Cesky Krumlov

Stunning! Probably the most beautiful place we have ever been too. The river winds around and the old city sits on a peninsula like finger. We arrived in the middle of the parade for their five petal rose festival – total chaos! You couldn’t move through the crowds easily and then crowds got all mixed up in the parade and then to top it off it rained! Despite all this Cesky Krumlov’s exquisite charm shone through. After finding our accommodation – not the easiest feat, we spread gear out to dry and headed back to view this magical place. Heaps of people in mediaeval costumes and crowds like we haven’t seen anywhere. The river with the canoes and rafts was busy as well. Some young musicians (well a trombonist and clarinetist) provided entertaining – for people as well as themselves I’d say, as they played poorly. Visited the castle and an old baroque theatre, apparently only 1 of 2 still in existence in the world of that time. Just about castled-out now, at least the tours. This has been a wonderful place to chill out in and it did thin out of people after the weekend which was lovely. Be sad to leave this place. We've discovered you can either pay more to take photos inside castles or more recently you cannot take any photos at all.

Slavonice to Jindruchuv Hradec

Quick trip on the bus gets us to JH. We were going to walk 25km today and catch a toy steam train to JH, but (one of the few down-sides of travelling pre-season) the train isn’t running. So it’s good to take the bus, which travels a very similar route. We unpack and then cruise, just walking around as we feel like. Before leaving, we do a 6km walk out to some WW2 bunkers built by the Czechs to stop the Nazi invasion in the late 30s. very evocative and a pretty extensive defensive line (I think at least 30km, maybe a lot more). Makes you realize that this part of Europe has often been one of competing political interests. The bunkers were an open-air museum, set in forests and lakes and well worth the trip out. While we were there we met some local woman picking and eating what looked like blueberries from these 10-20cm high plants growing wild on the forest floor. We tried them too – yummy! We arrived back to take photos of the square again and found a vintage car and bike rally. Lots of skodas and a couple of MG cars and Jawa bikes including some that looked like motorised pushbikes. All very cool even if you're not really into them. JH is one of the places we wanted to stay longer at, but we ran out of days. We arrive in the mid afternoon, and the sun is still high and shining on some beautiful town squares and buildings, churches, castle, lake. It’s all the food groups, really!

Telc to Slavonice

Slavonice and Telc are both UNESCO world heritage sites, and you can see why. Telc had an amazing square and a magical setting, but Slavonice was end-to-end just full of amazing houses, many with facades seemingly untouched for hundreds of years (in a good way!). Again, we are staying in a place around 600 years old right on the main square. We spend most of the first day just walking around the town (easy to do). David gets carried away photographing everything in sight, just enjoying all the little architectural details – the closer you look the more you see. Example: when we first get in, we go into a downstairs room, climb the stairs and go into the tourist information office. Going back again, we realize the room is in fact an extremely rare example of crazy, over-the-top vaulted ceilings (photo)and the frescoes in the office also pretty amazing and over 500 years old. It’s that kind of casually discovered stuff that we love – anywhere you look there’s something interesting that tells a story.

Vranov to Telc

Multiple trips today – bus/train/train/bus/train – but the end result is Telc (Telch), one of the highlights so far of the trip. The trains are often one carriage and the train stations look as if they are no longer operational but at each stop out comes the station master and often a second person too. They are really cute. The town square an absolute confection of different coloured houses. The second building photo includes our hotel - the pale green one. Our room looked out the back over the water and not the square. The other buildings are of the town square - hard to capture the impact of these ornate coloured buildings surrounding the square. The setting is a small peninsula surrounded by lakes (‘ponds’) created as both defence and fish farm. We’ve decided to have a rest day today and next, and this is a fabulous place to have it. Took an early morning walk and got some outstanding reflections along the way. Sun is up very early here and not dark till late either! Again, hardly any tourists here, especially after 5pm, when people have finished work and tourists have got back in their cars to go somewhere else. There’s a lot of sunlight in the day (say 5.30 to 9.30pm) so we are sitting in the square just chilling out and feeling like there’s not many better places to be!

Znojmo to Vranov

Train to Sumna and then probably the best walking we’ve had on the trip. Started out across rolling fields of green, then through forest to Cizov, very close to the Austrian border. Mary’s highlight was seeing many tiny little frogs jumping around our feet. We thought they were some little beetle or insect but on closer inspection discovered they were frogs (about 1cm long)! Didn’t meet anyone else doing any walking at all, so we had the forests and lakes to ourselves. Cizov was a break while we waited for a drinks place to open. Photos of border towers and barbed wire a reminder that this was once part of the iron curtain. Then from Cizov back into some untouched forest and, way down, the Dyje River. Some decent limestone outcrops kept it interesting and, an hour or two later, we are in Vranov. (That is Vranov n Dyje, not Vranov near Brno – managed to book the wrong hotel!). Lots of places to stay at, hardly anyone there, so all good. Vranov a nice place with a spectacular castle up high on a hill. Pretty hot, sunshiny day, well over 30, so we are pretty tired after the walk, so settle in for a nice meal and watch the world go by. Lots of school groups passing through here – art students sketching the castle and river etc.

