Thursday 5th September - Cesky Krumlov

It's another gorgeous day today - the sun is shining and the sky is the bluest blue.  We've docked in a spectacular (I need the thesaurus - I need more words for 'spectacular'!) town of Linz.

I didn't make any notes so I'm working from my memory and it's now Sunday :(

We took the 1 1/2 hour bus trip to the World Heritage listed Cesky Krumlov, in the Czech Republic.  We crossed the border between Austria and the Czech Republic and toured up through the hills of the Muhlviertel region, the "Green Rooftop of Europe".

Cesky Krumlov is a medieval town and has more than 300 historical buildings and the town is quite unique in character.


Cesky Krumlov
 

The town oozes with character, like all the towns we've visited.  It would be great to have had more time to explore and enjoy, but we're finding that with every place we're visiting.  We'll have to come back to more fully explore them all.

The town once boasted four breweries but only one is in existence today. It's off the beaten tourist track but after our tour ended, we found our way there to have some lunch with Helen and Ken. We all had some traditional Czech food - pork neck and dumplings; goulash and dumplings; roasted sausage with horseradish. Afterwards we had a short time to poke around in a few shops before meeting our guide to take us back to the bus for the journey back to the ship in Linz.

The Czech are still debating and undecided about the Euro.  Although they are part of the EU they have maintained their own currency the Czech Crown. The debate continues today as to whether they should move to the Euro.  Some say it's better to switch to the Euro for commerce reasons, whereas others question that by pointing to the plight of Portugal, Spain, Greece etc.

The scenery was brilliant. The day was fantastic.

During dinner we sailed to Vilshofen where a beer huis was set up in a marquee and we just walked down the gangway to enjoy two steins of beer (courtesy of APT) and some "music in lederhosen".  Sadly I haven't got any photos of the eye candy blokes in lederhosen! We enjoyed the evening and dancing and continued on in the lounge once on board with Cathy and Greg from Shepp; Maryanne and John, farmers from Gippsland; Janet and Darryl from Malvern and Brian.  We told stories and then some!  I instigated the 'pretzel microphone' - you had to be holding the pretzel mike in order to tell your story - to stop everyone talking over each other such was the fun and frivolity. And then the partner had the 'right of reply'!  A very funny night.

Cathy bought a "Pinocchio" doll to be handed to the person with the tallest tale when next we meet!