I’ve never heard of Cesky Krumlov.

It wasn’t on our to do list.

The Danube was on the list. I found Karen Brown’s World of Travel website by researching the Danube.  Highly recommend this website. Oh my goodness, excellent site. She recommended Cesky Krumlov. Highly recommended.

And now we do too. 

It’s a charming medieval town located in southern bohemia of Czech Republic about 3 hours south from Prague. For us it was a scenic 2 1/2 hour trip from Salzburg and across an empty border station into a different land. The city is built-in a horseshoe bend of the Vltava River. One side of the river the impressive castle shadows the rocky walls of the river’s edge.

The city has just been restored within the last 20 years from neglect since the war.  Twice we tried to enter this church and building beside it thinking it was an architectural museum because our map said so.  Clearly it was not! This complex we later found out is the Minorite Monastery and the church Boží Tělo (Body of Christ) They are open for tours but we just missed their hours. The exterior was interesting enough and would have enjoyed looking at a project in progress.  It has been ongoing for many years. They recently received another 300 million czech koruna. (roughly 15.5 million us) to continue it. The chimney is the kitchen to the monastery. The metal cap swings around with the wind. We watched it from our lunch spot overlooking the city.  Walking through the ancient archway we found where the kitchen gardens and orchards once grew. The open field was housing a car show. Ford Mustangs. I found plums, apples, and pears trees in a walled garden. Kevin found a Shelby or Cobra. I don’t recall.  I was enamored by the beautiful setting. It was really hard not to get those cars in my shots!!  Kevin was embarrassed that my head was in the trees while everyone there was looking at the cars.

The setting was gorgeous. Look at the apples and how the colors match the roof of the monastery. I could NOT get enough of it. BUT if I could only back up and let you see the hilarity of the situation. To the left of this picture there were grown women lined up in a tire throwing contest!!! Yes! They were chunking a tire for all it’s worth and a man was marking their spot as I took this picture. Oh. I just couldn’t get over it.

At this point Kevin said Kate, its time to leave, really you are embarrassing me. I took a picture of the Shelby just to make the owner feel good. I liked him because he had car seats in the back of his sports car.

I prefer this car.

We went on an English-speaking tour of the castle. It was enormous. I can’t recall much said in the tour except it included a lot of stories about the Rosenbergs, Eggenbergs and the another berg.  But I can remember what I saw!! They had heated compartments in the balcony of the church in the castle and the ballroom was painted fabulously! But my favorite was the views from the windows!  We paid 250 korunas for our English tour. $11 each. Not bad. 

Then we toured the castle gardens.

That night as we had dinner below the castle, a hot air balloon rose above the castle and floated away. We had to pinch ourselves.

Just below the castle on Latran there was a cafe and this charming sign was above it. A crank ran down the side of the door and you had to turn the crank to make the wooden girls twirl. I adored them!!

The waves in the old old roof lines matches the waves in the cobblestones.

This was my favorite statue of all and I took many pictures of her. This one with her shadow cast upon the castle wall is my favorite. She overlooked the entrance to the castle and the bear moat. They housed 4 bears. Bears have been kept at the castle since 1707.

We stayed in an apartment in the middle of downtown just off the main square above a mineral museum. We had a little kitchenette so we stocked our frig with breakfast goodies and snacks from the nearby market. The ceiling had wonderful wood carvings and is original to the building. We spent four nights here. 

We had a view of the tower and enjoyed hearing the bells at all hours but at 9 on Sunday morning they went off for a full 15 minutes.

We loved this city!

The restaurants were wonderful and very affordable. Not much english was spoken here except at the restaurants. We overheard an employee at a premium hotel in town telling a customer they only hire people who can speak two languages fluently. Interesting. 

From Krumlov we spent two of our days taking trips out to smaller towns to visit castles, monasteries and villages. I will share these visits next.

I took soooo many pictures of beautiful windows with window boxes that they will have a post all by themselves!

Thank you for reading. I’m sorry for so many pictures but it is a treasure trove of beauty that I want to share them all.

Katey