Beautiful South Bohemia... even in winter!
Traditionally, in stories about the Czech Republic, tourists pay more attention to Prague. And this is understandable. Prague is generally a sorceress, it conquers, makes you fall in love, does not let go...
But today I want to share my impressions of South Bohemia. And it will be more like a story-essay about this wonderful region of the Czech Republic than a story about what hotel they lived in, what they fed, etc. You can read all this on my blog.
So, let's start our journey. After Prague, on our way was Cesky Krumlov, a fabulously beautiful small town in South Bohemia, like a dollhouse, with narrow cobbled streets and colorful houses with tiled roofs. Each house is carefully stored there, regularly restored, because almost every house is more than one hundred years old, in ancient times it was someone's workshops. If you look at the town from a bird's eye view, you will find that the Vltava River is surprisingly beautifully hugging it - it looks like the letter S. And this natural circumstance allows the Krumlovites to practice kayaking there. The river both hugs the city and divides it into islands, surprisingly clean, well-groomed, with many bridges across the Vltava. One day was not enough for such beauty, and I made a promise to myself to definitely come there in the summer, preferably in June, when knightly tournaments are held there. This is an annual colorful and informative festival, which includes not only jousting tournaments, but also street performances, in which not only professional actors play, but also just spectators: adults, kids, and they do it with great pleasure. The festival program also includes a competition for the best reading of historical novels, poems; interesting and useful workshops, where everyone can learn how to do something with their own hands and preference is given to some kind of medieval craft that the Czechs are trying to preserve. I noticed that the Czechs everywhere and in everything honor their history, cherish it, popularize it, especially among foreigners. They will make a whole story out of any, in our opinion, inconspicuous historical episode, make it like a delicious candy, pack it in a colorful wrapper and serve it to an omnivorous tourist... We still need to learn this (I mean that the tourist potential of our country, the whole country, and the south, and the east, and the west, is not disclosed at all and is not hyped to its fullest. But we also have no less wonderful stories. . . Eh. . . ). And in the evening, along the cobbled streets, you can join another action - a costumed torchlight procession, choosing a stunning costume of a medieval court lady at the box office and keeping company with a valiant knight, rattling his armor from an overabundance of feelings. Or, maybe, choose the image of a witch or a ghost and scare random passers-by? Yes... I imagine this amazing spectacle with songs, dances, torches, beer, wine, pork knee on a spit or trout in the coals...
Well, dreamed and that's enough. We continue our journey! Further along the way was the village of Rozhmberg with a tall and slightly gloomy royal castle of the same name. Previously, there was a favorite country residence of King Rudolf II, who simply adored all these royal whims: hunting, balls, parties, etc. The castle is located on the other side of the Vltava, on a steep elevated bank and looks like an impregnable fortress. The bus brought us only to the bridge over the Vltava, and then we stamped our feet, crossed the bridge over the river, admired the wild (actually almost tame) ducks and drakes, fed them, took pictures, then climbed up to the castle, which, by the way, as in the Middle Ages, it was necessary to get through the moat. The castle itself and everything inside remained from the old times, everything: furniture, utensils, clothes, shoes... The impression, I tell you, is a little gloomy and at the same time unrealistic. When you walk along the echoing long corridors, dimly lit and hung with family portraits, it seems that the king himself will come out of the next room and look at us: who disturbed his rest?
And there was also the majestic and stunning Moravian Karst on the very border with Austria. This is a national nature reserve with beautiful small lakes, an underground river, forests, rocks, caves with stalactites, stalagmites and I don’t remember what yet. When we were lowered from the Macocha cave on a special boat from a great height, it was as if we were in another world - there was an underground lake (the underground river Punkva leads to it). This is an unrealistic fairy tale! The lake is not just the cleanest, all the pebbles at the bottom are visible in it, huge fish swim phlegmatically right under our boat, we looked closely, this is a trout! We could see everything perfectly, not only because the lake is transparent, there is illumination everywhere, around the lake, above it, and even from it, from the bottom (after all, in fact, there is pitch darkness there). It is this backlight, right from the water, that creates an unrealistically fabulous feeling. . . the water glows. . . It seemed that another moment, and Gollum would emerge from the water with a fish in his mouth! : ) Yes, it seemed that only Frodo with other hobbits, and even Gollum was missing there... In short, the beauty is outlandish. This is where you need to make fantastic films for children! In general, I wonder how the famous directors and screenwriters of The Lord of the Rings missed such an amazing nature! True, then other directors corrected this situation, filmed it there, in South Bohemia, "The Chronicles of Narnia", also a fantastic film.
The beauty there is indescribable, and despite the fact that we were there at the end of January, although it is quite warm there at that time, because this is South Bohemia. Most of all I was struck by the well-groomed forest, the river and the cleanest lakes. Asphalt walking paths are laid in the forest! In short, they walk there in a civilized manner, mostly saw cyclists. Most of the cyclists are Austrians, because there are no borders. And the local Czechs invited to come there in the fall, when the forest becomes unrealistically fabulous in beauty, with orange-purple foliage, and magical in the number of real mushrooms. One has only to turn off the asphalt path to the side and there is a boletus, and behind it another and another... In short, I see this picture and myself there with a basket : )) And there are also fattened giant carps in the cleanest ponds, and of course trout in Vltava. I really want to get there in September-October and see this autumn beauty of Moravia! Although, at any time of the year, it will not leave you indifferent. We fell in love with this country and hope to return there more than once...
