it would be a great place to be a student. Probably too late for me, not not yet for my daughter...: