24th November - The Czech Republic

Monday 24th November

The “first week in Austria” - as I titled my last blog - was to be our first and only week there, as from Vienna the town of “Horn” was our last stop before making our way across the border into the chilly Czech Republic. Our first port of call was the large town of Ceske Budejovice where we spent one night, before moving onto the beautiful nearby medieval town named Cesky Krumlov.

Arriving at Cesky Krumlov by night was a fine way of arrival, as the town centre is surrounded by the impressive town walls and Castle, which when lit up appear rather fetching. We waited until late morning to wander around town which was - we were quite surprised to notice - rather busy with tourists for such a small place, but it didn’t take long to realise why they (we) were there. Cesky Krumlov is an extremely favourable little town, home to ample narrow streets which occasionally cross over pint-sized wooden bridges taking you over the river which meanders its way through the old, well preserved buildings. The Castle which is so clearly visible from afar offers fine views (pictured) across the centre and is only a short walk from the pretty main square.

When parked up in Krumlov, it felt, for the first time this trip, that it really was cold enough to snow. We waited another morning in the hope that it would, but to no avail. After the break-in in Marseille our rear window is still cracked which lets in the cold beautifully, so most evenings we find ourselves wrapped up warm or sitting around in our sleeping bags to fend off the chill, so we figured that as we’re already cold we might as well have some snow! We asked in a hotel if there was any chance of just a few flakes at least but the Receptionist assured us that we’d need to wait until December - “Too late!” - we’ll be in The Netherlands by then!

On the Tuesday we headed north again and drove back through Ceske Budejovice, up the number 34 to our next stopover town: Telc. As with many of the places we’ve visited on this trip, the only reason for visiting these small towns is due to recommendations from our Guide Book, and Telc was no different. “A Place of Extreme Tourist interest” the guide claimed. Now I’m not here to moan about places - Telc was a real Czech town with an elegant main square surrounded by two serene lakes - but to describe it was a place of “extreme tourist interest” was somewhat generous. Perhaps someone from Telc council cut a deal with the publisher?

Our penultimate destination in the Czech Republic was Kutna Hora, a town with strong silver mining heritage before moving on on Thursday evening to the Czech capital Prague. We had been warned that parking in the capital was said to be something of a nightmare, but we’d like to think that we’ve become somewhat experts at finding parking spaces in almost impossible places, so this warning didn’t bother us too much. However, the warnings were wise as the whole of Prague has been “zoned”, so wild parking has become practically impossible unless you want to risk a parking ticket. We drove around the centre and the outskirts for around 45 minutes looking for a suitable destination, but everywhere we looked was either restricted to “Residents only” or “2 hours max”. There were no campsites open according to our Caravan Club book, and we were not going to give up on seeing Prague (one of our most eagerly anticipated places of the whole trip) so we had no choice but to park in a “Residents only” section and risk it. For the whole 3 days we spent in the Capital there was plenty of spaces around us and we didn’t receive a ticket or get moved on, so for us it was worth the risk.

We were parked on the East of the city which is bisected by the formidable Vltava river, and our spot on “Stitneho (Street)” presented us with a pleasant 15 minute walk into the centre firstly downhill along the busy tram-lined street of “Seifertova” then through the luscious green “Vrchlickeno Sady” park until entering the centre via the main thoroughfare “Vaclavske Namesti” - also known around Prague as “The Main Square” (pictured). Vaclavske Namesti is lined with all the usual town centre establishments, a H&M, 2 McDonalds’, a Foot Locker, a Burger King, a KFC and 10 Exchange Bureaus. But what makes it impressive is the location of the National Museum directly at the head of street and probably the most striking building in Prague (pictured).

The rest of our time was spent idly wandering the streets, occasionally rewarding ourselves with a seat in a Czech Bar or two, then getting back up and repeating the process until we’d seen all that Prague has to offer - which, in comparison to all the other capital cities we’ve been to, is rather a lot. However, our most memorable hour came on Friday night as we were walking in the North of the city in the region of ‘Holesovice’ when lo and behold it began to snow - and didn’t it just! A good 2 inches fell and laid on the ground within 15 minutes, painting the city a fresh white and giving the town a whole new look that only snow can do. It continued to snow on and off until we departed on Sunday evening, but clearly nothing like what we were about to discover as we moved into Germany.

Upon crossing the border, bringing our 7 day spell in the Czech Republic to an end, we passed towns which looked deserted, for snow around 2/3 feet deep had covered everything from Post Boxes to cars. It could well be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and it certainly is the most snow I’ve ever encountered. Thankfully the roads had been 90% cleared so the Motorhome wasn’t struggling, even on the slopes.

We now find ourselves in a small Aire for only 4 Motorhomes in Gelobtland (Mariensberg) (pictured) with Electric for only 4 Euros a night. The village is small, but we’ve spent 2 happy days here wandering around in the snow and building our first snowman, who we’ve named Bertie (don’t ask me why). We’re still wrapped up warm almost every hour of the day, and most of the time it’s colder inside the Motorhome than it is out, but at least now we’ve got a superb excuse to spend more time outdoors!

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Aire in Gelobtland + Bertie

Cesky Krumlov