Czech it out!

OK so I wasn't so successful at writing two in quick succession, I do apologise. But if you haven't read our Hungary post, please do so before this.

With that out of the way, here we go.

We arrived in Prague after a brief pit stop in Bratislava late in the afternoon. We quickly dumped our bags and headed out into the old town, checking out all the Easter markets that were in full swing. Every street was lined with these beautiful Christmas-style markets, but unlike in December we were NOT freezing our asses off. We peeled ourselves away from the markets just before the hour to check out the Astronomical Clock. What a disappointment that was as its gig wasn't much better than Munich's. Nonetheless, over the next 2 days we had great fun telling everyone not to miss the amazing performance it made on the hour. Hehe. We then wandered through more cobblestone streets to Charles bridge before pulling in at the Pilsner Brewery to try some pretty amazing Czech beer and food. We then headed back to the hostel via the beautifully lit up old market square.

The second day (our only day of rain for the entire trip!!) we crossed Charles bridge once more but continued the upward climb to the Castle and St Vitus Cathedral - resting place of famous King Wenceslas. We spent a good hour looking around the Cathedral before checking out the changing of the guards and Golden Lane. We then spent the rest of the afternoon learning all about Czech Republics communists days where the postcard captions had us in hysterics. Personal favourite was "In those days you couldn't get detergent but you could get brainwashed". Hehe. With the weather encroaching once more we pulled into a few pubs off the main square before stopping at one for dinner. On the way home J (slightly inebriated) showed Prague how too boogie.... LOL.

The next day, after some interesting sleep in our stag do room (complete with threats of tea bagging!) we boarded a train for the Bohemian province. Our first stop was a brief lunch stint in the home town of Budweiser - Ceske Budejovice. After a short stroll around the town - there wasn't much of it - we pulled into the Budweiser brewery and had lunch which was washed down by......... you guessed it. We then headed back to the main square where we spent about 20 minutes chasing the sun before boarding the sweetest train to Cesky Krumlov. Four years on and Cesky is still just as pretty as a picture! We arrived shortly after 5 and spent the next 2 hours lost in its beautiful streets and its castle grounds, complete with bears. Wandering around it is almost hard to believe the movie Hostel is filmed there. We ended the evening with a romantic dinner by the river looking up at the beautiful powder tower in the Castle. The next morning was widdled away wandering the town some more, shopping and drinking coffee - essentially Bec's kind of holiday ;) - before heading into Prague and then home to London.

In Pragues market square - J feel in love with the Tyn Church (background)

On Golden Lane in the Castle complex.

Czech him out! Play that funky music white boy!

Chasing Sun in Ceske Budejovice.

Overlooking Cesky Krumlov - this picture took forever!!!

Dinner views. Pretty amazing!

Me in the main square - surprisingly bag free considering the purchases.

J must be carrying them ;)