The World and his Wife

A degree of planning was needed to maximise the potential of Sunday in Karlovy Vary. 

 

Take advantage of the bright early morning sunshine and wander down through the town with camera in hand.

Because at this time of day, there are so few people about

With no-one jostling to take photos, all kinds of previously unnoticed details are revealed, such as this dear little figure on the top of the spa colonnade.

The band sounds great as they play "old favourites from Bohemia and Moravia"

There's no waiting for the funicular railway or to the lift at the top, from where there's a wonderfully clear view of Bohemia today.

But better make the most of it now, for around noon, this happens.

fashion advice

from Status magazine, in our hotel room.  Printed in Czech, English and Russian, the article gives the following tips for the season:

• Mirror heel combined with colourful sequin embroidery - this is the ideal solution for those who perceive shoes as dance partners and prefer polish and passion.  Nothing prevents revelling until morning!

 (I think these shoes, seen in the shop window downstairs fit the bill, don't you?)

• Ornaments in the minimalist style are boring.  And unless the owner has black models of architectural outlines in the wardrobe, it will be really difficult to select a dignified corpus for these accessories.

 (nothing very minimalist in these jewellers' windows, I can tell you.  Clearly people are following the advice)

• One piece swimsuits damage our reputation.  This season we are wearing the "faso" swimsuit without straps, cups or whalebones.  Just light breast and lumbar veils.

(you didn't think I'd post a picture of that, did you?)

Finally,

• Highlighted hair strands were a novelty about a decade ago.  And by far not all gentlemen prefer blondes.  A rich flood of chestnut and carbon-black hair can please the eye pleasantly with its originality.

(nothing about grey, then)

into the Czech Republic

We left Dresden early this morning, heading out back along the same autobahn route as we'd come along just a couple of days ago, to Chemnitz.  From there, we turned south and drove through more delightful countryside to the Erzgebirge which I associate only with our lovely nutcracker and wooden Christmas decorations at home.  Sure enough as we passed through small villages, we noticed houses with "schwibbogen" and shops selling the wooden windmills.

We stopped in OberWiesenthal, parking right outside a lacemakers shop and enjoyed a short walk around the pretty square.  Here were more schwibbogen, candlemakers and a shop selling small pewter figures.  Perhaps as well most of them were closed?

 

 On then, towards the border - except the last turning on the right took us uphill to the summit of the Fichtelberg where the sun was shining and the views breathtaking.

After a short stop and a few lungs full of fresh air, we headed back downhill and to the border crossing.

The EU has left us with none of the romance of such places and there wasn't even a guard to wave us through - only the voice of our satnav to remind us that "You have crossed the border".

Less than an hour later, we arrived in Karlovy Vary, where the sun is shining, the day trippers are on their way home and where peace is upon us.  We are installed in the GrandHotel Pupp which is as grand as you can imagine.

Now, where to have dinner?

Into Saechsisches Schweiz - and beyond

(having difficulty finding an umlaut here....sorry)

Whilst at the Carl Gustav Carus exhibition, we were interested to see his paintings and drawings of Saechsisches Schweiz - Saxon Switzerland - and the unusual rock formations which he saw there.  Choosing to spend a day exploring some of the area between Dresden and the border with Poland, we were surprised to find that our first stop revealed these same rock formations - at Bastei, high above the Elbe.

Once again, I declined the offer of trying my skills as a mountain goat and left it to Mark and Edward to explore further, for several of these rock towers are linked with small bridges and staircases - I could see small pathways and people climbing in all kinds of precarious locations.  Good for them.

Simply being there with such a terrific view high above the Elbe was enough - it's easy to see why this is one of the most popular visitor locations in the area and yet until now, this was somewhere totally unknown to us.

Looking across the countryside, we could see our next stop - we planned to visit another of the castles on our list: Koenigstein, there on the flat tabletop of the mountain over on the other side of the river.

We arrived to find a highly organised, efficiently run tourist attraction with a multi-storey car park, transport link to the foot of the castle mound and then a "panoramic elevator" up to the castle itself.

Once up there, however, the view was the best part and the castle itself nothing special - we've been spoiled by the Wartburg!

By this time it was early afternoon and the temptation to explore just one more place was too much.  Not only was Goerlitz a most attractive sounding place from our guidebook recommendations, it was also right on the Polish border - and none of us had been to Poland before!

We have now. (Kerchinggggggg)

We really enjoyed looking around this lovely city with so many unspoiled and well maintained buildings.  We explored the market places (three), browsed in Silesian china stores and thought of Helmut Peter, family friend of proud Silesian heritage, and went to see the glass roof in the Art Deco Hertie store which was having a closing down sale.

We'd enjoyed one of those special days when one great experience is followed by an altogether different but equally fascinating one.

We finished it off with leberkase, schweinbraten and weissbier too.  How good is that?

The fun continues

Here in Dresden, where one intrepid member of the family (not me) was happy to climb to the dome of the newly rebuilt Frauenkirche and take a few photographs.

The interior gets mixed reviews from these parts.  Whilst we have all marvelled at the structure from the outside, only Mark was in favour of the interior decor.  Both Edward and I felt it too sugar-sweet, too pastel and gold and way too theatrical to inspire either of us, sadly.  Of course, the hordes of tourists trouping around, blatantly ignoring the "no photography" signs and treating the whole place like a free-for-all didn't help.

But it's good that such an enormous project has succeeded and we are all in awe of the vision and confidence that inspired those who have managed the project to a successful conclusion.

We resisted the temptation of a stretch Trabi for our tour and instead, walked the streets on foot, exploring all the major sights in a surprisingly compact area with no trouble.

This masterpiece (the Furstenzug) is just around the corner from our hotel and is hugely impressive, being contsructed by thousands and thousands of Meissen ceramic tiles.

 

 Hard to say what's impressed us most though: the exhibition of Carl Gustav Carus work in the Zwinger gallery, the wealth of old buildings in this corner of the city with a breathtaking view whichever way we look or the kloesse and schweinbraten in the Paulaner stube, best of all accompanied by a large Weissbier or two.

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that one.