Fri, 05 Sep 2003

author Liz	location Trio Camp, Praha, Ceská Republika
posted 13:15 CEST 07/09/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Ceska Republika ( all photos )

Karlstejn and around Prague several times ( 11 photos )
On Friday morning, we were happy to be able to use the camping ground's gas stoves to heat up some water and then we enjoyed lots of tea and coffee while we could. Our spot by the lake was beautiful in the morning sunshine, with mist drifting over the top of the water.
From Pilsen we drove north-east on the motorway and got stuck in traffic for a while where there had been a bad accident between a few trucks, but we left the motorway soon after. We drove along a very windy little road, complete with big mirrors on the bends to tell you how many crazy drivers were coming at you from the other direction.
We stopped at Karlstejn. A boring little town, until you spotted its highlight - a 14th century castle standing at the very top of a high, forest covered hill.
We had to park right at the bottom of the hill, where we couldn't even see the castle, and from there walk to the top where the castle was. The walk up was actually quite fun - it was a narrow little cobblestone street, and either side most of the way up were lots of little shops selling lots of little tourist goodies. We hurried past them all as we decided to look at the shops on the way down.
The last part of the path up to the castle was very steep. It was a hot day and cobblestones are pretty, but they start to hurt your feet after a while! But we made it to the top just in time for a tour around the castle in English.
The tour was interesting with all the history of the castle, but not much of the inside of the castle is how it was in the 14th century. The whole place used to be full of frescos but none remain and there is only one piece of original furniture. However, the view from the castle looking all the way down the mountain was beautiful, and the outside of the castle was pretty spectacular.
By this stage, we were both very hungry so we stopped at one of the little restaurants on the way back down. For an insanely cheap price (less than $10), we both had big bowls of fresh home-made chicken soup, Pilsener goulash with bread dumplings, delicious apple pie, tea, coffee and half a litre of beer each. And all the food was just so good.
Feeling completely satisfied, we spent an hour or so looking all the little shops. Czech has a 0.0% blood alcohol limit, so after our beers it was good excuse to spend lots of time shopping. Most of the shops had Bohemian crystal and lots of it. Tim found himself a very nice crystal whisky decanter, and we got a few other small things before slowly heading back to the van.
Our afternoon was then spent driving the last short distance to Praha (Prague). We got stuck in a huge traffic jam, and then spent a long time trying to find our chosen caravan park before giving up in frustration, and going to one we had spotted a bit further out of the city (Triocamp). It has turned out to be a very nice little place, and as an added bonus they have a wireless internet connection here so we have been making very good use of that.
We had a nice dinner at the caravan park and shared a very good bottle of local wine, and spent the evening chatting away.

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