Our final stop was the UNESCO World Heritage sight Cesky Krumlov. What a beautiful, beautiful town. Stunning architecture, all sorts of dining options, the city itself is very clean and the people were friendly. We loved Cesky Krumlov. Yes, it’s totally geared towards tourists but it didn’t seem too touristy. Does that make any sense? Take for example the area surrounding the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It has turned into one big conglomerate of cheap food stands and tacky souvenirs like some nasty county fair that just decided to never leave town. Cesky Krumlov didn’t feel that way to us. There’s way too many jewelry stores selling garnet and shops have pretty much taken over the lower floor of every building but you can tell the city has been very careful as to what type of remodeling and decorating they allow to be done. McDonalds hasn’t been allowed in. We spent three full days there and enjoyed them all.
We stayed at a place called U Kapalicky. There are two rooms for rent. One is a one bedroom affair that was rather small. It was nicely furnished however and we don’t spend a whole lot of time in the room so it worked out fine for us. The other room is actually an apartment and was quite spacious. The owner of U Kapalicky is an artist and you could tell she has a real flair for interior design. On one end of the apartment is a bedroom with a wall of windows between it and the dining room. The windows keep a very open spacious feel to the apartment but there’s a curtain that can be easily lowered if you want privacy. There is also a small living room and an additional sleeping area on the opposite end of the apartment near the bathroom. We let Mom & Mom have the apartment area. Every morning we met in their dining room for the scrumptious breakfast that Jitka & her daughter supplied. The breakfasts were to die for. We thought that breakfast on the first day of our stay was amazing but as it turned out she continued to outdo herself each succeeding day. Jitka doesn’t speak English, but her husband & daughter both speak a little. She was very friendly however and eager to please. She and I played a lot of charades seeing as how my Czech is extremely limited. The second day we were there she was trying to share some information with me and I know so little Czech I had no chance of understanding her. She wanted so bad to tell me though so she started T-A-L-K-I-N-G V-E-R-Y L-O-U-D A-N-D S-L-O-W-L-Y just like a stereotypical ugly American would when trying to speak English in a foreign country. Obviously she wasn’t being an ugly American but it just struck me as being so funny. We are more alike than we are different. Overall we were completely satisfied with our stay there and felt the rooms at $40 & $65 were a good value, especially with the enormous breakfasts. They are right on the edge of the old town and within an easy five minute walk of the town square. Here is the contact information.
www.ckrumlov.cz/ck/ukaplicky/index_uk.html
We spent most of our time in Krumlov shopping & exploring all the little alleys and backstreets of the town. Well, the ladies shopped – I ran off by myself and took pictures, but to each his own. Krumlov just begs you to shoot roll after roll of film or film up that memory card on your digital camera, whichever the case may be. The King Wenceslas festival was going on while we there which meant there was a stage set up and lots of live music in the town square. There were also towns people dressed in period costumes and food stands serving traditional Czech foods, oh and more burchak’.
The Rick Steves’ recommended tour guide we hired for a few hours one afternoon was named Jiri Vaclavicek. He did a good job. He wasn’t spectacular but he was friendly and knowledgeable. With him we were able to see and learn things about the town that we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. That’s one of the main reasons for using a guide right? He suggested taking the castle tour which we did. The castle was wonderful. The guide was bored and simply recited her memorized spiel. That’s got to be a tough job. Jiri is a school teacher who now also rents out some beautiful rooms in an impressive location. He took us on a brief tour and the place was a gem. You take a small winding pedestrian only street about a block from the main square to get there. You’re right in the center of town, yet far enough from traffic and the square that I think noise wouldn’t be a problem. The views were killer as well. The price was too spendy for a cheap-skate like me, but if I had the coin I would definitely have stayed there. He had the whole place redone with modern touches yet retained the old world feel.
www.castleview.cz
Jiri also gave us some restaurant suggestions which were spot on. One of them was called “Papa’s Living Restaurant”. We had seen the sign previously and passed it by, laughing about the name. Was there a “Dead Papa’s Restaurant” that they needed to differentiate themselves from? It didn’t sound too appetizing. Thanks to Jiri we found out how wrong we were. The food was fantastic. They had a little bit of everything on the menu and we liked everything we tried. The carpaccio was excellent. If you’ve never tried it before do yourself a favor and have some in Krumlov. Here is Jiris contact information;
[email protected]
We also went rafting down the Vltava which was a lot of fun. The current takes you right along so you don’t have to do a whole lot of paddling if you don’t want to. The miniature rapids through the dams were a scream, literally. I doubt they even make it onto the official white water rapids scale, but we’re novices so that was plenty of excitement for us. We took the 2 1/2 hour trip and it was the perfect length for what we wanted. The contact information for the canoe outfit is
www.malecek.cz/en/lode/index.html
Lets see, what else? Some “must see’s” would include climbing the castle tower for unbeatable views of the castle itself and the town. For sure a night time stroll along the riverbanks to see all the lights and how cool the floodlit castle looks. Oh and you have to eat dinner or lunch in the Beer Cellar. We were in a jewelry store (if you knew my wife and mother-in-law you would so NOT be shocked by that last statement) and we asked the couple who ran the store for a recommendation on where to go for dinner. They told us to try the beer cellar. If you stand in the center of the town square with the fountain on your left and the T.I on your right you’ll see a big hotel/restaurant right in front of you. Just to the right, still in the main square is, of all things, a Chinese restaurant. Underneath the sign for the Chinese place there is a smaller sign for the Beer Cellar and just to the left is the entrance, a rather small wooden door. When you open the door there is a tiny little spiral stone stairway leading down into the dark. My mom was leading the way and got about three steps down and couldn’t go any further and came back up. My wife tried and felt the same claustrophobic feeling. She edited this trip report for me because I have the spelling and grammar, well of a turnip. When she got to this part of the report she wrote in the margin “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” Neither one of them could bring themselves to go down the steps. Being the big brave turnip that I am, I went down the steps to see if they led to certain doom or it would be safe. If being a hero was only that easy in everyday life. The narrow winding staircase opened up into a cave like room with a very low ceiling. Welcome to the Beer Cellar. The food was great, especially the bread bowl soups. The atmosphere was very old world and I would certainly add it to my list of restaurants to try while in Cesky Krumlov.
Cheers, the turnip
