Český Krumlov Day 2, 9/11/10

Day 2 and we were up by 8 am to dig into the complementary hotel breakfast. We checked out by 9:30 am and left our bags at the reception. The NYU group then took a tour of the Eggenberg Beer Factory. We had someone who guided us through the different rooms of vats and machinery. Afterwards, we walked back to the castle and went up the tower. The view was great!

Eggenberg beer factory

The bridge going to the castle is an overpass over a bear den. We managed to catch a glimpse while they dug into their food.

The view of the castle from the tower.

The view of the town from the tower. You can see the church and steeple.

See those blue skies in the pictures? It was a really nice day out, again, so we really lucked out. After the castle tower, we had free time to explore the town. We got lunch at Hotel Zlatý Anděl, which is located right on the town square, and ate at the outdoor seating area (http://www.hotelzlatyandel.cz/)

Bramborove noky: potato gnocchi, funghi, chicken meat and mushrooms

After lunch, we decided to take advantage of the town's many museums. These weren't paid for by NYU (unfortunately...), but we decided to get tickets for the wax museum and the torture museum - for a 2 for 1 student deal of 100 crowns. A lot of the wax figures I didn't recognize, so I won't post too many of those pictures. Or too many of the torture museum pictures. Because some of the things I saw in there were just really freaky. No need to immortalize those images!

Pablo Picaso, Bill Clinton, Matka Tereza, and Papez Jan Pevel II

Charlie Chaplin, Salvadore Dali, and Albert Einstein

Louis Armstrong, Harry Potter, Michael Jackson, and Tina Turner

A torture chair at the torture museum

The town square

Well, that was my weekend in Český Krumlov in a nutshell. 2 days and 1 night were (surprisingly) the perfect amount of time to stay here. The place is tiny and quaint, and you can really walk the entire perimeter in a short enough amount of time to soak in everything. Quite a different from Prague, with its metro, trams, and buses! Český Krumlov was a nice little escape for the weekend from the hectic workload and busy city life. The architecture was similar to Prague's, yet almost more Mediterranean with the predominance of red tile roofs. I can see why this place, along with Prague, are the top 2 tourist destinations of the Czech Republic.