Czech Republic and its treasures

Well, our planned travels have ended, however, that does not stop us from exploring more of the world out there which is just waiting to be discovered. In our next adventure, we embark on a short visit to the picturesque Czech Republic. To tell you the truth, not very many tourist ever make it out of Prague which is due to a couple of fundamental reasons. First, the language ain't the easiest to grasp and the locals with their non-english speaking majority do not help much in that extent (Please stop dubbing your movies). Second, there are just so many things to see in Prague (Prague Castle, Old Town, Jewish quarter, Charles bridge etc. etc.). Most of the Praguocites do not realize how much they are missing by just sticking to this one metropolis. Forget France and its chateaux on the river Loire. Czech Republic is much cheaper (still), people are friendlier and the castles and chateaus are quite exquisite as well. There are literally houndreds of these spread all over the country.

One of the most visited and the closest to Prague is the renown Karlstejn, the retreat home to Charles IV. The trip there is quite simple, via a 40 minute train ride and then about 30 min walk up a beautiful little town with its food and crafts stall. The castle itself has English tours, but to tell you the truth is much cooler to look at from outside than to actually visit inside. It all depends what you like and how many castles you have visited before. If you are a virgin in castle hoping, Karlstejn can offer a quick and easy start.

I am more of a hunting trophy freak, so this won't do it for me. If you are similar and need more decoration in the castles themselves, you can try the Orlik chateau which belongs to the Schwarzenberg family. The Czech prime minister is the proud father of his son Jan, who currently owns this exquisite site. Orlik sits on a cliff above the Vltava river and before the Orlik dam was build, it was about 60m about the water level. Its halways are full of miscellaneous weapons and hunting trophies which add the chateau wonderful decor.

Near Orlik sits another Schwarzenberg castle called Zvikov. It is even possible to take a boat ride from Orlik to Zvikov or vice versa. Zvikov offers self guided tour with a quide written in English and is full of exhibits from the times of castle's prosperity. Zvikov is for sure one of the nicest places out there and with its georgeous view over the Vltava river provides a great retreat for every day tourists.

To get to Orlik or Zvikov, you can take a bus, but you will have to transfer in one of the bigger cities. You can check out the bus or train schedules here.