Falling for Cesky Krumlov (Monday September 10th, 2007)

I spent the early morning doing my laundry at the Rick Steves’ recommended laundromat/internet café. All the washers & dryers were on some sort of very cool, centralized control system. I’d certainly like to have one of those dryers at home, as they made very quick work of my clothes (including a pair of jeans, which usually tax my dryer at home’s meager capabilities).

We had made arrangements to meet a shuttle that would take us to our next destination at the train station in Linz (about 1 hour away). Before we knew it, Linz was upon us & we met our shuttle with time to spare. The shuttle is a cost-effective ($20/each) and quick (90 minute) way to go from Linz, Austria to Cesky Krumlov, in the Czech Republic.

Cesky Krumlov is a well-preserved medieval castle town in the southern part of the Czech Republic. You may not have heard of it, but 1.5 million tourists come here annually (seemingly mostly Germany & Japan). It really is storybook beautiful, a bit like Rothenberg in Germany, but a bit less touristy. We stayed at a Rick Steves’ recommended hotel called “Castle View Apartments”. Our 2 bedroom apartment was spacious & beautiful. The patio looked out on the castle, and its elegantly painted tower.

After checking in, we walked around the town. About 10 minutes into our walk, we came across a really nice scene, with a few ducks swimming near a wooden bridge. I got ready to take a picture & suddenly found myself falling (as though the bridge was giving way). Turns out there were some very tricky (and dangerous) planks & openings on this bridge (which I didn’t quite see, as I was distracted by the buoyant waterfowl). My fall was scary & a bit painful, but fortunately, not too bad. My leg fell about 2 feet & I got a few bruises. Given the possibility that this could have ended with me wrenching my knee or falling 10 feet into not too much water, I’m very grateful it turned out to be a close call.

After a few minutes to recollect myself, we continued to walk around the town. We watched a series of rafts & canoes negotiate the river (and a couple of small sets of rapids). The river essentially loops through the town, with a series of mostly foot bridges across the river. While there are several things one can do in Cesky Krumlov, the most enjoyable thing to do is to absorb the atmosphere. That’s what we did; enjoying meals at fairly uncrowded restaurants (it would seem a lot of tourists just come for the day). After a few days in Austria, even touristy places in Cesky Krumlov were very reasonably priced (with meals costing about $10 or so).

Cesky Krumlov is highly recommended as a place to slow down from the at-times frenetic pace of a sightseeing vacation.