2024 Oct 5 Saturday

Cesky Krumlov and travel to Prague

We had train tickets to travel to Prague about 1 pm but had to leave from a town about 30-45 minutes away from Cesky Krumlov. Do we take an early local train with no time to see sights we missed on the rain day, or do we take a bus with a more convenient connection. Easy choice: we took the Flixbus and had time to see the castle gardens and the synagogue.

9:23 am to 6:47 pm. 5.84 miles, 13,571 steps. Drizzle and light rain all mornin. Overcast in Prague, but thankfully, no rain.

Richard’s Relive video is here: https://www.relive.cc/view/v36ARp55ZGq

The Cloak Bridge is part of the castle complex, just above the fourth courtyard. It is a triple decker covered bridge from which there are views of the town watched over by statues.
This is one of the views overlooking the Vitava River. Our hotel is in the upper right along the river with a brown roof just where the river bends.
Here is one of the knight statues from the Cloak Bridge.
Another castle view looking at the wooden bridge leading to the castle pathway.
On our way to the castle gardens with the Cloak Bridge behind Richard.
The gardens. There are even a few flowers left in the ground.
One of the bigger fountains in the garden. It was not operating now, but must be wonderful in the summer.
The Bellarie summer house in the gardens was built near the end of the 17th century and was renovated and changed to Rococo architecture in the mid 1800’s. It was recently reopened after a four-year renovation.
Just across from Bellarie is this outdoor theatre offering concerts and entertainment.
The outdoor theatre entrance area and concert publicity.
Continuing through the garden, there is a lake with lily pads.
Following the outside castle walls, we could go back through town to see the synagogue.
The synagogue plans were drawn by Prague architect Viktor Kafka and construction was finished in 1919. Until the late 19th century, Jews had been forbidden to settle in Cesky Krumlov.
The Spiro family arrived in Cesky Krumlov in 1861. The Spiros had experience in paper production, educated themselves in the history of paper, and had a genealogical tree of paper production drawn for various European paper mills from the 16th to 19th century, putting themselves at the top. They did not include Fabriano in Italy. In Cesky Krumlov, they concentrated on the production of wrapping paper and newsprint. The growing prosperity of the company grew the local Jewish community as they often hired from their Jewish community. There were about 200 Jews living in peaceful harmony at the end of the 19th century. After WWII, the synagogue was in disrepair and was even used for a storage facility. It was renovated in its original form after archival photographs were discovered in the records of local photographer Josef Seidel.
A couple of last-minute views from the terrace of our hotel. First, the castle view.
These building are just across the river from the hotel terrace. Now it’s off to the bus station.
Cesky Krumlov to Ceske Budejovice is only a 30-minute bus ride. There was time for a quick lunch and then a 90-minute high-speed train ride to Prague.
Our last train ride deposited us at Prague’s main station, Praha.hln.
After a taxi ride to our Prague apartment and meeting our landlord, we headed out for our traditional celebratory beers. Our apartment is on the top (4th) floor with this lovely spiral staircase leading down. There is also an elevator.
Our landlord recommends the Olympia for beers. Dinner was good there as well.
Back at the apartment after dinner, we had time to unpack, do some laundry, and relax.
Off to bed with plans for four wonderful days in Prague!

4 Responses

  1. Your apartment looks so modern…and nice…Also, thank you for sharing pictures of the interior of the synagogue. It was nice to see that after all the interiors of the churches and cathedrals you visited. Nice change of pace.
    Friends Bill and Linda just returned from Europe which included 3 days in Vienna (coincidence, huh?) and after being gone a month, they are tired and felt the trip was too long. Linda was also disappointed with all the rain. You are lucky you are still young (!) so that you can enjoy your long travels, and good for you! Here in SJ, due to the current heat wave, a little rain sounds good to me.
    Wishing you a safe and nice flight home next week. We’ve all missed you!

    1. We have now seen two very different synagogues and will see more in Prague. I agree that it is important to see the different houses of worship, especially because I don’t understand. I included the description of the Cesky Krumlov synagogue components because the significant pieces were explained with their meaning. There was also good explanations of the people in the Jewish community. For a small group of marginalized people, we learned a lot about how the people lived as well as history of the times.
      Rain can certainly be disappointing when you feel that you are missing out on seeing things, but we’ve tried to keep going when it’s safe to do so. Some of the steep cobblestone streets slow us down when they are wet. We did take a couple of taxi rides in Vienna in the rain, and cut short our day in Cesky Krumlov a bit after a day of rain. It has been a year of unusually severe weather all over the world.
      I know we’ll be tired when we return and I miss my kitty, but these long trips work better than several short trips in our life. Who knows how long we can keep it up, but so far, so good. See you soon!

  2. You are so well planned while also staying flexible. Liked your apartment at this stay. Looks a bit larger and more modern. No restaurant below you this time? Hope you enjoy your time in Prague as much as we did when we were there. You are seeing so many of the great cities in Europe to visit. This trip will certainly have many stand out memories for you.
    Dan

    1. This apartment is very nice and we have a grand restaurant around the corner. Each apartment is quite different, but those with coffeemakers are favorites for our lifestyle, even though many of them are different types. I remember why I don’t care for instant coffee. A washing machine is also a plus but we have to stay long enough to let everything dry.
      Prague has many more things than we will be able to see in this visit—certainly it’s worth a repeat visit. There is art and music everywhere. Last night we attended a concert in an ancient church (will cover more in the blog). Today (Monday) it’s off to the castle again.