Friday 4 July 2014 Prague – Cesky Krumlov

Mostly Sunny 28C

Today was our first experience of buses In the Czech Republic, I had booked seats on the 9am trip to Cesky Krumlov, the price was around AUS $7 for the journey. We had allocated seats and once on board, the attendant brought around headsets for the audio/video system (just like on an aeroplane) and offered us complimentary tea/coffee/chocolate. There was a range of English movies on the 3 hour trip.

It was very comfortable and we arrived on time in Cesky Krumlov with a short walk to our hotel. We dropped the bags and set off for a walk. We had some lunch and visited the Information Office/

They told us about a Brewery Tour at 2pm that we decided to join. There were just 5 of us (3 Korean women and us) on the English Tour and the guide had a very strong accent and was difficult to understand. Never the less we enjoyed the tour and it finished with a beer tasting. We tried 3 of their beers: a dark beer (which was delicious), a white beer (also very nice) and a malt beer which is unfiltered. All very tasty. It is a very old brewery and has gone through a number of owners due to the communist's control. It is now owned by the Czech people.

Next we decided to visit the gardens of the Castle which range from pretty floral displays to neatly cut hedges.

These are extensive and we walked through them all. Tomorrow we will do the tour of the Castle itself.

The river that runs through the town seems to be a hive of activity with lots of small row boats and tourists enjoying the river.

My first impression of Cesky Krumlov is it's very steep, you are either going downhill or climbing up hill. It’s all cobblestones and my feet are feeling it. I am not sure the pictures will showcase the steepness of the town.

Our hotel is excellent and in the centre of town, in a building dating back to the 15th century, it is modern inside with all mod cons. We went to dinner just around the corner tonight and enjoyed a very tasty meal.