June 20 - 22, 2018
We took trains south from Prague to Cesky Budejovice, and then from CB to CK. The second train dropped us off way uphill of town, and we walked down, through a gateway that attached the castle to the castle theatre, across little bridges, and into the center of the medieval section, surrounded on three sides by the Vltava.
The whole center of the town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was really run down after the Communist government was in charge until 1989. Then they poured a lot of money into renovating the whole medieval center, plus the castle. Now it is a huge tourist draw. We saw several busloads of people. One oriental couple chatted with us, asking what town was this, what country were they in, etc. They were on a river cruise, having been on the Danube and driven by bus up from Budapest and Vienna. I asked where they were from, and it was San Diego. I'm glad I didn't assume they were from China. Their English was excellent, but with an accent. Our hostel was right in the center of town, above a restaurant, in a building about 500 years old. The next photos are just from our walk into town.
View while walking down the hill toward town from the Train station
Gateway between the castle and the castle theatre. There were several castle buildings, over 300 rooms, and it is the second largest castle complex in the world, after Prague, so they claim. There were frescos painted way up on the walls on the other side, facing the town. We walked under this gate on our way in, and also the next day we walked and took pictures from up above. 
The kayaks and rafts had to float down the chute on the right hand side. Everyone lined up waiting their turn, except the jerks who just barged in front of the line and went down. There was a woman supposedly directing traffic. 
This is one of several small bridges into town. They had to build them long ago as many castle servants were going into town across the river, drinking and womanizing, and then drowning on the trip home. On the Friday when the Medieval Festival of the Five Roses began, people had to pay to cross these bridges to get into town. We were already there, so no charge for us. 
Late in the day we took this trip too. It cost us $25 American each, for a kayak for 2 going 15 km from the center of Cesky Krumlov down to another rapids with a chute and a beer garden, where the rental company sent a van to come pick us up. It was about a 3 hour trip. 
There were little shops selling souvenirs, food, even costume rentals for photos. 
As if the river wasn't enough water, there were a few canals too. One had a water wheel. For awhile the river was very polluted, but in the 1980s or so they finally built a byway for the polluted water to go through a treatment plant nearby. There were lots of factories here back in the day, making paper, furniture, frames and slats, and more. Now it's mostly tourism industry. People here live outside of the center in big cement apartment buildings from Communist days, and come in to town to work. We heard recently about someone paying locals to go live in the center of the medieval section, and go about their daily lives, just to make it more authentic, so it wouldn't be just all tourists down there. 
This is Bart in the front of our kayak, heading downstream. The current was pretty strong, so we didn't paddle much, mostly just kept steering. 
I only took a few photos, because I had to steer more often in back. So Bart took the camera for me. When we stopped for a beer several kilometers downstream we switched places, and he steered. Then I lay back, put my feet up and sang sea songs. Lovely. I wanted to do it again the next day. But there was too much to see on land to dedicate that many more hours on the river. This is a north-flowing river, that later goes right through the heart of Prague. 
No comments:
Post a Comment