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The day started
out well -- sunny and fairly warm, with some light cloud cover. One of
those "happy to be alive and on a biking tour" sort of days.
The Pension was comfy and quiet the night before, and we were surprised
when plates of very good scrambled eggs were set before us at breakfast.
After saying goodbye to our hosts we packed up and headed out, back through
town and the way we came yesterday. We picked up bike route 12 just past
the main part of town, where it turned toward Ceske Budejovice (also known
as Budweis in German, home to the original "Budweiser" beer)
and followed the river. The route ran along a pleasant, flat bike path
through woods and past small lakes, where the early morning fishermen
pointed at us and clapped, then led us out of the woods to a riverside
path that paralleled the
.
We were tempted
to turn into the city when we first came upon the town walls and an obvious
"gate" in the walls, but we dutifully followed the bike path
signs that pointed to the city "Zentrum." We were starting to
wonder if we made the wrong choice when the signs suddenly directed us
to turn left through the walls. We rode a heavily cobbled street that
in short order deposited us directly in the main square of the town, which
is dominated by the imposing "Samson's Fountain" from 1727 in
the center. The square is the largest in CZ and is surrounded by impressive
buildings from centuries past. The town hall, in particular, is beautiful.
It's topped by four statues and is guarded by rain gutters in the shape
of dragons. On the bottom level of the town hall is a
visitor center (with maps and other useful books) and a toilet (get the
key from the visitor center). The town's cathedral is average, but worth
a look. Ceske Budejovice would make a nice lunch or overnight spot. Since
we were there pretty early (around
 |
| Main square
of Ceske Budweis. Note well-preserved burgher's houses surrounding the square.This is reportedly the largest town square in the Czech Republic. |
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| Fountain in the main square of Ceske Budweis. |
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| The bike route follows the walls of Ceske Budweis. Malse River in the foreground. |
The trail was somewhat narrow here, and shortly
thereafter turned to dirt as it followed the river behind industrial sites,
then turned back to pavement until the small town of
After a while
we climbed into the small town of
 |
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| Click one of the two maps to see a larger, highlighted view of our route. | |
The routing into
the old part of Cesky
Krumlov was unclear. We came to an intersection with a left-turn
lane at the bottom of the hill and an overpass immediately following it
(a small bridge). Just past the bridge on the right is a bus station.
The bridge has ramps for pedestrians and bikes, and crossing over it deposited
us at the outer edge of the old town ("Hostel 99" is right here,
as well as several pensions that are recommended in some guidebooks).
It would have been helpful to have had a decent
map of the town!
At this point
we were somewhat confused about where we were, and walked the bike down
the cobbled pedestrian street until we got to the area around the castle.
Ginny walked down the hill a bit to get our bearings, and came back to
report that we were close to the bottom of the hill and the
Just outside
the info center we met a nice couple from the
When we finally
figured out where we were, we decided to take a break and eat lunch at
a nearby pizza restaurant. We saw a pizza place down the small side street
(Klasterni Street), directly opposite the castle access road, and headed
down to check it out. "Nonna
Gina" pizzeria turned out to be very good, with pleasant
service. We both got a Pizza Salami and a soda, for 100 crowns each (about
$3.80 USD). After lunch we walked around looking for lodging and probably
spent an hour or so since we were so indecisive. We were being a bit picky
since we planned to stay for two nights in Krumlov; we really wanted a
small B&B/Zimmer-type place, but were not having much luck finding
one.
We finally found
a B&B at #107
Parkan Street, a side street that parallels the river near the bridge
in the middle of town (there are several B&Bs along this street).
1200 crowns a night got us right on the river, with access to a second-floor
balcony and a nice patio right on the ground level. The room was large
and had its own bathroom (although we had to go out of the room to get
to it). The other rooms in the place were taken by a group of German motorcyclists
from the
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| Our B&B in Cesky Krumlov directly along the Vltava River. The white house just to the left of the brown house. During the floods of 2002 the water was up to the balcony! |
We had asked our B&B host for dinner recommendations, and he suggested Restaurant Mastral, which I had also read about on the Internet prior to our trip. It's tucked away down a small passageway just to the right of the tourist bureau on the main square. We sat at one of the tables outside the restaurant and enjoyed an excellent dinner. We both started with soup (I tried the regional specialty garlic soup, which is strong but good), followed by entrees featuring copious quantities of meat. The total was 400 crowns (about $15 US).
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| Dining al fresco in the small courtyard of Mastral Restaurant. |
After dinner
we walked around the now-deserted streets, enjoying the ambiance of the
old town without the hordes of bus tourists that had been in evidence
earlier. To cap the night off we stopped at a riverside cafe and split
a plate of warm apple strudel with ice cream. We then headed back to the
room to do some laundry (and update this epic). In bed by
Daily costs 5/26
(in CK): B&B: 1200; lunch: 220; dinner: 400; snacks/drinks: 145; dessert:
50. Total: 2015 ck ($76 US).