It was another long driving day – over three hours, with a minor detour and a major pain-in-the-butt drive through a small city in stop-and-go-traffic, with a very odd lack of gas stations or rest stops for the final hour or so, but the end result was worth it. We got to Cesky Krumlov.

The last three full days in Czechia are “my” days: days when I am in charge of the touring. I poked around on the internet for awhile a few months ago, and Cesky Krumlov looked as if it should be very pretty, which it is. It is a small warren of buildings and streets crammed into a bend in the Vltava River, just a few miles north of the Austrian border. It has the second biggest castle in the country (Prague’s is the biggest) overlooking the town, and has a very tall church, St. Vitus, standing on a high point in the center. It all looks like a postcard.

We left the B and B close to 4:00, and I told Meredith that I did not want anything other than a map – I just wanted to wander at whim and get lost. It’s a very small town, and the church or castle is almost always visible, so you can’t get too turned around. We found a small park with an overlook to the castle, and then drifted around until we found the main square, managed to cross the river on one of just two bridges, and puffed our way up the lane into the castle for magnificent views of the main town. It was a good place to linger.

Plunging back into town, we almost left the southern end of town by accident, so I turned us back to find the church. By that point in the evening, it was closed, but I checked out a small lane that ended in a view of the river and was next to a house with an open window. Out of the window came the strains of a very talented piano player practicing some very difficult classical music. So we lingered again for several minutes.

Back we went into the small maze of roads, and across the first bridge again. We found a restaurant our B and B had recommended, and we sat on the terrace next to the river, eating and watching tourists float by in canoes and rafts.

It turns out that watching people shoot the small rapids next to the small waterfalls is highly entertaining. After we ate and left the main town by going south, we found a place where there is some pretty kicky water. Several of us stood on the concrete chute and looked down to the boaters as they passed. Their reactions to the sudden speed of the water and the small drop were varied, but all pretty funny. We lingered there as well.

Just to drive the cute theme home, as we were walking back to our B and B outside of the old town, a hot air balloon drifted overhead and went before us as we went home. It may have been hard to get to, and may be full of tourists, but Cesky Krumlov is worth lingering in.