After shopping for essentials such as Czech dumpling mix, 5 bottles of Czech beer (5 different breweries) and bread, we set of for Cesky Krumlov. For those of you who don't know it, Cesky Krumlov is a UNESCO protected site and is a beautifully preserved and restored mediaeval town in a loop in the Vlatava river. Its position is magical and although busy with tourists from all over the world, it still retains its charm. We were last here with our son Simon about 14 years ago, just after it received its UNESCO protection. It was much quieter then, although still a popular tourist destination, and many buildings were in a poor state of repair. It was impressive to see how many buildings were being restored to their former glory.
On this visit, it was clear that most of these buildings had now become shops, restaurants hotels or pensions. Fourteen years ago, we visited a small restaurant in the undercroft of a building in the old town. It was called Krcma v Satlavske and was really more of a drinking place than a restaurant, serving small dishes of nibbles and its speciality of smoked cheese and ham, smoked over the fire in the room. There were benches and bench seats and the whole place had a very simple mediaeval look. We had the smoked dishes and they were delicious – Simon, only 11 at the time, was unimpressed! There was no fans or ducting to take the smoke away, so it went into the room and out through the opening into the street. This meant that we came out as smoked as the food!
I managed to find the restaurant again this time and although there was now an extensive menu, we had to have the smoked food again – equally delicious. We were told by other people at the restaurant hat it was recognised as the best in Cesky Crumlov and it was certainly very popular. They had introduced another speciality – soups served inside a giant bread roll that had part of its innards removed. This sounds dangerous but you could eat some of the bread with the soup as long as you were careful not to piece the crust. Once you had finished the soup, you could retain the bread to eat with the next course! We didn't find out about this dish until after we ordered – perhaps we will have it next time we visit in 14 years time! Although the restaurant appeared the same from the outside, they now had a much bigger fire, extractor fans and a mediaeval banqueting hall upstairs. We think that they also owned another restaurant in the town. They thoroughly deserved their success, serving excellent quality food at very reasonable prices.
We spent a thoroughly enjoyable day exploring inside and outside the town and I took advantage of many photographic opportunities. If you ever get the chance, do visit Cesky Krumlov.
Next stop was Trebon, less than 30 kilometres away and our favourite low-key place on our visit 14 years ago. Once again our site was on a lake and, this time only a kilometre from the mediaeval walled town.
We met another English couple at the Campsite – John from Chesham and Nettie, originating from Bournemouth but who had been living in Stuttgart for a number of years. Nettie was preparing a wild mushroom omelette with fungi that she and John had collected that day with two local friends. There were lots of mushrooms, too many for them said Nettie, would I like some? Now my typically English reserve nearly made me gracefully decline but I am really partial to mushrooms. I have picked many wild mushrooms myself and even eaten the odd one or two but only if I was absolutely certain that I knew that they were edible. Jane has always refused point blank to eat any of them. So, here was a dilemma, I had accepted the mushrooms and had invited John and Nettie over to Henrietta for a drink after dinner. Jane had to eat the mushrooms. They were all shapes, sizes and colours. There were even ones that went blue when you cut them! I had to compromise over how many mushrooms I put in because, should they be poisonous, Jane wanted to ensure that we were only going to be slightly dead! Needless to say, they were delicious and, you might have gather since you are reading this, we survived. I am sure that there will be another opportunity to use the travel medical insurance.
A very pleasant evening was spent with John and Nettie over a bottle of German Muller-Thurgau and we hope that we will bump into them (metaphorically) at some time in the future.
The photographs show Cesky Krumlov castle and the Krcma v Satlavske restaurant.
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