Cesky Krumlov ~ Once Upon A Time
Cesky Krumlov from the Top of the road
“Leave the beaten track behind occasionally … Every time you do, you will be certain to find something you have never seen before.” - Alexander Graham Bell
Cesky Krumlov is a medieval town right out of a folk tale located approximately half way between Vienna and Prague. It’s well worth an overnight stop or better yet plan an unplugged weekend getaway.
Dominated by the historic Cesky Krumlov castle that gives it a unique character, walk along the meandering, twisting cobblestone paths and along the Vtalva river.
The town is entirely pedestrian or at least it was when I visited in the summer of 2013. We were on an Eastern European tour. We left our bus at the top on the main road and made our way down the cobble stone path to the town square and our hotel lugging our overnight bags.
Traveling light in Europe is a lesson that is reinforced every time we need to carry our luggage on and off trains or ferries or down cobblestone paths. In this instance we were fortunate that we could leave our big bags locked up in the bus overnight and just lug a small overnight bag with us.
The Town Square
We stayed here in the Inn with its small rooms and even smaller bathrooms. When your tour guide starts off a topic with - “Remember in Europe, you don’t always have large spaces particularly bathrooms;'“ you are warned about what to expect. Functional but quaint and you might to perform some gyrations to take a shower. All part of the fun of traveling in some parts of the world.
While there are many taverns and restaurants we had what’s called a dine around evening where we had picked a meal to go with the overall medieval experience. Ours had us partaking of a traditional local meal at a tavern much like peasantry in this region might have done hundreds of years ago.
The Castle Square
The original Gothic castle was founded by the lords of Krumlov sometime in and around 1250. They were representatives of the powerful Witigonen family with a five petaled rose as their coat of arms. The romantic in me let her imagination run wild as we explored the town and learned it’s history.
Prominent amongst it’s rulers the Rosenberg’s transformed the castle into its renaissance style in the late 16th century and subsequently the Eggenberg’s transformed this into a magnificent Baroque seat.
With it’s red roofs, the shining Vltava and beautiful castle dominating the landscape the entire town has a fairy tale like atmosphere. Perhaps considering that we were in Eastern Europe, I should have been imaging handsome vampires instead of plain old handsome lords.
Twisting Cobblestone Alleys with their fantastical light bulbs
Whimsical and cute we were here in the Summer of 2013 while we toured Vienna, Prague, Slovakia and Budapest. Most of the region is fairy tale like but even so this little gem of a town is in a class all by itself.
The castle dominates the town
I know I talk often about often about walking through the pages of one of my books but really can you not just imagine this being Rapunzel’s castle and the prince saying “Rapunzel let down your hair?….” in today’s environment there’s probably something terribly male chauvinistic or something not quite politically correct but in the simpler times when I grew up it was just a fairy tale that put stars in our eyes.
Perhaps a different twist to the story might be a typical land grab where a neighboring baron or prince came with their armies to conquer and pillage and the castle stood guard and protected the town and it’s inhabitants.
Since we had done photo and restroom stops at Melk and Durnstein on our way here, I suppose I was still dreaming of the knights templar and other crusaders traveling across this region on their way to the holy land particularly Richard the lionhearted being held a prisoner in Durnstein Castle.
Not only is travel all about trying to visualize history but also about letting my own imagination fly. If only the walls and rocks could tell the stories they saw.
In a window embrasure during the castle tour
The castle is well preserved and definitely worth the price of the tour. As we walked through the various well preserved rooms and listened to stories about ghosts who haunted certain rooms or stepped out to admire the views or in typical gawky touristic fashion take pictures ignoring the commentary.
Beautiful serene.
There are a variety of water activities like Kayaking and fishing around the river of which would be a delight to waters sports enthusiasts of which we indulged in none. For the folks like us there are cute cafes which overlook the river serving spirits and food which are a pleasant past time to stop at and people watch or just inhale the wonderful view and feel yourself relax and unwind.
This is definitely the place for a great unplugged vacation.