Cesky Krumlov - A Pretty Town in the Czech Republic

This was the first morning we were in Cesky Krumlov, referred to by some as " the Pearl of Bohemia", a pretty little town in the Czech Republic.

We started our day early in the morning walking to the town's main square. 

We arrived at the beautiful medieval Main Square of Cesky Krumlov.

Main Square, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

We had breakfast at one of the restaurants at the square.

After breakfast, we joined a tour in front of the INFO Centrum office where the man with the umbrella was waiting for interested tourists.

Our tour guide in Cesky Krumlov

His name was Yan and he took us for a tour that lasted for one and a half tour of the town and the castle. 

From our guide, we learned about the powerful Rosenberg family and the town's history. 

                  The town of Cesky Krumlov, with its medieval castle tower in the background.

This little town receives millions of tourists every year as it has been designated as a UNESCO heritage site.








During a period of 40 years when Czech was under the communist regime, there was no building or construction going on and the houses fell in disrepair. 

After Czech gained independence, all Germans were ordered to leave this town; about 3 million people left.  




The houses could be bought for 2 - 3 thousand dollars each since it was in bad shape.
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However, the value of the houses skyrocketed since the Czech Republic separated from Russia in 1989. 

Cesky Krumlov was declared a UNESCO heritage site in 1992.

Cesky Krumlov - " the Pearl of Bohemia'

Since then, tourism has been bringing in tons of tourists and business for the town.

Though with a population of only 14,000 this little town receives about a million tourists every year!

The houses now are worth between half a million to more than 4 million US dollars.

Residents of Cesky Krumlov who did not sell their houses are doing quite well economically.

According to our tour guide, 15% of the people in Czech Republic are Christians, not a high percentage. 
















Nowadays, most Czech citizens are non religious.

It is a sharp contrast to Poland where 97% of Polish people are religious.

On the day we visited the church, there was a group of Korean tourists attending a special service.

Our tour guide also took us to the castle which was built in the 12th century.

We had a close look at the castle tower which is a symbol of Cesky Krumlov. 

The tower is a six storied building with some remarkable architectural details.

It has been referred to as "the towerest of all towers".

We got to see some paintings on the walls resembling real stone work on some of the castle buildings.

We learned about some cost saving techniques utilized by castle builders at this castle.

Instead of building the entire buildings with real bricks, people painted brick designs on some of the walls.

To maintain balance and aesthetics on the exterior of some of the buildings, painters utilized their artistic and painting skills.

For example, one of the windows on this building was painted on only.

It was not easy to see. 

Can you?

Cesky Krumlov is a very pretty medieval town!

I was glad that we joint the tour and learned a lot of about this interesting  town in Czech Republic!

R.T.
Cesky Krumlov
Czech Republic

Breakfast in Cesky Krumlov, a Pretty Medieval Town in Cezch Republic

The Polbus going from Krakow to Prague connecting us to Cesky Krumlov. 

For our next destination, we had a bit of a detour.  

Due to scheduling reason, we took the bus from Krakow to Prague first and then from Prague to Cesky Krumlov.
















We tried to get a refund for our unused bus tickets but it was not an easy process.

Unable to communicate in English effectively,  many front line people working at the Czech Republic could not give us direct helpful information. 

We were sent the run around a few times at multiple bus stations. Finally, we were given  a refund voucher for our unused bus tickets.

We had pretty good weather on this European vacation. Having spent more than ten days in Europe, this was the first rainy day we encountered on this trip.

The rain did not bother us at all as we were spending the entire day travelling on the bus

We arrived at the bus station in Cesky at around 10pm which was dark all around.

J. was always leading the way during our European vacation

Kudo to J.'s amazing ability to navigate in foreign countries with his cell phone technology, we were able to find our way to the pension in the dark.  

The owner of the pension only wanted to be paid in cash in Czech money. 

I was glad we had exchanged money prior to our departure in Krakow therefore we had enough cash to pay for our stay for the night.

The view from the window of our pension in Cesky Krumlov.

We all went to bed within half hour of checking into our room located on the second floor of the building last night.  However, we had a hard time sleeping as our room was above a pub and we could hear people talking and laughing loudly after midnight.

                       On our way to the Cesky Krumlov town square

In order to have more time to visit this UNESCO town, we all got up at 6:30am in the morning and were out of the Pension by 7am, a first for us. J. was able to get us up too. 

Cesky Krumlov is another medieval town, more genuine than what we have seen on this trip. 

Places that are designated as UNESCO are special and have their uniqueness.

We walked around enjoying ourselves taking pictures in the early  gentle morning sun.

We had a breakfast buffet at this restaurant at one of the hotels

We went to the town square and had a breakfast buffet in one of the hotel restaurants. 

The dining room was pretty with folk art decorating the walls and the wooden furniture.

Even the ceiling was decorated with folk art drawings.

The breakfast buffet provided diners with a good selection of choices.

I was happy as I could stick to my diet with lots of fruits and salad. 

It was nice eating a nutritional breakfast in a nicely decorated setting. 

Cesky |Krumlov, Czech Republic

After a good breakfast, we were ready to explore this beautiful medieval town!







R.T.
Cesky Krumlov
Czech Republic