Perhaps somewhat against our better judgement, we decided to head to the Czech Republic after we left Budapest. We had already made reservations (non refundable) at several pensions and booked a flight from Prague to Geneva. But even then we thought about changing our plans and heading to Croatia and for a long time we were back and forth, first arguing one way and then the other. We had not officially made up our mind until the day before we left Budapest. In the end, we decided we already had reservations and might as well see the Czech Republic, so we took a train from Budapest to Linz and then to Ceske Budjovice. Ceske Budjovice was a fairly industrial little town and the historic center was quite small, just a large open square. There were plenty of small winding streets with cute buildings surrounding them. The Czech architecture is very beautiful and we wandered the streets of the city admiring it and enjoying the view of the river.
After a few days in Ceske Budjovice, we caught the regional train to Cesky Krumlov. It was a short but very scenic train ride, often through very rural countryside. Several times the train sent sheep or cows running as it pulled up near their pastures. Cesky Krumlov was a very cool, very scenic city.
View from the castle
Having come through both World Wars completely unscathed, it was full of architecture from the 14th-17th centuries, with houses featuring a mixture of Baroque, Classical and Gothic architecture all in the same building. There was a large castle sitting on the top of the highest hill in the city (slightly above the hill the church was on- the kings didn’t want the church to be taller than the castle, of course!). The castle had a large tower- on the walking tour our guide told us it has been described as a wedding cake tower, a birthday cake tower, or (my favorite), as it was eloquently described by one Czech writer- “the toweriest tower of all the towers in the world”. That pretty much summed up how I felt about it as well!
The toweriest tower!
A rich family who owned the castle at one point claimed to be related to the powerful Orsini family in Italy. To emphasize this connection, they brought bears in to live on the castle grounds. So, since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been bears living on the castle grounds of Cesky Krumlov. Unfortunately, it was too cold for even the bears while we were there and they were no where to be seen. It was a beautiful city and we enjoyed climbing the stairs, and wandering around the cobblestone streets where we would more often than not, stumble onto a beautiful view of the castle, the church or the river. It was absolutely stunning! We met up with a friend and fellow traveler, Jason again. We had originally met in Tallinn and have run into one another on several fun filled occasions.
Next up on our tour was Plzeň- the city that gave the world pilsner beer! Getting to Plzeň proved to be an unexpected challenge. We purchased train tickets to Plzeň with no problem. We were transferring trains in Ceske Budjovice and then going directly to Plzeň. We managed to transfer trains with almost no trouble, but when the ticket checker took our tickets she started speaking rapidly in Czech. We just stood there and looked at her, dumbly. She switched tactics “sprechen Sie Deutsch?” she asked. We shook our heads. “English?” we asked. She sighed and tried to explain in halted English telling us that our train stopped and then we took a bus to another train station. We were confused- we had tickets that went all the way to Plzeň, and our train was going to Plzeň, what was the problem? She had exhausted her English and just walked away. We decided that our best hope was to try and stay on the train. However, we soon realized the problem- everyone was getting off the train and loading onto buses. A man got on, said something in Czech and a few people raised their hands. He nodded and the bus took off. We had literally just followed everyone from our train onto the bus and had no idea where we were going or if and when we would get to Plzeň. Then I noticed the guy sitting next to me was reading a book- in English! I thought to myself, I bet this young man speaks English, I should ask him what is going on! He was very nice and told us where to get off the bus so that we could catch the train and continue on to Plzeň. It worked! We finally got to Plzeň.
Of course, we had to tour the Pilsner Urquell brewery to see where the original pilsner was brewed and see where it all began. It was a great tour, very interactive and the facility was completely state of the art (we even rode on the biggest elevator in the Czech Republic!) and, of course, we enjoyed the cup of Pilsner Urquell that we got at the end of the tour. We expected Plzeň to be an industrial town, but it was far more charming that we had anticipated, full of beautiful old buildings in the Czech style, parks and art throughout the city. We enjoyed seeing the sites as much as we enjoyed trying the beer!
Tasting hops and barley at Pilsner Urquell
Not just beer- Plzen also has beautiful churches!
Our final stop in the Czech Republic was Prague. Unfortunately, we only had a day in Prague, so we ran around like crazy trying to see as much as we could. It is an incredibly beautiful city, full of old time charm and it has this great, laid back vibe. 
We saw the castle district, which was far larger than I could have imagined, admired churches and temples and then we walked across the Charles Bridge.
On the Charles Bridge
I would love to go back and see it for a longer period of time, it was a cool city and I am sure there is much more to explore. That’s the funny thing about travel, the more we see, the longer our list of places to see gets. Even places we visit never really get crossed off the list. I would love to spend more time in Oslo and see the fjords in summer, I would love to come back and explore Prague some more. Vienna would have been amazing in the summer when we could really appreciate all the park space it had.
While we were in Cesky Krumlov, there was a terrorist attack in Paris and everything we saw on the BBC and CNN International (the only news channels we get in English) made it sound like more were imminent. We heard reports of sleeper cells being awakened in France and the threat level was the highest it had been since 9/11. Way back in November we had booked a hotel in Lyon and even though Lyon is quite far from Paris, we did pause for a moment. But, just a moment. We decided we cannot live our lives in fear, that nothing in life is certain anyway so we wouldn’t worry about what may or may not happen and decided to head to Lyon anyway. After all, France is one of my favorite countries and I would hate to miss it just because I had let fear get the best of me.
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