Week 17 - Czech Republic

We crossed into the Czech Republic from Poland at dusk, which in hindsight wasn’t the best plan. We drove across the border without issue, but the problem was, we couldn’t see the beautiful countryside on our way down to Kutna Hora. I suppose it’s what happens at this time of year as the dark nights draw in. We knew we needed a vignette to drive on the Czech motorways, so as we hadn’t seen anywhere to buy one, we avoided them. It was late when we arrived at Kutna Hora so found a parking place outside the sports centre, thanks to the park4night app.

I’d read about the Sedlec Ossuary, the church decorated with bones, but didn’t know about the town itself. Lonely Planet says ... Enriched by the silver ore that veined the surrounding hills, the medieval city of Kutná Hora became the seat of Wenceslas II’s royal mint in 1308, producing silver groschen that were then the hard currency of Central Europe. Boom-time Kutná Hora rivalled Prague in importance, but by the 16th century the mines began to run dry, and its demise was hastened by the Thirty Years’ War and a devastating fire in 1770. The town became a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1996, luring visitors with a smorgasbord of historic sights ... It didn’t disappoint either. 

The surrounding town is a bit run down with crumbling buildings and empty shop windows with its fair share of graffiti, but the historic centre is well worth visiting as it is full of history.

We wandered around the town to get our bearings. We walked up to St Barbaras Cathedral, another UNESCO find. It was great wandering around in the sunshine looking at everything and taking photos. 

On the way back to Harriet, Andy spotted a toboggan run at the sports centre. He couldn’t wait to have a go lol. 

The following day we went back up into the town to visit the Italian Court. In its hay day, it became the site of the Royal Mint. We booked a tour and ended up being the only 2 people on it. 

Next on the list was a visit to the Bone Church itself. Not sure who had the idea of walking there and back but whoever it was needed shooting lol. The church is only small and still in use. It was a weird place but kind of fascinating at the same time. It's full of bones from 60,000 people who mostly perished in the plague, put together by a half blind monk. Very strange.

We left Kutna Hora and travelled the short distance to Prague. We booked in at Camping Sokol, a train ride away from the city centre. It’s located in a village called Dolni Pocernice. It cost us £17 per night with our ACSI card and that included unlimited electricity. The showers and toilets were some of the best we’ve seen. They asked for our passports when we checked in so instead of walking down the steps to Harriet to retrieve them, I decided it would be better to fall down the said steps and head butt the ground. What an idiot.

Anyway, that evening we managed an overdue washing day using the onsite washing machine. Four loads later, it was all hung out ready for the sunshine to do its stuff.

We decided to do a recce in the afternoon and treat ourselves to a meal out. (To be honest, I didn’t feel like cooking as my hands were killing me). A short walk to the train station and three stops later we were in the city. The public transport is really cheap too. Prague is such a lovely place to walk around in the dark. There’s still so much going on and everything is beautiful when it’s all lit up. 

The following morning we headed back into the centre. I’ve heard Prague described as Disney Land for grown ups. I’m sure it is because of all the walking you do and how much your feet ache lol. It is a lovely place and there’s so much of it, it’s hard to know what to see. We chose the castle walking tour, all 3 hours of it! Then on the way back to Harriet, we spotted an M&S Foodhall. Couldn’t believe our eyes. We stocked up on bacon. Lovely unsmoked back bacon. Oh and pork pies lol. Heaven.

The third day we had a day off to recover from all the walking.

We did spend another day in Prague but found it all a bit overwhelming if I’m honest. There’s just so many people, so many stunning buildings to look at and so many cobbled streets to walk down, we didn’t know what to do next so we returned to the campsite to decide on our next destination.

We drove south to another UNESCO World Heritage site called Holasovice. It’s not far from Cesky Krumlov. The village dates back to the 1200’s. The UNESCO website says ... Holašovice is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a traditional central European village. It has a large number of outstanding 18th- and 19th-century vernacular buildings in a style known as 'South Bohemian folk Baroque', and preserves a ground plan dating from the Middle Ages ... After the Second World War, it was abandoned and stood deserted under the communist regime, but now it has people living there again. We spent a lovely quiet night there.

The countryside on the way to Cesky Krumlov was stunning! I love it in autumn when the sun is shinning and it’s raining leaves. We managed to drive down some really narrow roads following Sally Satnav but as usual, Andy negotiated them like the pro he is.

We ended up in a free parking spot right next to the Cesky Krumlov Castle.
Cesky Krumlov is a stunning place, a bit like Prague in miniature with lots of amazing old buildings, cafes and winding cobbled streets to explore. It’s all dominated by the castle and a colourful tower. The Vltava river flows around the town making it really pleasant to walk over the bridges and wander along the paths or sit on one of the many benches and admire the view. We loved it.