Off to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic
We’ve been wanting to head to Prague for quite some time but ‘saved’ it for a four day weekend when company was visiting. Mike and Brian didn’t have any objections so we booked it for Labor Day weekend while they were here.
Friday the kids still had school and Chris worked but since we had to take two cars anyway, I got Emily N. to watch Luke and Matt and the other set of ‘boys’ (now totally grown up) and I, took the Audi and headed for the hills. Literally.
I don’t love driving like Mike does… who does, really?… so I handed him the keys to the Audi and this is what he looked like the entire drive. One big smile, with the occasional chuckle when the autobahn speed limits disappeared or when someone else sped past us with unbelievable velocity. But driving without music is a no-go, and since Mike is a music man, we had to go get the proper Audi adaptor so that his android would fit in. So just imagine us listening to great music and enjoying the beautiful scenery on our way east to the Czech Republic. Not surprising Mike go-proed (yes, I’m using that as a verb) the drive and captured himself driving. Only he turned off the visible red ‘record’ light so what he actually captured was him being very cool and his sister who probably did not stop talking the entire drive. Oh, and Brian, who was in and out of naps in the back seat. I’m sure that’s some good video.
Along with our Prague adventure to follow, we decided to tack on a trip to Cesky Krumlov. I was sold when I read in the Prague Rick Steves book that Cesky Krumlov was “the Czech Republic’s answer to Germany’s Rothenburg.” Everyone knows how much we love Rothenburg so we were pretty excited to check out this little city… 2.5 hours south of Prague. It took us 5 1/2 hours to get into Cesky Krumlov and straight to our hotel, Hotel Garni. It was a cute little hotel… just perfect.
We unpacked the car, grabbed our cameras and headed out to explore the town just the 3 of us.
“Lassoed by its river and dominated by its castle, this enchanting town feels lost in a time warp. Cesky Krumlov means, roughly, “Czech Bend in the River.”
We were going pretty slow down the street. Anytime anyone would pause to take a picture, then we all would, and it was wonderful. No kids. No bathroom breaks. No schedule. We popped into a Cathedral and then wandered around back into this bumpy courtyard to check out the view. I loved it.
These make me laugh…
We had a great time walking around until we used up every last bit of light and then went in search of food. We found a cute sandwich shop and bought a sandwich and drink and ate on the balcony.
We wandered around after dark and headed back up to the courtyard overlooking the city, not far from our hotel. I took a couple night shots but then a storm rolled in and it started to rain so I left my tripod with Mike and decided to head back up to the hotel and wait for the arrival of Chris and the kids. Back in the hotel, while skyping with Dan, Mike burst in the room excited that he had capturing lightning in one of his city shots. It was pretty impressive. Then we jumped in the car hoping to find a location higher up to capture some more but didn’t find anything quite as good. When Chris and the kids finally pulled in Chris and Katie decided to head out into the dark city with Brian and Mike again to wander around in the dark. A fun first night in Cesky Krumlov.
