Karlovy Vary & 22 hours in Prague

Tuesday started with a drive to Plzen and Jason’s tour around the brewery. Jason said it was worth doing. The beer is the 1st pale beer of Europe.  An original recipe from when it was first brewed.  The cellars are 9km long, impressive on any scale. Carved out of the limestone by hand. As it was early we decided to drive to the town of Karlovy Vary. The town known for its thermal healing waters it is also known for the filming of James Bonds Casino Royale. The whole town has a the feeling of an old-fashioned film. Its one of the most stunning towns, that has a promenade that is full of grandeur. Building after building of carvings and I want to say neo classical, but don’t quote me on that. We parked on the outskirts in a car park for 60Kc (less than €2.50) for the night. The really interesting thing about the town is its healing waters. Stands sell these flat, porcelain drinking cups, designed especially for the heated waters. Springs line the promenade and people stop and fill up. We only found this out after visiting the town. Instead we opted for slushies from this shop that looked like a chocolate shop. Jas ordered a cherry one for him and a cactus for me ( which I think is aloe vera), we both ended up drinking each others.

Wednesday we decided to head to Valec a town in the middle of nowhere for a free stop, except we couldn’t find it. The great thing about going there was they had this fantastic, beautiful huge church and some sort of palace like building amongst the rundown town. From here we decided a free lake stop, this was not so great for one reason. The lake view was beautiful, but the drive from the sat nav not. Driving down the narrowest lane with so many low branches, we now have some nice scratches down the van. So a cut and polish will be needed when we are back in the UK. Looking out at the lake and struggling in the 30 degree heat we thought, bugger it let’s go to Prague. Go in later in the evening and get up early to avoid the heat. Like driving in any city you nearly always miss the turn off, this we did in the middle of a 6km or so tunnel. Around we went finally arriving at a 24 hour guarded car park 2km from the centre.

Prague was hot, 35 degrees and we actually think it was hotter, It’s an amazing city with so much to see. We headed for the old town and the crowds. A couple of hours and we headed back all of us overwhelmed with the heat. Last night we had every possible window open and at 6am when we headed back in it was hitting 22. The lowest temperature since hitting Prague. We arrived at the castle district at about 7 and it was good, no crowds and extreme heat yet. Walking over the Charles bridge, the water calm and reflective. Looking up to the castle we headed up the hill. Guarded and through the security checks ( metal detectors) and bag checks. We walked around the castle grounds with the dogs. They aren’t allowed in the gardens so we missed out on those. 8am we headed back down and back over the bridge heading for the old town and some breakfast. Prague is one of those places that a couple of days is needed but with the heat we tried our best to cover it in less than 24 hours. 10am we headed back to the motor home and I set off on the laundromat hunt. Heading supposedly 2km down the road. I got sort of lost and ended up asking about 8 people directions. In the end i ended up at a campsite up in the mountains looking out all over Prague. Every part of me was dripping sweat and i drank 1.5 litres of water getting there, still 35 degrees at this point. The only reason i ended up doing this was that the price tag. €1.85 for washing bag of clothes was unbelievable. At this point i am in need of a bottle of wine, but instead have the stunning free view on top of a hill above Kutna Hora. To end the week a few hikes in the mountains and a bit of chilling after the walking and driving of the week.