Ceský Krumlov  More town photos Photos from outside town

After a few busy days in Prague seeing the town, historic sights, and nightlife, we boarded a three hour train south to the historic town of Cesky Krumlov.

As with our Munich-Prague trip, what we thought would be a simple one seat train trip turned into a longer ordeal due to some track repair. In the town of Ceske Budejovice we deboarded and the entire populace of the train switched to a few motor coaches. We were driven south through some towns about 50 kilometers where we boarded a second train to carry us to Cesky Krumlov. I didn’t mind the bus portion too much as it gave me a chance to see the roads and road signs close up, and pass through a few small towns.

The Cesky Krumlov train station is about four miles from the city center. We found a cab and wound our way through the maze of streets until reaching the historic square.

We hadn’t made any reservations as we knew the town was full of pensions, or the European equivalent of a U.S. bed and breakfast.

We started out looking for a place along the main square but found it busy and crowded, so we wandered through some alleys until we crossed the river. We knocked on the door of the Pension u Kaplièky, but received no response. We continued walking around a corner and up a hill, but realized we were about a mile from the city by then. We returned and passed the u Kaplièky once more, admiring it’s big back yard adjacent to the river. We found the “real” door and met a nice woman, her husband, and their son of about 10 or so.

Inside of the old church were two beautifully appointed guest suites. Ours was a room in the front half of the second floor, up a refreshingly cool walkway inside the old stone building. Communication was challenging as neither of us speak Czech, but with Caleb’s German we managed to figure out the rate, and we were handed the keys with a smile.

The best part of our two days came daily at 8am, when we were brought in a cart of fresh breakfast for us. Ham and cheese croissants, scrambled eggs, bananas, tea, pancakes with powdered sugar, and pastries. I’ve never had a breakfast that filling before.

Unfortunately I didn’t recall our the names of our hosts, but when I find it I’ll post it should anyone want to make a reservation. They’re wonderful people, and you’ll have an excellent stay.

Info: Pension u kaplièky, Linecká 60, Ceský Krumlov 381 01, Telephone: +420 380 714 123, +420 380 712 844 Mobile phone: +420 606 434 090 ukaplicky@ckrumlov.cz www.ckrumlov.cz/ukaplicky

Below: An alley near the hotel, and our room.

Cesky Krumlov is a bit touristy by day, being a long day trip for visitors to Prague. But we found in the evening the crowds clear out and the restaurants and bars are mellow and enjoyable.

Our first night we ate at this restaurant along the river. Again the food was traditional Czech.

Our second day in Cesky Krumlov we found a bike rental place, loaded up, and headed out of town for a cycling journey. The Czech Republic is a popular destination for cyclists, and I saw many loaded up cycle tourists from the train biking along the rivers and valleys. We were only doing a day trip, but bought a good map of the bike routes in the area. Unfortunately we got off to a slow start, not being able to find route 12. We followed a long dirt road up a steep hill near the train station, but not seeing any further signs we returned back to a little market near the train station to study our maps further. Turns the steep hill that we had just climbed was in fact the correct route, and we commenced our trip that way after all.

Seeing the country and outlying areas by bike was by far my favorite part of the Czech country. Most of the houses had large gardens and firewood stacked up next to them. Biking wasn’t too challenging, however it was exerting since everywhere in the area was rolling hills, so we were either going hill or coasting down the entire time. The bike routes followed rural roads through forests and villages, and this route followed the train tracks that we had come in on.

Back in town we had a cheese plate with beer, and some more beer. We had another perfect night our pension and slept in before taking off to the train station for head back to Prague.

When we arrived in Cesky Krumlov I stopped and asked for a schedule back to Prauge. Once again I completely screwed up my planning and wound up reading the bus schedule back to Prague, which didn’t depart from the train station we had just gone back to that morning. Instead of leaving at 10 we left at 2, and with our necessary bus transfer we arrived Prague in the evening and visited a few of the local bars before leaving the next morning back to Munich.