Český Krumlov

Saturday was Allerheiligen (All Saint's Day) in Austria which is a national holiday and so all the stores close. Being a Saturday, it means that your entire weekend is made up of 'Dead Pants' days, and so we decided to head out of the country to Český Krumlov, about 2 1/2 hours from Salzburg in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is an interesting country. As soon as you cross the border, it feels different. There's something about the buildings and the roads, and even the forests, that almost seems like a step back in time, as if it's all still catching up after years of communism which made time stand still. We've been to Prague a number of times since the mid nineties, and while over time it has become quite Western, even Prague still has a Wild, Wild West (or in this case, East) sort of feel.

Český Krumlov is not on a major highway. It's not even near any sort of highway. The last half hour to the city is on a narrow windy road next to a broad river on one side and dark wild forest on the other. I found it easy to imagine medieval armies galloping along on horseback or Soviet tanks rumbling along as we drove, as if we were traveling back in time along that long and windy road. And once we were there, we found an absolutely stunning medieval city which has been carefully restored in recent years and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The old city is a maze of narrow cobblestone alley ways and ancient buildings. Our hotel, the Švamberský dům, was built during the 1200s, and was right in the center of everything. There are some official tourists attractions: a couple museums, the castle (which gives guided tours until October 31 - oops, one day late), the bear moat, a brewery ... but we skipped all of them (except the bear moat where we didn't see any bears) and had a wonderful time just wandering around and exploring. Perhaps we'll have to go back some time to see what we missed! Just about everything was worth a picture, and so we took many pictures which you can see here.