Five hours later we pulled up at the hotel. If you've read it in the news, the stories about the deep freeze going through Eastern Europe is no joke...it was COLD. Thankfully they had parking right in front of the hotel, so we headed inside and checked in. The first thing we noticed was the size of the room. It was HUGE. And the bathroom had heated towel racks and a heated floor. After we unpacked & got settled in, we decided to take a drive into the center of the city. On a nice day, we could have easily walked to city center, but like I said earlier, it was freezing out. So we drove, parked, and walked around for a bit. It was early evening at this point, and since it's not high tourist season, most places were closed or were closing up. We managed to pick up a bottle of Czech wine and got some information for things to do on Saturday. I wish I could say we stayed & did more, but there just wasn't much to do, so we headed back to the hotel.
We did walk around that evening near our hotel. While we weren't in city center, we were in the city, in an area known for ritzy shopping & spas. I don't think I've ever seen so many jewelry and clothing shops in such tight spaces.
One neat area we passed was where some thermal mineral springs were. They had buildings built around them, which were closed for the night, but it was neat seeing the outdoor pipes that carried the water from the springs into the buildings. The spring water had various temps, with the hottest being 72 degrees Celsius (161 degrees F), so the pipes were also hot. In that frigid air, they gave off a TON of steam. Shanna got this picture that I thought was neat of one of the churches through the steam.
After we'd walked around for a bit, we stumbled upon a little hole in the wall restaurant that looked cozy inside, so we stopped to eat. I had a DELICIOUS plate with deer medallions in a brown cream sauce, and I'll be honest...I can't remember what Shanna had. But she liked it! They brought out some delicious bread, and we washed it down with some Czech beer. Great food at reasonable prices. Our last stop of the night was at the front desk to schedule massages at the hotel the next morning.
When we got up, we headed down to the breakfast buffet. They had some great food, including a pancake making station! After breakfast we headed to the massage area. It was run by a Russian couple, and they didn't mess around with the massages. There were times I thought I was going to have permanent bruising. But they did a great job, and when it was done, my whole body felt relaxed. Speaking of Russians, that's one thing we noticed...we heard a LOT of people speaking Russian. The strangest sight was a guy speaking to his kids in Russian and wearing a Washington Capitals jacket. But I digress. After the massages, we wanted to walk around town. Here's where things get a little embarrassing. Remember how cold I said it was? Well, I don't own thermal underwear because I never need it. This weekend I needed it, and Shanna had brought along an extra pair of tights. I don't know how I squeezed into them, but I somehow managed and WOW...they kept me warm under my jeans.
We walked around town a bit more and noticed how many ducks there were in the canals that ran through the town. The canals were almost entirely frozen over except for a few sections, and those sections that were still water had ducks crowded in them. I don't know how they stood the cold temps. Our first stop was the train up the mountain behind the hotel. At the top was Diana Tower, built in 1914. From the top of the tower, you had a spectacular view of not only Karlovy Vary, but the huge forest behind it and the mountains in the distance. Had the wind not been whipping along the top, I could have stayed up there for awhile admiring the scenery.
When we finished walking around up there, we took the train back down to the bottom and headed into the hotel cafe to warm up with some hot chocolate. After we had sufficiently warmed up, we decided it was time to hit the Hot Springs. They sell special mugs all through out town that are made so the handle doubles as a straw. We each picked out our mugs at a store, then headed to the springs. The water is free, you just need something to put it in to drink. They have three different stations, with the temperature of the water ranging from 30 Degrees Celsius (86 degrees F) to as hot as 72 Degrees Celsius (161 Degrees F). The water was very...mineraly. At the low temp you could really taste it, and it was pretty bad. But at the high temperature you couldn't, and it wasn't bad. Shanna didn't like it, but I didn't mind.
Apparently in the first picture she took I was closing my eyes...so I made sure I wasn't in this picture. :) After we spent some time wandering around this part of town, we had two more places we wanted to go visit that would require driving. First up was a trip to the glass museum right outside of town. It's not just any glass place...they make glass and sell it to big brand names like Waterford, who then slap their name on it, mark it up, and sell it to you. Unfortunately only the shop was open by the time we got there, the tour & museum were not. We walked around the shop, hoping to find some high quality glass cups, bowls, etc.. for dirt cheap, but man...they were expensive. So that didn't last long. We headed from there to the Becherovka Distillery museum. Becherovka is a digestif served after dinner that is supposed to aid in digestion. We cut it close with their closing time, but managed to catch the last tour. The only problem? It was only in German. We actually enjoyed it because they gave us a written English guide, so we could try to pick up as much of the German as we could, then see what we got right or wrong when we read the written material. There was another older German couple taking the tour and we were able to understand what they were saying and said a few things back. I was even able to understand & answer the guide when she asked what country we were visiting from. At the end of the tour we were given samples of all their products. They are pretty good...Becherovka is made from herbs, and you can really taste them when you try it. One of the funnier things we saw in their shop after the tour was an Advent Calendar, but instead of candy for each day, it had shots in it. So 25 shots for 25 days of Advent! It was a bit pricey at 1,490CZ ($75), but I guess when you consider it's 25 shots, that's not too bad. No, we did not buy it. :)
We were in town at this point, so we headed to an Italian restaurant that a co-worker of mine had raved about. He'd lived in Italy for 8 years, so when he said it was great Italian food, that was all the endorsement I needed. Plus he said it was pretty cheap. He wasn't kidding! We each ordered a dish, had a few beers and shared a bottle of wine, all for about $40. The food was delicious. Shanna ordered a spinach & meat dish, while I ordered Gnocchi with spinach, chicken, and bacon.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and ended the night in the lounge underneath the hotel. They had a live band playing cover songs, so it was fun sitting down there & listening to the music. One thing of note on the drink menu was a shot of 100 year old Cognac. I was very tempted, but just couldn't justify $250 for a shot...but I won't lie, I thought about it.
The next day we checked out, hit the road, and headed home. It was a great weekend, and a nice quick getaway.
We have a few weeks of downtime, then in early March we're flying to Ireland to visit Belfast & Dublin, so I'll be sure to have a post & pics up shortly after we get back!
To see the pictures, click any picture above or click here.
