Prague to Litomerice

Saturday 21 April

Today we left our apartment and moved to the Hilton Hotel for the start of our Elbe River Cruise.  A short trip on the Metro brought us to Florenc station and a Google map I had printed out before leaving home provided instruction how to walk to the hotel with many twists and turns.  However we couldn’t find the street to start our walk and asking some girls outside the station we were informed if we walked through the small shopping plaza opposite we would find the hotel outside the rear entrance.

 

Checking in we were advised that our room wouldn’t be ready for several hours so we crossed over a bridge to a nearby island and walked around watching people fishing, playing tennis and a group of elderly men on a tennis court playing what appeared to be a version of volley ball but using their feet and head instead of their hands.

Before dinner, we had a short walk with one of the cruise guides to the old Powder Gate passing the old Municipal building, now used as a concert hall.

Sunday 22 April

We had to check out of our rooms by 8:00 am, I thought this was a holiday, and left by coach shortly after to visit Prague Castle.  We were glad we had visited the castle on a previous visit because we were not taken into the castle, just through the outside courtyards.  Disappointing for people who hadn’t been to Prague before.  Being a Sunday, St Vitus Cathedral was closed, so we only saw part of the outside, including a tableau of straw animals, part of the Easter decorations.  We were then taken by bus to walking distance from the Charles Bridge and walked across the bridge to the Old Town Square and Astronomical clock.  As it was less than 12C with a very cold wind, we decided to walk back to the hotel and sit in the lobby until our coach left at 3:30 to travel to the boat at Litomerice. 

The cruise was supposed to start from the town of Melnik and we found out later in the evening that one of the locks on the river was broken so we had to start from the second town on our itinerary.  I suppose it could have been worse if our boat, the Viking Schurmann was upstream from the lock, then the cruise wouldn’t have been able to proceed.

After dinner we were entertained by a group performing Czech music, folk songs and dance, the musicians included a dulcimer, double bass, violin and clarinet/flute alternating.

Monday 23 April

We awoke to a calm sunny morning and after breakfast went up to the sun deck to be greeted with patches of frost, it was only 5C.  Later in the morning we had a brief talk on the history of the Czech Republic from very early time, through the Nazi and Russian occupation to the present time.

After lunch we walked into the town of Litomerice which is at the junction of the Elbe and Eger rivers.  This is one of the oldest Czech towns and was established in the 10^th century and after the 30 years Protestant/Catholic war in the 1600s, the town had to accept Catholicism and the Czech population shrunk and the town became largely Germanized.

Later the town became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was dissolved after WWI and many areas along the border tried to join German Austria but the Czechoslavic troops prevented this happening.  After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Hitler annexed this area and the Czech population had to move again.

The town buildings represent many styles, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and even some Art Deco.  The symbol of the city is a chalice, commemorating the Protestant movement when the people were able to receive the wine sacrament for the first time and the “watchout” tower over the Town Hall is in the shape of a chalice.

Leaving the town square we walked to a tiny brewery, production of 600 litres a week and sampled their three beers together with local food, the walk back to the boat was a little slower than the walk up to the town, a pretty and historic town and well worth the visit.