Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     
 

Ceský Krumlov
I had been waiting for this day from the very beginning. It was the main reason I stowed away with these two. I am a totally devoted fan of the "The Sound of Music". All of my Facebook friends will confirm this. Then I find that these two have decided to go somewhere else today. I could not believe my furry ears! But all was not lost. I latched onto their new friends, Anne and John, who are obviously a lot more discerning than they are and went with them instead. It was everything I hoped it would be. I was leaping around that summerhouse dreaming that there was a blonde postman/soon to become Nazi dancing with me!...Eager young lads, roues and cads....what do I know of those....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Saturday 26th April 2014
  
It was an early start today. There was no more news from the captain since his announcement last night about low water levels, so we assumed that things would probably be alright and we focused on today's excursion.
 
We were very amused when we returned to the cabin after breakfast and Aura informed us that she had been looking for a pair of our sunglasses to complete today's creation. We obliged her by finding a pair...
Choosing the best option for today's excursion had been a difficult one for us, because all three available options were appealing:-

1. An all day visit to Salzburg, with a guided tour and lunch included (two hours each way by coach)
2. An all day visit to a UNESCO world heritage site, Ceský Krumlov, in the Czech Republic (one and a half hours each way by coach)
3. Stay on the ship, continue cruising to Passau, about 50km upstream and have free time to explore before cruising on to Vilshofen,
a further 20km or so, where the day trippers would rejoin the ship.

As the title of this page suggests, we chose option 2.

The map shows the actual route we took, a round trip
of 235 kilometers (one and a half hours there and two
hours back).

Note that the route ends in Passau and not in Vilshofen
as planned... but more about that later!

 

By 8.00 am, we were off the ship and onto the Scenic coaches, which incidentally,
had followed us from Budapest and would be with us until we got to Nuremberg.
Travelling via Linz, we admired the neat, clean, Austrian landscape and an hour later crossed the border into the Czech Republic. No border guards, no controls, no sign of anybody really! We stopped at this "Travel Free" shop shortly afterwards, which gave the first real clue that we were no longer in Austria, because the prices were all in Czech koruna and there was a lot of Becherovka for sale.
Not exactly sure where this was, but it was somewhere near the Vltava river and it looked interesting (well to me anyway).
 

Before too long, we arrived at the gateway to the inner town, dominated by the Ceský Krumlov Castle and Chateau.

"The castle and chateau form the second largest castle complex in the country, the size and architecture reflecting styles from the 14th to the 19th century, making it one of the most important architectural monuments in the world". (For more info click here)
 
Cesky Krumlov Chateau - Cloak Bridge. Corridors lead through the three-floor superstructure. The upper floor connects the Castle Gallery with the Castle Garden and the lower floor connects the Masquerade Hall with the theatre.
 
Maps of Ceský Krumlov
 
Crossing the bridge over the Vltava River, we entered the inner town.
 
 
The castle tower - we were to see a lot more of it as the day progressed.
 
Looking back at the Cloak Bridge
 
 
 

We were given a guided tour of the inner town...
...with the castle tower never far out of sight.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The Schwarzenberg coat of arms on the Red Gate.
The gate connects the town with the castle and chateau complex and leads into the 1st courtyard.
 
 
 
Between the 1st and 2nd courtyards is a bridge over a moat. Bears have been kept here since 1707, but have apparently been kept in the castle since the mid-16th century. To our 21st century eyes however, their presence seemed somewhat disturbing.
 
   
Directly above the moat rises the mighty castle tower. This, together with the adjoining palace called the “Hrádek”, is the oldest part of the entire castle and chateau complex. Other buildings have been connected to the Hrádek through the ages. One of them is the four-storey baroque building, the former Mint, in the 2nd courtyard. The entrance to the castle and the castle tower is located here.
From the 2nd courtyard, we walked up and through the archway and into a longish passageway leading to the upper castle by way of two further courtyards.

Our guide gave us some free time to explore further and we walked as
far at the 4th courtyard. This picture was taken in the 3rd.
 
 
Pictures taken from a viewpoint close to the 3rd courtyard.
 
 
Leaving the castle area, we were led back towards the
centre of the town and in the direction of our lunch venue.
 
We were curious about these (called Trdelník) and decided we would come back later to try one.
 
 
The centre of the inner town.
 
Close to the centre of town, we were taken to the the hotel where we would be having lunch...
...but not before we had a few minutes to take in the panorama from the lookout point in front of the hotel.
 
 
 
 
It was now definitely time for lunch!
 
After lunch (plentiful, but not quite up to the standard of our ship) we had a couple of hours free to do our own exploring.
From the lookout point, we could see the local brewery.
 
St. Vitus Church
 
Back in the main town square (below), with our desginated meeting point for later at the fountain with the "plague pillar" (above)
 
One for William Bear perhaps?
 
 
Despite having lunch not long before, it was time to taste a Trdelnik, which are made from rolled dough wrapped around a stick, then grilled and topped with sugar and walnut mix. The kiosk above wouldn't accept Euros, but we did find one that did and we enjoyed them very much, as the pictures suggest!

 
A sense of déjà vu as we retraced our steps past the now sleeping bears back to the castle.
Bruce wanted to go up the castle tower...
 
...but Geoff decided that somebody needed to take a picture of him from ground level!
The steep and narrow climb up to the top of the tower was well worth it because the views from the top were lovely.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Back on the ground, we still had some time to look around. The streets were quiet and we were loving it.
 
We were quite pleased that dinner would be served back on the ship.
Roast knee, advertised at one of the restaurants, didn't sound very
appetising, although the image didn't look that bad.
 
 
Tired, but happy, we ended our day in this interesting town.
Back on the coach, our local guide announced that we were to be taken back the ship in Passau and not Vilshofen as originally planned. He didn't know any more, but we assumed that the captain's fear of low water levels causing an impact to our schedule had become reality.
The border between the Czech Republic and Germany. Once again, there were no checks, but we were told that the area still contains land mines planted during the cold war period.
Our first sight of Passau was the Veste Oberhaus
Crossing the bridge, we were only a short walk from the ship
Back on board, we were given more news; we would not be going anywhere soon. The ship would remain in Passau overnight and tomorrow's walking tour of Regensburg (our next port of call) would go ahead, but would now be done by coach, with estimated journey times similar to the ones we had today. We didn't need to confer. We both knew that we would be staying in Passau and doing our own exploring.
After dinner, we took an evening stroll. Despite it being a Saturday night, the town was very quiet. What we didn't know was that they were probably all having an early night, in preparation for tomorrow's celebrations... but more of that tomorrow!
 
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble