Libuše to Karlstejn: 700 years of Czech history in one weekend!

Here is a lousy picture of the Prague "Eiffel Tower" It is the small tower on the right hand side. From what I can find out, the tower was built when Prague wanted to be like Paris, and someone thought that by building this tower it would look like Paris was just over the hill. The elevation at the top of the Prague tower is the same as Paris' Eiffel Tower, but Prague's is just built on a large hill. If you click on the picture you can see it a little better. I'll try to take a really good picture of it in the near future.

One of the massive communist housing projects that dot the Czech countryside. The Czech's lovingly refer to them as rabbit warrens.

At the opera. We went to see Libuše which is a famous Czech opera (written by Smetana - which by the way means 'cream' in Czech) and is about the original Czech legend. Libuše said the famous words "the Czech nation will survive." We saw the only performance of the opera--Smetana was very clear in his instructions that Libuše only be performed on national holidays. Since the 28th of October marks the day that Czechoslavakia won its freedom from the Austro-Hungarian empire, we were lucky enough to catch a rare performance of Libuše.
A daylight view of the ornamentation decorating the Narodni Divadlo (National Theatre). Apparently the building is haunted. It was completed in the middle of the nineteenth century, but burned down almost immediatly after. The person responsible for the fire committed suicide, and now his ghost protects the theatre.

Paddle Boating on the Vlatava - you can see our apartment in the distance. . . underneath the castle.


Look how beautiful the weather is! We were bracing for an early winter, as the second half of October has been steadily getting colder, and then we were gifted with a gorgeous day!
Thinking our luck with weather would continue, we planned a bike ride to Karlstejn Castle. Charles IV, (French spelling of his name--here it is spelled Karol) is one of the kings who really put Prague in the center of European history for a long period of time in the 14th century. Considering he stretched his kingdom so that much of Germany, Austria, Poland, and lands stretching down to the Mediterranean BEFORE being crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, he did a lot. Many buildings that still stand were built by his decree. He also built a small hunting lodge as a place to relax AND house the crown jewels. Why not? So we decided to bike there.

The journey was going well until we got off the trail. Or the trail ended. We're not sure. But we met a nice Czech gentleman who told us to follow him to get back on the trail. Then he takes off, and we are racing like mad just to keep up with him. But he did put us back on the trail.

Unlike the previous day, Sunday the 30th started cold and got colder. And we predicted a nice day, so we were horribly under-dressed. Beautiful scenery only does so much to keep the hands warm.... so when we made it to Karlstejn we had to wrap our frozen fingers around mugs of hot chocolate.

Through the walls of the castle you can see the road we cycled in on. It is not the main road for tourists in their cars, and so it was perfect for riding on: quiet, smooth, and lined with trees shedding golden leaves.


EU and Czech flags flying in the breeze.

These signs mark the way from Prague to Karlstejn--except for a three mile stretch where no signs can be found. But for the other 27 or so miles, they were very helpful! The 0013 route runs from the southwest corner of Prague's suberbs down to Karlstejn.