Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

The Czech Republic has a lot of castles. I loved them. They are totally different than what you imagine from the movies.

The castle in Prague and Cesky Krumlov were small cities, with churches (Gothic of course, there were Gothic Cathedrals everywhere, one Romanesque in Prague Castle), shops, sleeping quarters, gardens, offices, etc. The Castle at Hluboka nad Vltavou (middle picture) was closed for the season, but I did visit it at night. It is my Czech Kid's favorite, and I'm sorry I couldn't go inside. It is white in the daytime.

The top picture is the castle in Cesky Krumlov. In the middle left, on the darker tan walls, the funny looking thing is a rock that the castle was built around. I guess they decided that it was too much work to move it! The rocks between the towers were part of the bear enclosure. Again, most the castle was closed because it was November and we couldn't go inside anything. And the bears weren't there either.

At Prague Castle, we could go inside. There were lots of tourists -- the man selling tickets said that my Czech kid was the first Czech he'd seen that day. I never did get a picture of the castle; it is too big and surrounded by buildings. Here are the parapets, what you expect in a building built for defense. The stairs and the drain were more modern. They have set up restaurants for the tourists; the national dish is mushroom soup. It is wonderful! (Don't drink the hot mulled white wine, stick with the red. Remember white wine is supposed to be chilled!)

There is only one problem with visiting castles: They are always at the top of the hill!