Czech Republic

Ahoy! (That's "hello" in Czech.). We spent two days in the small Czech town of Cesky Krumlov, which we enjoyed immensely. But we almost didn’t make it there. Travelling to or within the Czech Republic has not exactly been easy for us. First, we almost didn’t make our flight to Prague when we didn’t know that the clocks had moved forward one hour that night—and, as a result, we came within a hair of missing our flight from Amsterdam. (We realized upon arriving at the train station in Amsterdam that the station’s clocks were an hour faster than what our watches said, which led to disbelief and then panic—and then lots and lots of running. We ran through the train station and then through the airport, making it to our flight with only minutes to spare.)

For our very trip next trip (a three-hour bus ride from Prague to Cesky Krumlov), drama returned yet again. We arrived at the bus station in Prague only be told, in broken English, that all buses that day to Cesky Krumlov were totally booked. Seemingly without any way to get there, we toyed with the idea of ditching Cesky Krumlov altogether and just catching the train to Krakow instead. But, first, Kevin decided to see if he could find a different ticket window that could somehow find us another way there. While waiting in line, Kevin struck up a conversation with a native Czech named Martin who spoke good English. Martin agreed to talk to the lady at the ticket window for us (in Czech this time) and learned that, while all buses were indeed booked from that station, we could catch a bus from a different station in Prague that left in just a few hours. Great! Martin helped us buy the bus tickets and even showed us exactly how to get to the other bus station via the metro. (Martin: If you’re reading this, a huge thank you again…)

So we ended up making it to Cesky Krumlov after all… and we’re so glad that we did. Cesky Krumlov is a town in southern Czech Republic with an extremely well-preserved medieval center and a huge thirteenth century castle. A very, very cool place. Wandering the narrow, cobblestone streets amidst row-after-row of renaissance and baroque buildings, it’s easy to get lost in roughly 750 years of history and feel like time has stopped here.

The month of April in Cesky Krumlov is definitely a low period for tourists. At first, we were a bit bummed by our timing, since many of the restaurants are closed and some of the activities we wanted to do (such as floating down the river) are not available yet. But we quickly became thankful for the lack of crowds. Wandering near-empty medieval streets is far more captivating than when the streets are filled with hordes of tourists. (Our experiences in both Prague and Cesky Krumlov would have probably been much different in high tourist season.) Plus, we signed up for the night walking tour, and we were the only ones to show up for the our---so we essentially had our own private guide to show us around the town (which was fantastic).

You can see all of our Cesky Krumlov photos here. After two nights in Cesky Krumlov, we caught the bus back to Prague (no problems this time!) and immediately got on the night train to Krakow. More soon…

Based on what other travelers had told us, we had high expectations for our four days in Prague---and it did not disappoint. (Good rule of thumb: If a city has a neighborhood known as “New Town” that dates back over 500 years, it’s probably going to be a very cool place…)

Prague has a huge medieval center that, from one medieval neighborhood to the next, feels like a giant step back in time. The city is full of winding cobbled lanes, walled courtyards, huge cathedrals, countless spires, and a varied mix of stunning, ancient architecture. (Plus, it arguably has the best beer in the world… What’s not to love?)

Whatever Prague lacks in blockbuster activities, it makes up for it with incredible ambience. We spent our days aimlessly wandering from one neighborhood to the next. From the Old Quarter to the Castle Quarter to the Little Quarter to the Jewish Quarter to the New Town---each neighborhood has its own unique character, history, architecture, and charm.

You can check out all of our Prague photos right here. We’ve fallen a bit behind in our blog entries (sorry!), so we’ll try to catch up with several mini-entries in the next few days. Up next: Cesky Krumlov and Krakow.