After 4 days in Prague, we caught a taxi to the Hertz location where we picked up a Peugeot. We drove our little car to Konopiste castle. We walked around the courtyard and the grounds; but opted to skip the indoor tour. From Konopiste, we drove to Tabor and ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant on that town's nice square.
From Tabor, we drove to Hluboka na Vltavou castle. It is a beautiful place and a huge structure. We took lots of pictures including one of the door knob to the castle; which depicts a crow eating the eye out of a Turk. Once again, we chose not to tour the inside of the caslte and headed to Cesky Krumlov.
We arrived at our hotel about 5:30pm. The Penzion Krumlov is very stark and squeaky clean. The temperature in our room was over 90 degrees so I asked the desk guy how to get the AC turned on. I was told that there was no AC! Fortunately, the weather was cooling so we opened the window and things cooled off nicely. Had we visited this hotel one day earlier, it would have been a disaster.
Cesky Krumlov is an awesome town. It is pretty much intact from the Renaissance. The town, which is famous for its crowds; was empty on a rainy Wednesday night in September. We ate supper at a tourist restaurant on the square: beef and dumplings again! After drinks at a restaurant overlooking the river; we caught a cab up the hill to the hotel.
On Thursday, we wandered around the old parts of Cesky Krumlov before our scheduled tour. We had hoped to tour the brewery; but it was closed because of construction. At 1:30pm; we met Karolina with Krumlov Tours. Karolina is an excellent guide. She knows lots of history and did a great job of explaining the economics of the restoration of the town after the end of communism. Karolina has us set for the English Tour of the castle and delivered us to that tour right on time.
The castle tour is very informative. The guide did a good job of explaining the various decorative eras: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, etc. We finished our visit to Cesky Krumlov with drinks by the river and ate supper at Papa's. Karolina recommended this restaurant and it was a fine choice. We split an appetizer and the special; which was chicken on a stick. There was enough food for six people and it was all very good.
We had a fun day driving through Southern Bohemia and Moravia on Friday. The GPS mostly sent us on back roads; which was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of small villages and farms and arrived at Telc around lunch. Telc has a beautiful town square and a small castle. The weather was perfect so we ate outside on the square.
After lunch, we headed to Vienna. Other than a serious traffic jam in Jnojmo; the trip into the city was uneventful. After a little stress finding the Hertz location; we returned the car and walked to the Marriott. The Vienna Marriott is a really nice hotel. After six nights in local hotels; it was a little comforting to stay in more familiar surroundings. We walked to St. Stephen's Square and watched the sun set on that beautiful cathedral.
We ate supper at Reinthaler's near the cathedral. It was our second visit to this restaurant and the food was as good as before. For Vienna, it is also inexpensive.
Our last day in Europe was a great one. We toured the cathedral and headed to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. On the way, we stumbled into the Erntedank Festival; which is the Austrian's thanksgiving/harvest festival. Those folks were having some fun so we postponed our museum visit and enjoyed the festival. Seeing the Austrians have so much fun with their wine, beer, food, dancing and music was a highlight of our trip.
We did tour the Kunsthistorisches and the Hapsburg Treasury; both of which were awesome. That museum has just about any kind of art that you like and a lot of it.
The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport and flew home.
Fun Trip!