The Most Boring Update to Date
Nothing Really Happened on the Road to Prague
This update didn’t really fit into the Sound of Music tour recap, and the post on Exploring Prague was getting too long, so the drive from Salzburg to Prague is going to have to stand on its own. But I warn you, it’s not very exciting.
Brief Stop at Cesky Krumlov
On our drive from Salzburg to Prague, we stopped off in Český Krumlov, a small village in the Czech Republic that dates back to the 13th century and still retains its medieval look and feel. It is, of course, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historic Centre of Český Krumlov), and one of those towns people tell you that you just can’t miss. So, as we were driving right by, we decided to take a look.
The gate into Český Krumlov.
We parked just outside of the walled-in part of the city, and when we went to pay for parking, we learned that the Czech Republic doesn't use the Euro, but rather the Czech Koruna (but everybody just calls it the crown).
We’d thought we were done with country-specific currency, but now we had to find an ATM — just to pay for parking. But we couldn’t find a machine nearby, so we bought some sort of elderflower drink from a cute little shop just inside the wall, paying with Euro and getting Koruna in change. Score!
Then, after plunking a few Koruna into a machine, we walked back into town again for a little exploration. Naturally, as a preserved medieval town, there was a castle — complete with a tower — but we didn’t get a chance to visit it.
Český Krumlov castle tower.
Because we’d left Salzburg so late, it was well into evening when we arrived, and much of the town was shutting down. We did have a nice meal at Svejk, an old style beer hall/restaurant located on the steps up to the castle (where Jackie discovered her love of chicken schnitzel), and a nice stroll through the town before we got back into Persephone and resumed the drive to Prague.
A stroll through Český Krumlov.
On To Prague!
We arrived in Prague well after dark, which was an adventure. Prague is challenging enough to drive in during the day, but finding our hostel (Sir Toby’s) in the dark was mildly vexing, even with redundant navigation systems. Fortunately, the hostel had a parking spot for us (for the first two nights, anyway) — and what a parking spot it was.
After our parking adventure in Turin, I was ready for anything. Or at least I thought I was. After I deftly negotiated a harrowingly narrow and long driveway into a tiny courtyard, I got to see what I was dealing with.
Prague parking.
And this is really only part of the picture. When I’d pulled in at night, there were two cars on the car shelf above where I parked. Then, after barely fitting the car into the spot, the whole structure slowly dropped down into the basement. Fortunately, the back bumper had a few centimeters to spare.
So now the car was secured and we got settled into the hostel. Once that was all over, it was late. So we grabbed a little refreshment from the bar in the basement of Sir Toby’s before heading off to bed.
