Thursday 30 June: In the morning we joined a walking tour led by Jan whose father apparently owns the best restaurant in the city. He explained the history of the city which involved the usual number of legends, half-truths, myths among a few facts.The city has been owned by a number of very rich families who made money from local mines, agriculture and fish farming over hundreds of years: the Rosenbergs, Bambergs and Eggenbergs.
It was never destroyed in either of the two world wars, and remains essentially intact. This means that almost nothing was done in the city during the communist era, apart from neglect, and new apartment buildings were built on a hill overlooking the city.
The original town was built in the Baroque style, remodelled in the Renaissance and also has some aspects of the Georgian style. The biggest attraction is the castle, built in the 13th century and the second largest castle complex in Czech Republic.
It was a huge impregnable defensive fortress, with three physical layers of defences that was later changed into a palace when the need for physical defence was no longer required.The Renaissance influence can be seen in the many frescoes and symmetrical geometric forms on the external walls.
We also seem to have struck the Chinese tourist belt, seeing many Chinese groups and wedding couples for the first time in days – we didn’t see any in Trenčianske Teplice.
We also encountered our first Australians for quite a while.Attractive time capsules like Český Krumlov are the big international drawcards.
Also, the nearby town of České Budějovice that we travelled through on the way here is the origin of Budweiser Beer. One of two brothers migrated to the USA and started the company there.
It has become so successful it tried to buy the Czech company, but due to a popular outcry the sale was stopped.
The walking tour finished in the warm and humid early afternoon so a little desperately we headed to the nearest tavern, The Travellers Restaurant, for a beer and lunch. The numerous references to beer during the tour had worked its magic and we were hanging out for one.
To accompany our Kozel beers (they didn’t have Budweiser) Frances ordered Dumplings Stuffed with Smoked Meat, and I ordered Gnocchi in Mushroom Sauce – just the right sort of meals to eat with beer. The ingredients used for both the dumplings and gnocchi was a mixture of potato, flour and polenta which gave a very nice and distinctive taste. Frances really liked the smoked meat filling, and I really liked the mushroom sauce, which had fresh Hřiby (Porcini) mushrooms, caraway seeds and fresh herbs.I’d forgotten about the level of smoking here in the Czech Republic – much more than in Poland and Slovakia. It wasn’t easy to find a table where we could breathe comfortably. One bonus though, was seeing a pair of swallows nesting under one of the eves of the restaurant.
Tonight we planned to go to the Restaurant Konvice because they advertised live classical guitar music. It was just off the town square, and when we looked in, it was open but deserted.All we could see were some bizarre large glass vessels filled with spirits with Czech names – eg. Ruskovice 42%, Slivovice 42%.
Eventually we realised that all the action was downstairs, along a corridor, out the back. They had a terrace area that overlooked the valley and castle.
The waiter was incredibly friendly, with a sense of humour so we liked it immediately. Two guys were playing classical guitar, so we ordered a couple of drinks, a dry white wine and a Monrovian Rosé, sat back and enjoyed the music and ambiance.
We weren’t very hungry after a big lunch, so I just ordered a South Bohemian Potato Soup, expecting a thick potato soup, but what arrived was essentially a vegetable soup with bits of potato – apparently that’s the original style. The taste was very good which may have been the assisted by the little bits of meat floating in it.
Having had so little for dinner, we figured dessert would be appropriate. Frances had Small Dumplings Filled With Stewed Plums, Covered with Cottage Cheese and Warm Butter. The name was a mouthful and so was the dessert.
It looked pretty unappetising however the taste was fantastic. I had a simple Apple Strudel With Whipped Cream. Simple, but superb – little pastry, lots of apple, and not too sweet at all, just the flavour of apples and sultanas and hint of cinnamon.I hope it’s this good in Austria.
