Park Spa Hotel Sirius Karlovy Vary

Time for a short one after that mammoth of a blog for Prague. Ha that rhymes.

Well we left Prague and had 2 choices. Down towards the town of Plzen, and the home of Pilsner beer, or up towards Karlovy Vary, famous for its natural healing waters and its spas. We chose Karlovy Vary since Chris had had his fill of beer in Prague and Plzen was a little out of the way. We also hoped to maybe get some Spa time in but unfortunately fate was against us there ...

... pan and cook our first dinner this week, so not all bad.

in karlovy vary we buy the teeniest tiniest cup and try some water from every fountain. some taste like blood and we wonder if we have reached dracula country early. oh well, at least we will probably live a few extra years according to the, ah hem, medical advice.

... br>
We have experienced Manitou and the Dead Sea, since we are here, we are going to Karlovy Vary to try out the waters. We have been looking online as to where we can float in the water, but there only seem to be spas who do all kinds of treatment, some with Dr.'s prescriptions. They also drink the water.

We arrive at the tourist office and ask where we go to float in the water. Well, there isn’t any ...

... 5.30am. Not having had much sleep on the 11 hour flight it was a bit of a struggle to function like a normal human! But Munich was fantastic, a great combination of old and modern...everyone gets around on their bikes around the city which is pretty cool. Jarrad has spent a fair bit of time in Munich so was great to be there with someone who knew all the places to go. Felt obliged to induldge as the locals do so we went to a great gourmet market and had beer ...

We took a day trip to this beautiful crystal and spa town. It is noted for its water. People come from all over. It is suppose to help ailments of all kinds. There are several places in town that sell ceramic vases to use to drink from the fountains throughout the city. We strolled around for several ...

... which felt alot like standing on a block of ice for 2 1/2 hours and there being no TP in the bathroom, not out of TP, but no actually dispenser to indicate there had ever been TP offered at all. Therefore Celina had to use her 'extensive' Czech to beg for a napkin!! Lucky I love hockey as much as Mirek! One of the things I looked forward to the most here was the weekly flea market, as everyone promised it was the biggest and best-it was! Piles of clothes and ...

... take us to visit the Hrabanek clan (he and his family are the only remaining part of the family in the Czech Republic). It's a beautiful drive from Prague to K.V. but at 120kms from Prague it still takes 2.5 hours. In K.V. we are staying with my great-aunt on my moms side the infamous teta Kvyeta. She is my grandmothers sister but closer in age to my parents so she essentially grew up with them, (she is the aunt you have that is ...

... why I love going back so often. It was the most amount of food we have eaten so far and the parties weren't too far behind either. Denmark to Berlin where we stayed a few days and did the touristy sights. Neither of us realised what a cool city it was before we arrived. It is a place to go for sure!! From Berlin we took a train to the Czech Repbulic ...

... mountains all around, beautiful buildings and everything but, two hours just for that seems too long. Not to mention our way back was a nightmare!!! We went back to the bus station, where the woman at the ticket post was talking on the phone for about 10' allowing a big line of unhappy travelers to form, before she told us that they are out of tickets!!! Can you believe it?? I guess it's only logical since everyone was leaving Karlovy Vary by the time the sun was setting. So we ...

... in town, dating back to 1834, to catch the funicular. We noticed so many groups of people gathering around and stepped in for a closer peek. It was the mineral water, spouting out of the ground ranging from 128 F - 158 F, dipping their special porcelain mugs under the spouts of "healing water". It was a frenzy!! The topper was the lady with 3 large thermoses' to fill and would have had more if she could carry them. Ryan scooped up a handful and called out to Laurie "you ...