Now back home, sat in front of the TV reminiscing about my 2010 european adventure. Depression is starting to set in, so in an attempt to raise my spirits I thought I might share a few bits and pieces with you of my holiday.
My destinations for this year were the Czech Republic- only chosen for the reason that I wanted to go further into eastern Europe, the Austrian alps, then somewhere mid Germany / France on the way back.
My base for 5 days was the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. Seen a few reports on here that this was a nice city to visit, so thought I would give this a try. After a very wet trip there, the clouds were starting to clear and it looked like we would finally be looking at some fine weather.
I only found out a week before we went that Cesky Krumlov has an annual event called the Five Petalled rose festival. This has been going on for approx the last 500 years or so, but came to a halt during the communist era. It started up again around 10 years ago. It involves the local residents dressing up in medieval costume, a parade through the town, and other medieval festivities. Normally when people dress up you are not that impressed with the standard of the costumes- not this time. Everything was contemporary for the time.
Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful town and the place was absolutely buzzing. There were stalls all over the town square selling local crafts, cooking food over open fires, and Czech Budvar everywhere. There were plenty of vantage points to get great photos of the town, and the setting was fantastic- it made it all the more real.
Myself and Mrs Haydw were hungry by this time, and started to wander round looking for somewhere to eat. This sign caught my eye by the tourist information office.
We wandered down to it and saw people outside dressed in medieval costume eating huge lumps of meat off wooden plates- thought this was just for the event- just across from the restaurant was a pork spit roast- over an open fire so the smell was fantastic. We decided to sit ourselves down.
All the food was cooked over an open fire-
I ordered the local delicacy- pork knee. I had seen a few dishes that looked suspiciously like what I was about to be presented with. Sure enough, out it came.
A massive pork knee with mustard and horseradish and a token bit of salad. Lovely.
There was another procession at night under torchlight. It started raining heavily, plus the fact we got talking to 3 Swedish bikers at the hotel so missed this bit. Damn.
The next couple of days were spent mooching around some of the other tourist sights- Hluboka castle was interesting- despite the fact that a tour around the castle was double to price because we wanted a tour in english- I say english- it was barely comprehensible, but interesting nonetheless.
One of the more interesting places we went to was a town called Strakonice. After consulting the lonely planet book it turns out they had a rather interesting museum of CZ motorcycles. We decided to take a look. Sure enough, there was a small display of motorcycles, but most of the displays were also about the national obsession with bagpipes- apparently the Czech republic was also a massive exporter of Fez hats- so I guess if you were a scottish piper and also a massive Tommy Cooper fan then this was your place.
We thought the Czech republic overall was a nice place- the outsides of the towns are surrounded by remains of industry and also by post war tower blocks, but a lot of the towns are still medieval in the middle and very well looked after. It is also very very cheap- we ate out every night (mostly at the medieval pork place as it was that good) drunk plenty of beer and wine and still had change from £20. The main roads are a pain to get round as the drivers are very slow, but get off the beaten track and onto the smaller roads it is a very nice place. There was one thing I was horrified by though- have never seen this in any other european country
After 5 days it was time to move onto Austria......
My destinations for this year were the Czech Republic- only chosen for the reason that I wanted to go further into eastern Europe, the Austrian alps, then somewhere mid Germany / France on the way back.
My base for 5 days was the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. Seen a few reports on here that this was a nice city to visit, so thought I would give this a try. After a very wet trip there, the clouds were starting to clear and it looked like we would finally be looking at some fine weather.
I only found out a week before we went that Cesky Krumlov has an annual event called the Five Petalled rose festival. This has been going on for approx the last 500 years or so, but came to a halt during the communist era. It started up again around 10 years ago. It involves the local residents dressing up in medieval costume, a parade through the town, and other medieval festivities. Normally when people dress up you are not that impressed with the standard of the costumes- not this time. Everything was contemporary for the time.
Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful town and the place was absolutely buzzing. There were stalls all over the town square selling local crafts, cooking food over open fires, and Czech Budvar everywhere. There were plenty of vantage points to get great photos of the town, and the setting was fantastic- it made it all the more real.
Myself and Mrs Haydw were hungry by this time, and started to wander round looking for somewhere to eat. This sign caught my eye by the tourist information office.
We wandered down to it and saw people outside dressed in medieval costume eating huge lumps of meat off wooden plates- thought this was just for the event- just across from the restaurant was a pork spit roast- over an open fire so the smell was fantastic. We decided to sit ourselves down.
All the food was cooked over an open fire-
I ordered the local delicacy- pork knee. I had seen a few dishes that looked suspiciously like what I was about to be presented with. Sure enough, out it came.
A massive pork knee with mustard and horseradish and a token bit of salad. Lovely.
There was another procession at night under torchlight. It started raining heavily, plus the fact we got talking to 3 Swedish bikers at the hotel so missed this bit. Damn.
The next couple of days were spent mooching around some of the other tourist sights- Hluboka castle was interesting- despite the fact that a tour around the castle was double to price because we wanted a tour in english- I say english- it was barely comprehensible, but interesting nonetheless.
One of the more interesting places we went to was a town called Strakonice. After consulting the lonely planet book it turns out they had a rather interesting museum of CZ motorcycles. We decided to take a look. Sure enough, there was a small display of motorcycles, but most of the displays were also about the national obsession with bagpipes- apparently the Czech republic was also a massive exporter of Fez hats- so I guess if you were a scottish piper and also a massive Tommy Cooper fan then this was your place.
We thought the Czech republic overall was a nice place- the outsides of the towns are surrounded by remains of industry and also by post war tower blocks, but a lot of the towns are still medieval in the middle and very well looked after. It is also very very cheap- we ate out every night (mostly at the medieval pork place as it was that good) drunk plenty of beer and wine and still had change from £20. The main roads are a pain to get round as the drivers are very slow, but get off the beaten track and onto the smaller roads it is a very nice place. There was one thing I was horrified by though- have never seen this in any other european country
After 5 days it was time to move onto Austria......
.
