Where are the brakes on the bicycle\?

$1.oo=22 czech krown

We had breakfast at 5\;45 a.lm. in vienna and left at 6\;24 a.m for cesky krumlov. cesky means czech and krumlov means along a mendering stream. in this case, it's the vlvaty river that goes through the town

is that a raven eating a turkish head

took a 3 hour train ride...beautiful scenery enroute. arrived and had about a 20 minute walk with our backpacks to our pension. the pension is fantastic. justt a bit off ot the beaten tracka nd oh so clean.

the train ended in cesky budolivice, the origianl home of budweiser. of course, i had to try a budvar. the budvar is much better than th budweise.

beer is cheaper than water. really. 22 krown for a beer and 36 for a bottle water. well...since i'm so cheap, i have to think economically and drink the beer.

we dropped off our luggage and headed to town to do a 2 hour mountain bike ride. it was fantastic. they took us out in the middle of some forest and dropped us on. the first part was abit uuphill. ok...lungs and legs, start to get into shape. we then had 2 options...a hard path all uphaill or a n easy path mostly downhill. hello...do i look dumb. we went downhill...just hopped i didn't apply the brakes to much or i'd fly over handlebars. kay, geuss what, i saw my all time favorite flower growint out there..lupine. i was excited. anyways, beautiful moutnian bike ride throught eh coutnryside and then into town. we had a great overviewe of the city.

stopped back in town to try a local czech beer,kozel which means billy goat. just in case you wanted to speak a word of czech.

back to the topwn to walk around. quaint little village but quite touristy now.

that night, we went to a typcuial czech restaurant and i had the best meal i've had yet...pork on a swekwer with vegetables. it was deliscious. they grill it.

the next day, we took a 2.5 hour tour with a local. she shared so mcuh informaiton with us. c

zechs must study english, german and czerch. their is stilll a communitst political party in czech republic today.

in the winter, it's very cold in czech rep and so far, i can't say it's been too warm in teh summer.

krumlov used to be two towns, krumlov and latran. they were separated by the river but comibned into on . it has a population of 15,000 but in the summer, it swells to 100,000 with tourists \9lots of japanese.

lots of renaissance and baroque buildings.

most towns in cr have a black plaque statue. black plaque raced through cr and killed lots of folks..so now they put up statues to ward it off.

the ruler of krumlov was the rosenbergs, you see their crest, a 5 petal rose, everywhere in town.

eggenberg is the locatl beer made in this town

the castle takes up the whole town. it includes a therater, monastery, brewery and office buildings. it's an amazing place.supposedly, there are secret passages under the castle so the rosenberg dynasty could escape if needed.

once a large jesuit community but not anymore.

in 1937, hitler visited krumlov.

the whole town is au unesco world heritage site...as i mentioned,....it's the whole 12th century castle and surroundings.

since 1989 when communism ended, ithas become very expensive to buy a house. often, it cost 17 million krown.

krumlov castle is the 2nd largest in czech repub, behind prague's castle

in the beginning of the 20th cneturey, krumlov castle given to the nation and now one can tour it.

we toured the castle. climb the steps to the top. as you go through the castle, you note the different dynastys who rules, based on the crests and style. first the rosenbergs, then the swchwarzenbergs. their crest is a raven that is eating a turkish head. how gruesome. teh style goes from gothic to rrenaissance to baroque.

3 bears in a moat outside of the castle. former dynastsy used to keep bears there so since teh 16th century, bea5rs have been kept there. as they die, they make bear rugs and add the rugs to the castle.

after the castle tour, vitied the castle gardens. very elaborate.

poked around town. love all of the wooden toys and products made of czech wood. also, lots of bohemia crystal. very beautiful but too heavey to caryy and too expensive to buy.

well...stay tuned for next trip journal entry about my 3 days in prague.

we took a train for 3 hours to prague.had a wonderful time in prague. i will probably write about it when we get to templice, czech republic.

i'm off to do my last exploring of prague now and i ahve a concert to attend at 6 pm so i must boogie for now.

send warm weatehr my way. i'm tired of wearing my fleece.

adventure on and keep sending those emails. even my mom sent me an email...and she rarely does that.

love ya,

julie