Southern Bohemia: Medieval castles and magnificent sights

As I sit here on the train from Milan to Venice, I cannot tell you how excited I am for the tour of Italy that I will be on with two of my friends over the next two weeks!

Although the frenzied, highly caffeinated cram session I forced upon myself for midterms earlier this week is still fresh in my mind, I have never been feeling more awake and ready. 

Because I have only been in Italy for about ten hours (during most of which I have spent traveling or waiting to travel), I am going to hold off on writing about my experiences so far and share with you what I did last weekend (I apologize for not writing about it sooner, but as I previously mentioned, I was very focused on my exams.).

Last Saturday, CEA took all of its students to Cesky Krumlov and Rozumberk Castle, both located in Southern Bohemia.  When my alarm went off at 8 a.m. that morning, still tired from the week before and feeling very comfortable in my bed, I was very close to passing this trip up.

How beautiful could this place possibly be that I need to wake up at 8 a.m. to go see it?

That beautiful. 

As you can see from the above picture, it was definitely worth waking up for.   

Our day began at the Rozumberk Castle, which was built in the early 13th century.  We went on a tour of the castle where we could view all of the baroque paintings, many of which were of the Rozumberk family members, who were the most powerful clan in Bohemia after the king in the 14th century. 

 Towards the end of the tour, we went into a large room (the name of which is slipping me now), but each wall was lined with amazingly detailed tapestries about 25 feet high by 25 feet wide... and they were all hand-made.  I cannot imagine the amount of work that went into these!

Because we had time to kill, our tour guide took this opportunity to explain to us the Czech proverbs being told in a few of the works.   Most told the typical instructions for a moral life; however, one picture of a man pulling a bull out of a river by his tail caught a lot of our interest with its explanation.  Expecting the tour guide to tell us the Czech version of "Take the bull by the horns," we discovered a true language barrier when she said,
"Why do things the easy way when you can do it the more difficultly another way?"

As we all looked at her slightly puzzled, unsure of the logic behind this saying,  I realized that there are some language barriers that cannot be hurdled. This Czech proverb was definitely one of them.

After our time at Rozumberk Castle, we all piled back in the bus for the short ride over to Cesky Krumlov. 

As we walked through the narrow, winding streets I felt as if I time-traveled back to 14th century Bohemia.  Cesky Krumlov, with its cobble-stoned alleyways, hole-in-the-wall pubs and footbridges leading into the various sections of the town, has truly stood the test of time. 

After having a typical Czech lunch (potato soup, beef and dumplings-- we were stuffed!), I made my way up to the castle complex, which is the second largest one in the Czech Republic (after Prague castle).

 You can’t tell in the pictures, but when you look at the buildings in person, you can see that all of the details are actually painted on!  In the courtyard of the castle, all of the exterior of the building from a distance appears to be made of stone, but in reality, it is just the work of an extremely talented artist.  Even the two knights standing guard as you exit the area were painted on.  I have never seen such unique detail before. 

A UNESCO world heritage site since 1992, Cesky Krumlov is pristinely preserved.  My friends and I, tired from walking around all afternoon, spent our afternoon sitting behind the café of Egon Schiele , a famous Czech artist, talking about how different this town was from the bustling city of Prague.  As you can see in the photo below, the quiet of this small town is a stark contrast to the much quicker pace in the city that has become our temporary home.

Note: I actually wrote this post yesterday afternoon on my train ride from Milan to Venice, but was unable to find an internet cafe until just now!  I am in Venice now, staying with a few girls on the Colgate Music Department program here.  Check back here in the next two days to hear about what they've been up to!

Comments

[Elaine]

Wow, Prague really is a beautiful place!! Your articles are so informative. Thanks!!