Another destination and another week of travel adventures have flown by, so it is time for another blog post!
Adventures in Český Krumlov
Off the back of our time in Vienna, we decided to head to Český Krumlov. I’d had this small Czech town in mind as a destination since reading about it (and seeing photos) online months ago, and it aligned perfectly in terms of proximity to Vienna, so we booked a hostel and made our way back to the Czech Republic. Our trip wasn’t without hiccups – we got stuck in the small Austrian town of Linz for several hours due to bus delays (something to be aware of when travelling with Flixbus – the trade-off for the cheap as chips tickets!). Luckily, Linz had a large open train station, so we were able to stay out of the cold.
By the time we got to Krumlov, it was late and snowy, so unsurprisingly we left our exploring for the following days. And there was plenty of it to do! We happened to visit Krumlov with remarkably good timing – both in its quietest week of the year (Christmas tourists all gone) and with a healthy sprinkling of snow, which gave the already beautiful town and castle an extra boost of picteresque-ness.
We stayed in Hostel Skippy for the week, which was an incredibly charming little building next to the river in the Český Krumlov Old Town. More of a pension than a hostel, we had our own quaint little room, which felt like home after a week there. It was pretty rustic – the “shower” was really a showerhead that you had to hold up while in a bath for example, but it was just a very homely and friendly place. The host – who goes by the nickname of “Skippy” was a lovely ball of energy, who gave us lots of great advice on what to see and do in the area. How did she get the nickname? Apparently, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was one of the few international shows that was allowed to be shown in communist times, and it was extremely popular in that part of the world as a result. Hence the rather Australian nickname on the opposite side of the globe!
Český Krumlov Castle and Castle Museum: By far the most iconic attraction of Krumlov is the castle of the same name. The second largest castle complex in the Czech Republic, its main tower is visible from almost every point of the town below, which makes for some fantastic viewpoints. First built sometime before 1250 (with the site likely populated well before then), it went on to be the seat of power for multiple families over the next several hundred years, and was part of multiple different empires. It certainly made for a great backdrop to our daily walks around the town, and we really enjoyed making the climb up to the castle on one day – going up the tower for a fantastic view, and exploring the surprisingly extensive museum in the rooms below the tower. Amongst the relics, weapons and art was the supposed skeleton of a Catholic saint – not something you see every day.
Český Krumlov Old Town: Below the castle is the old town of Český Krumlov In another one of the classic contradictions of tourist towns, almost no locals actually live in the old town – they all live on the outskirts of the village. Instead, the old town is all tourist accommodation, restaurants, shops and the like. Fortunately as mentioned previously, we were there during a quiet period, which means we had much of the streets of the old town to ourselves. We took advantage of this by exploring the various streets almost every day – many of the shops were closed, but the architecture was enough to keep us entertained – we must have covered a significant percentage of the old town on foot. The river was in flood while we were there, which made it quite impressive just to watch the water go by.
Chapel of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Another day’s wandering took us to this small church at the top of a hill overlooking the village. Built in the early 1700s, this cute little Chapel has a fantastic view over the valley below – particularly when covered in snow.
Klet: Towards then end of our time in Krumlov, we were feeling particularly adventurous. So, we packed a few water bottles and some snacks, and headed from the township towards the nearby mountain known as Klet. It was quite the challenging hike, through the icy streets of the town outskirts, then the snowy pine forest tracks as we got higher up. We ran into a number of cross country skiers, walkers and even runners (with spikes on their shoes, of which we were jealous!) – the conditions were perfect for the more adventurous it would seem. We spent a relatively short amount of time on the summit – alas, the tower with a view was closed for winter, and it was freezing at the top – before making our way down (much more quickly than the slow grind up) In the end, we did around 20 kilometres and plenty of elevation change (all either uphill or downhill) – we were both exhausted by the end, but felt it was a worthwhile experience.
Ice Skating: After a bit of digging online, we discovered that the local ice rink had a public use window one evening (normally reserved for ice hockey trainings). So we headed through the town, to find a long line of local, mostly families, carrying their skates. Despite language difficulties, we managed to hire some skates and make our way in, and spent a couple of enjoyable hours remembering how to ice skate and dodging borderline kamikaze small children. Since then, we’ve seen a lot of people ice skating on frozen lakes and dams which I’m really hoping we can try sometime! These frozen bodies of water are of course courtesy of the hard freeze….
“Hard Freeze”
While in Krumlov, we experienced our first true taste of European winter. An extended cold period blew in around when we arrived, with a decent dumping of snow followed by a week of sub-zero temperatures (some nights getting to -14). This was a pretty unique experience for us – certainly the coldest temperatures we have ever experienced. Apparently, it was pretty unusual for Krumlov too – Skippy told us it was quite a rare occurance to be this cold for this long. We didn’t see a day with a maximum of above zero during our stay. Thankfully, we are slowly adapting to the cold temperatures, so while it was cold, it didn’t stop us from getting out and about (though I did add gloves and a neck warmer to my kit – valuable additions).
Eating our way through Europe continued
Time for another food update…
Pletenec: Nutty pastry that became a cheap favourite from the local supermarket in Krumlov.
Meat Stuffed Potato Dumplings with Cabbage: Not bad – the cabbage part was a little sweet for my liking but overall can’t go wrong with meat and potato.
Quiche but with Chicken for the topping?: No idea what the actual name for this one was but we were served this as a “breakfast” – pretty hearty for early in the morning, but pretty tasty. Didn’t need much for lunch after!
Next up, it is off to our first Workaway next for a stay of up to a couple of weeks. We will be staying in the small German town of Wurzen – will be nice to be back somewhere where I can at least very basically communicate with the locals (emphasis on basic, my German is nicht gut). Curious to see what Workaway life will be like!
Next Destinations: Wurzen, Bavaria, Berlin (TBC)