At 7 the alarm goes off with which we get going, to shower and go down to have breakfast in the breakfast room of the hotel in Karlovy Vary, the Hotel Boston, the hotel where we stayed in Karlovy Vary. Today we are going to visit two of the most important spa towns in the Czech Republic: Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázne . The breakfast is quite brief, but sufficient and in the end we ended up with a full stomach contrary to what we had thought. At 8:30 in the morning we set off to visit Karlovy Vary, the first spa town and the most famous in the Czech Republic, which we arrived yesterday starting our route through the Czech Republic by rental car .
We start by taking the walking tour of Karlovy Vary that the Lonely guide recommends and which is very successful to have a first contact with the city. Another good option to learn about the history of the city and not miss anything interesting is to book this private tour.
We start at Café Elefant, which is very close to the hotel and from there we see the City Theater. Before continuing, we approached the hotel that served as the setting for the movie Casino Royale .
We retrace our steps, to continue with the tour, all this without stopping to take photos of the spectacular buildings.
We pass by the Church of María Magdalena , and then stop at the concrete building of the Colonnade of the Hot Fountain, inside we see the geyser that emanates uninterruptedly . And there we are going to buy our jugs, to start testing the waters that the spa town of Karlovy Vary offers us .
Before arriving, we have passed by the Colonnade of the Mill, but we have not stopped too much, since before we wanted to go buy the jugs and we decided to see it on the way back.
We continue bordering the river, until we reach the Colonnade of the Park , where we taste our first jug of water and what to say? Well, the truth is that not much. We had heard that it wasn’t very good, but seeing that everyone was drinking, we thought it was just an opinion. Well, there is another similar opinion: ours. We have tried to test in 3 different sources and it has been impossible to pass from the first drink.
From here we have taken one of the upper streets, to go to the Russian Orthodox Church, which we have found after a little walk and a few hikes. We have gone back down, to take the last photos and see the Mill Colonnade again. With the sunlight, this area is spectacular, the architecture leaves you amazed and makes you think of the “glamour” that the guides talk about when they explain all the things to see in Karlovy Vary .
We leave Karlovy Vary with a very good taste in our mouths, to go to Loket, which is about 15 minutes away and continue our route through the Czech Republic. The reason is to see its castle, one of the emblems of the city. We are very good on time, so we entertain ourselves for a while strolling through the town and going up to the castle of Loket, to see it more closely.
Our idea on this trip is to only see the castles from the outside, we will only visit a couple, since we are not great lovers of seeing them from the inside and we also have a fairly tight time frame.
After Loket, we make our way to Mariánské Lázne, the second of the spa towns in the Czech Republic that we will visit today. The route takes us just over half an hour, a little more than expected since our GPS takes us along a secondary road, which is well worth it since it is spectacular, seeing us surrounded by a lush forest that has nothing to envy to those who we saw last year in the US. Once we reach the city of Mariánské Lázne, we managed to park in the “blue zone”, where we paid 2 euros to change for a stay of one hour. We look at our planning and we see that everything we want to visit is around the park, so before starting our circuit, we stop on a terrace to let the sun shine a little and have a drink. After this moment of relaxation, we begin our tour at the American Liberation Monument and continue to the famous Mariánské Lázne Colonnade . We spend a lot of time there, resting, admiring the views and above all, taking photos. We arrive at the singing fountain and there we see a lot of people waiting to see the waterfalls that we don’t take too long to see, so we move away from this area to continue with our route.
Suddenly the music starts to play and we see that the fountain “accompanies”, so we retrace our steps a little, to be able to see more closely the play of water that the fountain represents with the music. After a long time walking around the area, we go to the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and from here, we go in search of the next Orthodox church: San Vladimir .
After this walk through Mariánské Lázne , our stomach is already like the singing fountain, so we go into the first restaurant that we see that is recommended on TripAdvisor and by chance, it turns out that it is another Italian one. We leave the restaurant after a good after-dinner meal and we see that it is beginning to sparkle. Yes, it just sparkled when we got out and in the 300 meters we had to walk to get to the rental car in the Czech Republic, it changed from that, to a torrent of water. So we had to run a little bit and get a little wet. It has been good, because since we don’t have time for spas, at least we got wet with rainwater.
Our first idea was to sleep in Mariánské Lázne, but once we made the route through the Czech Republic, we decided that it was best to go to Cesky Krumlov and sleep there. From Mariánské Lázne to Cesky Krumlov we have 3 and a half hours of travel , but we opted for that option as the best, to make the most of tomorrow. After today, it has been a good choice, since we have gained almost half a day. On the way we have returned to the green landscapes that are calling our attention so much and to the tiny villages that we are going through. The 3 and a half hours pass quickly and we begin to see in the distance the tower of the castle of Cesky Krumlov. We had to do a few turns to find our hotel in Cesky Krumlov, the Švamberský dům, since the area is not too good to enter by car, but we have managed to almost reach the door, out of sheer stubbornness. Today we have reserved a “suite” in a hotel near the castle. First impression: stairs. many. And on top of that narrow…
A room with a lot of charm, wooden beams, which have been preserved from the time, enlarged and next to the castle, we cannot ask for more. The price we have paid hasn’t been excessive either, on the contrary, so we won’t complain too much, lest they listen to us and tomorrow they won’t give us breakfast. After settling in, we went for a walk around Cesky Krumlov, one of the most incredible cities in the Czech Republic. The first impression has been fantastic. The city is surrounded by a meander of the Vltava River that makes it seem even more like a city out of a fairy tale. It is full of shops, bars, restaurants, hotels… but everything has been taken care of down to the smallest detail. Today we did not want to take out the camera, since this afternoon it was to appreciate it only with our eyes. Tomorrow morning it’s time for the “official visit”. Of course, Roger has not stopped, so now I will download the photos to see how they are turning out.
