Hotel u Vaclava Cesky Krumlov

... in the aisle! About the first 90 minutes of the trip was spent with the bus crammed full of people. Alisia and I were worried that the guy standing between us was going to puke, because we watched him get paler and paler and sort of weave where he was standing. He was definitely not feeling well. Thankfully most of the people in the aisles and several sitting got off the bus at the 2nd stop, so the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and ...

... few seat when we reserved last night. The bus ride is excellent and really cheap at $8/person for the 3 hour ride to Prague. The company is Student Agency but is not limited to students. For whatever reason, LP does not even mention them in my guide.

Since we are opting for private rooms, I make a reservation using Hotwire. It is a 3 star hotel for $60 in "central Prague". After paying for the room, Hotwire gives the details. It is near ...

... a restored castle town. The castle is atop the hill as we start our walk to the hostel. The buildings and streets transport one back in time.

We have drinks at bar that is cave-like then dinner in a neat, tiny, inn-like restaurant (Two Mary's) with homemade courses, otherwise known as the Bohemian Feast. Food was only marginal but the atmosphere was nice. The town is very pretty by night. It is way off season so ...

... a Budwiesser and a Budweisser dark.
Also saw they had camembert cheese cooked on the grill so ordered one of them with a hot mead as an after dinner snack - AMAZING!!! Both the cheese and the mead. Perfect finish to the meal.
I thought the mead would come in a tankard like mug or a goblet/chalice type of thing, but it came in a tea cup :)
Only had room tepmerature mead before and hot is good! Perfect for the cold Cesky Krumlov weather.
Cesky Krumlov, Bohemia, Czech Republic richlum

... and it was so yummy! We then jumped next door to the restaurant from the day before for a quick mug of mead seeing as the vego place didn’t have any and then went to go rafting!

They picked us up in a van and took us to the rafting spot after a quick stop to pick up the raft. It was really more like a big kayak but whatever.

When we got to the departure spot he dropped us off with the raft, a paddle and a waterproof container to put our belongings in, then ...

... we finally reached the Castle. We decided to climb the tower for the wonderful views of the town and river. We also walked up to the Castle Garden and then through a different part of town, stopping to watch the swollen river and the fish jumping upstream. Cesky Krumlov is a UNESCO listed Old Town and Castle which dates to the late 13th Century. It is in South Bohemia, in the Czech Republic and is situated on the Vltava River. Two nights here so lots more to see tomorrow.

... to know was "why have I got the wrong ticket and how can I resolve this?". As he spoke to the conductor at length I though that we must be finally getting somewhere but when he came back with the response that "I had the wrong ticket" I was starting to tear my hair out. Just when being kicked off the train in the middle of nowhere became a real possibility I said that I would just buy a new ticket, whatever needed to be done to resolve this I was ready to do. The conductor seemed much ...

... onto flat and otherwise plain surfaces. This ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ approach to exterior design lives on today in those skilled artisans who can craft an exterior wood finish without the need for treating timber or worrying about the ravages of termites. It’s simply ingenious what some people can make things look like with concrete. This creative approach was also currently being used to good effect in other purely functional Czech ...

... of the world. The Czechs are very ¨¨traditional¨¨ in this way. Time is marked by the church bell up the hill, and by the parade of locals carrying thermos flasks and containers to get their lunch and dinner at the local farm coop kitchen down the hill. We hitch hike into town to use internet, and browse the library. We answer a lot of questions from curious small townies, who sense our accents and wonder what weŕe doing in this part of the world. We ...

... information centres, tours and restaurants offer English and German translations only. It is a surprise just how well the tourist towns we visited cater for the English tourist. Particularly helpful are the information centres, who will book accommodation and provide times for buses and trains as well as selling colour booklets on local history. All you need to do is say "dekuji" (thank you) as you leave. Karl ...