Claire on the Move

So far a feature of the journey has been ghost villages and towns. We have often gone without food (that apple picked from the hedgerow was so sour) and occasonally ran out of water as there hasve been few shops, cafes or pubs open along the way. There are some advantages of going in between the summer season and the ski season as we benefitted from cheap accommodation – and saved money on food! On the Brompton bikes, with so little luggage space, it is not possible to stock up. I really think the region would be much improved by the availability of a cup of tea and a scone at about 3.30pm.

But this all changed at Cesky Krumlov. Catapulted into the third most popular honeymoon destination for Chinese couples outside China (why does my husband have statistics like this in his head?) The place was heaving. The Vltava meanders through the city and the architecture is incredible, so well worth a visit.

In the morning we did the touristy bit climbing up very steep paths to the castle and formal gardens.

The plan for the rest of the day was to cycle to Zlata Koruna, with a monastery on the river and then take a train the rest of the way to Ceske Budejovice as we wouldn’t be able to ride close to the river anyway and that’s the next place to get close to it. It’s lovely this being my trip and me setting the rules!

But we had to cycle up out of the valley and it was so, so steep, and it went on and on up. A really hard ride/ walk. When we passed the station at Zlata Koruna and I realised how far down into the valley we were going to go to get to the monastery, and then we would have to climb back up to the station, I got a bit grumpy. ‘It’s OK’ Rob said, ‘there is a bus’, Rob said. So, satisfied, we went on a guided tour of the monastery (in Czech but an English printed guide book).

And it was very interesting – now back for the bus. But that little small print in the top right hand corner that we hadn’t noticed? The bus finished running on the 31st August. ‘It’s OK’, said Rob.’There’s a train in 40 minutes’, said Rob. So now we had 40 minutes to go up really steep roads for a train that my expert timetable reader/ geek really did not understand. There was no price on the App and why did it wait for 50 minutes somewhere on route? A school train (it was Saturday)?

We made it to the station in good time, to discover that it was a steam special that we could not go on – but Rob is so excited! Was it the engine he had seen many years ago? The camera is out ready as I sit huddled up, freezing with the rain beginning to fall. And the whistle of the train and the smoke in the distance announced its impending arrival, as did 3 middle-aged men on motorbikes who were following the train and taking videos of it at each station.

So, to those readers who are pleased for Rob, but concerned for my well-being, there was a train in another half an hour that we could go on and was warm and took us right to the heart of Ceske Budejovice.