Mikulov to Znojmo (‘znoy – mo’)

On the train for 45km along the plain to Znojmo. The train on the plain was mainly very plainly boring as anything, so we jumped a bit faster into the good bits. From Znojmo on it gets really interesting as we get into the forested park, with its canyons and very winding river. Znojmo itself has lots to offer – a bigger town than most, but again some amazing buildings and squares, churches and castle etc. David climbed the town hall tower for some great shots of the terracotta-roofed houses, church and Dyje river. Some great meals here, too, one just sitting out on the street, another in a little garden restaurant. Everything but the restaurants (of which there are plenty!) are closed today. The whole place is super-quiet, deserted and very strange for that. [true dat]. Take note of David's "macho" meal as it was described!

Lednice to Mikulov

Fabulous weather – hot, blue skies, and off we go. So far we have been on towns on pretty flat, forested, country, but today we go ridge climbing, hard yakka climbing about 400m straight up onto a limestone ridge with a ruined castle. Worth it to get there, but the 1.2km was a slow grind. David found plenty of opportunities to take photos! You can see the castle ruins in the back ground that we climbed to. Along the top, the going was much better. Fabulous views of the plain and lakes formed from damming the main river round here (Dyje, said, we think dee-yeah). Met our first English-speaker for the whole trip – his name was Grant and he was from Waipawa! Apparently very few kiwis make it round here – he was married to a local Czech, taking the kids out for a walk (!). David has rather stupidly (this is he writing!) developed a blister, from yesterday, when he wore his jandals for a 5km trip around the lake to the minaret. Sore, and it’s slowing us down a bit. [Random factoid for those of you interested in the technical details of the walking]. So to Mikulov, yet another superb little town. On the country road coming in, 115 motobikes in single file race past us. Incredible – from total quiet to total noise and back again in about 5 minutes. Mikulov itself has what seems to be typical for places these parts – an amazing square with 500-year old buildings dotted around it, a central fountain with statues, a huge castle (on the hill, if there is one and some amazing churches. We hang out in a restaurant on the square watching life go by and thinking to ourselves, it doesn’t get a lot better than this! Photos to follow when time permits

Valtice to Lednice

(oops- sorry the first phto is of Valtice square not lednice! uploading is far too slow to cahnge now) First real day of walking – wonderful wonderful tracks through forests and every so often a clearing and some ridiculous ‘monument’ erected by people with far too much money (pictures attached). Trails really well signposted, we’ve been given lots of great maps and feel r eally good about the walks, although perhaps our feet are not quite so. Did about 15km today. Lednice Zamek (chateau/castle thingy) absolutely stunning inside and out (see photos). The Liechenstein family used to own this whole area and this was their main residence. After WW2, the Czech Govt confiscated all of their lands and so here it is for us to enjoy. [Incidentally, there is talk of restitution]. one of the staircases was amazing -

Vienna to Valtice

On the train, flat fields, arrived Breclav, walked 12km to Valtice. Train trip notable for us being asked by two young women to kindly vacate the window seats, which were theirs (they said, and promptly went to sleep looking away from said window). Valtice the first place in Czech. Stayed in an old zamek (castle/chateau thingy but not so grand). Great gardens, nice private room (‘The Huntsman’s lodge’ featuring a lamp stand made of 3 rifles and multiple antlers). Stag night anyone? (sorrrrrry). Always funny coming to a new place and finding the courage to spout different words and sounds and not feel like an idiot. We are still working out how to say thankyou (we think is something approaching ‘dick-wee’) and hello (‘dobry dyen’ okaaaay…). Anyways, people have been very understanding so far. Meals have been bought in restaurants, bus tickets have been purchased, tourist information centres have been pillaged for info and it is all very nice. Valtice is a lovely little town – toured the chateau, talked to a local barista who is attending the Vienna World Barista champs and wanted to tell us all about it. We had a couple of wines, two of her ‘signature coffees’ whilst listening to some performances in the chateau courtyard. Nice.

the beginning

Well, hello all, the fun has begun! Here is our itinerary if you are interested to follow it. Otherwise, jump to the next paragraph. Number of nights in brackets: Vienna (3), Valtice (2), Lednice (1), Mikulov (1), Znojmo (1), Vranov (1), Uhercice (1), Telc (1), Slavonice (1), Jindruchev Hradek (1), Cesky Krumlov (3), Ceske Budejovice (3), Karlovy Vary (9), Prague (7), Ardspach (3), Olomouc (2), Kracow (4), Vienna (5). Next paragraph: Left Swingapore for Frankfurt, where we had the pleasure of spending 12 hours in the airport waiting waiting waiting. Q. How do you spend 12 hours in an airport? A. break it down into 1 hour ‘excitement targets’. Here is a list of our targets: 8am – make a list of excitement targets; 9am – have a coffee at McDonalds; 10am – read book, aim to finish by 11am (all targets achieved to date); 12am – lunch; 13am – shower (not achieved – guardian refused to accept small money); 14am – buy different Guardian – uh oh, 5 euros too much for newsprint; 15am – read Guardian (not achieved); 16am – go to gate; 17am – board gate; 18am – in the air. You get the picture. Finally arrived Vienna 11pm, having been awake for 45 hours. We’ll talk about Vienna later, when we return.