Cesky Krumlov

Up early we made our way further south on the Nlatava River to the town of Cesky Krumlov. We found Kemp Nove Spoli located on the river. We were quite excited about camping on a beautiful river but found the campground a little strange – big concrete slab with 1 or 2 vans parked on it, but hey it was cheap! Officially the cheapest so far – the equivalent of 7euro!

 After parking and locking away all of our things (the campground was a bit of a thoroughfare along the river) we walked into town.

Cesky Krumlov

It was a cute little town, all cobblestoned, with bridges crossing backwards and forwards across the river. Even better there was a local festival on and groups of children dressed in traditional costumes performing dances.

Kid performing the traditional Czech dances - the boys

...and the girls

 Further in the main town square there were market stalls with local produce, beer, grilled meats, chees, fried potatoes and crepes very similar to those in Prague so we figured it must have been the same type of harvest festival.

We decided to come back here for dinner but first we had a date with the Cesky Krumlov castle up on top of the hill overlooking the old town. 

I took this pic for all of the artists in my family

and because I thought this was cool

The streets on the way to the castle

Crossing one of the many bridges

We were surprised to be greeted with signs as we walked over the main bridge saying ‘Do not feed the bears”. Sure enough there were bears living in the castle moat. What better way to keep out invaders, forget water, fill your moat with bears – the Czechs are definitely thinkers!

The bears in the castle moat

More bears... there were heaps

View from the way up

Peek-a-boo

After admiring the view over the castle walls we made our way back into the old town square, filled with locals and tourists (mainly American and Japanese) alike gathering for the food, beer and concert that was beginning. 

Dave likes sausages

SO MUCH MEAT!

We ate a lovely traditional Czech dinner of creamed beef (roast beef gravy and cream) and a chicken parmy-like dish. We finished it off with Nutella crepes in the market before rolling our way back to the campground.

Czech chicken parmy

Creamed beef and dumplings AND a choccy milkshake!

Not one to let any chocolate go to waste

Here we thought we’d try our luck getting wifi in the bar (I was doubtful) and we were pleasantly surprised with the best wifi of the whole trip! I managed to do 8 blogs in 1 ½ hours – an official record!

Kutna Hora

Still staying in Prague we decided to take a day trip slightly southeast to the town of Kutna Hora. 

In the 14^th century this was on of the most important places in Bohemia almost rivaling Prague all owing to rich deposits of Silver Ore in its rocks.

We took a train from Prague Hlavni Nadrazi (central station) about 1 ¼ hours later arriving at Kutna Hora.

The first and most important objective being find the Sedlec Ossuary – the famed bone church.     

Sedlec Cemetery, home to the famous crypt and ossuary

This tiny little chapel is decorated with the bones of around 40,000 people who had been buried over the centuries in the crypt in the cemetery. The woodcarver given credit for the decorative motifs really loved his skulls and cross humans! I also managed to set off the alarm at the bone pyramids sticking my hand in for a nice close up picture – my bad!

An anatomist's delight

Giant bone pyramid... and yes i do see the sign saying no hands... well what can I say the security didn't look too high tech

Family crest of bones

Garlands of bones

From here we followed a tour group via bus from Sedlec back to the main part of Kutna Hora. We found some great lunch  - schnitzel and sausages (surprise, surprise) with beer before heading to the cathedral of St Barbara. Another gothic monolith, which actually rivaled St Vitas Cathedral in the heart of Prague Castle.

St Barbara's Cathedral

Random Plague pole in Kutna Hora

A bit of a wait at the train station plus 1 ¼ hours later we arrived back in Prague with enough time to hit the shops for some last minute crystal stuff before making our way back for our last night at Triocamp.