GALLNEUKIRCHEN, AUSTRIA - Some photos from our last couple of days in Czechia. The original plan was to take a train partway from Prague and then cycle the rest of the way to Budweis, but due to a combination of weather and circumstances we ended up taking a (quite nice) train all the way there. Rather than mess around with copying and pasting the diacritics, you can see the Czech name of the city here:
Nice town! I liked it more than Prague almost immediately. Many of the Czech zentral squares have been giving me Grand Budapest Hotel vibes, but this one especially so. Apparently it's one of the largest squares in Europe – it didn't feel quite as large to me as Madrid's Plaza Mayor, but that partly might have to do with parked cars along the sides. Anyway, really pretty one.
check out the dragons on the city hall
several warm showers-ees had invited us to join their mass night ride –
if you come on thursday.. it would be cool and you could join our night cycling ride around budweis with our cycling community my friends and I organise here! it is planned to be started at around 7 PM. can you make it? it will not be anything big... propably just a few tens of people but with nice lights and neon and we will ride few kilometers around the town :) I think you might like it and it will be interesting for you... :D
– so we waited around til nightfall, as riders slowly congregated following a big planning meeting at city hall about the future of cycling in budejovice; the occasion of this first-ever local night ride:
Ferdinand and Esmé getting in on the neon action. Our hosts were excited about the glowsticks in my water bottles, which they said looked like jellyfish.
this is Lukas, our delightful host for the evening, and the pint of local Budweiser (not the same as the American beer!) at our second pub of the night, where the post-ride celebrations continued for several hours
Lukas' charming apartment, and in particular his bedroom, featured an impressive collection of pet spiders, tarantulas, and lizards – I don't remember the name of his iguana, but she had a luxurious large tank which he built/decorated for her:
His room also featured an extensive shrine to his heroes, U2:
the next morning, setting off for our first proper ride in several days
our route Friday 24/10: Budweis to a campground beyond Krumlov – about 41 km
(we finally discovered a great Czech cycle-route site on our second-to-last day in the country)
leaving Budweis... I like this town
back along the swiftly-moving Vltava
"where are the meatballs?"
happy wheelchair man! this is at the monastery in Zlata Koruna ("gold crown"), which has quite a complicated history – Elsa is reading about it below
unfortunately, despite the enthusiastic ticket sign, and two other tourists who happened to be there at the same time as us, they wouldn't let us take a tour of the monastery with fewer than five people
so we had to content ourselves with wandering around the few unlocked areas, including a crypt-like place with much impressive student artwork on display. hopefully this is not a typical Czech classroom scene.
is this the gold crown that gives the town its name? seems doubtful.
and we reach the spectacular Cesky Krumlov
the rather grand entrance into town. but you have to read the rules first...
dogs only on a leash; clean up after your dog; no dogs.
pretty sure we got the best table in the house
mixed grill (steak, pork, chicken) with gravy and cranberry (or redcurrant?) relish, and pickled/marinated camembert cheese (delicious!) who needs thanksgiving?
oh yeah, they have bears in the castle moat.
i think i was trying to make up for not taking many pictures in prague... but really this place was just so spectacularly pretty i couldn't help it.
once you get out of town the buildings get pretty dilapidated pretty quickly
our campsite that night
Saturday 25/10 route: up and over into Austria (57km)
fall colors along the vltava
just another random castle somewhere...
they have strange cars in austria...
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