Česky Krumlov

We made a long-awaited trip to Česky Krumlov last weekend. This is the most-often mentioned town when people recommend where to visit (besides Prague) in the Czech Republic. We put off the visit, after not getting a chance last summer, until we hit nice weather again because we wanted to engage in some outdoor activities.
The town was worth its reputation right off the bat - we were only there for about five minutes before it got our first "wow". We got off at a secondary bus stop, rather than the main station, and walked under a huge arched bridge that was part of the castle complex. Coming under the arch, we were standing on top of a hill looking at the historic city centre. Česky Krumlov's claim to fame is its well-preserved city centre, and getting our first glimpse of it like that was extraordinary.
The Vltava river makes a very tight S-curve through the city, which means that virtually everything is on the water. Even our hostel was riverside. We were very pleased with the hostel - the room was small and basic, but fine for what we needed, it had an excellent location and a great price. So thumbs up to Hostel Merlin. We also ate on the water both nights we were there; the first night, I could lean over the railing and see fish in the river.
Many towns in Europe have old buildings, but Česky Krumlov felt different. Rather than just a town with old buildings, it really feels like an old town, one that still functions like it is from another century. Not in a performance or theme-park kind of way, either, although there reportedly can be many tourists in the summer. It just feels like an authentic old town.
It's pretty small; you can walk through the whole centre in a few minutes. We walked up to the castle and went up the tower for a great overview of the city and the surrounding countryside. There were also bear pits underneath the bridge to castle. The three bears were very active, and it was a lot of fun to watch them run around or splash through their pool. You could also get a good view of the pits from the tower.
Saturday afternoon we had arranged a trip with a local company. We rented a canoe and pushed into the river right next to our hostel for an approximately three-hour trip north on the Vltava. We had some initial struggles getting the canoe going straight (I don't think either of us had canoed in a while) but very quickly got the hang of it and were off down the river. We expected to tip over at least once with our lack of experience, but it was very easy and we had no problems. The river was very shallow, so even if we had tipped it wouldn't have been a problem, but we could largely just float down the river. It was very peaceful: after we left Česky Krumlov, we didn't see any other towns until we reached our destination, just trees and hills and countryside. We pulled off in a little meadow for a picnic lunch, although there were some riverside pubs further downstream that could also have provided sustenance.
When reached Zlata Koruna, our end point, the company picked up the canoe and gave us bikes to cycle back to town. We decided to try to explore a bit of the country on the bikes, which resulted in me trying to figure out the gears while going down a little single-track trail. Once again, however, we got it figured out, but we couldn't explore too far because eventually our path was completely torn up and we had to turn back. Instead, we enjoyed a nice ride back to Česky Krumlov.
Our bus didn't leave until Sunday afternoon, but it was raining when we woke up Sunday morning. We killed time by sitting on the balcony at the back of our hostel, watching the river and part of the town and doing some reading. We had hoped to do a hike, but the rain didn't cooperate.
Despite Sunday's rain, Česky Krumlov definitely leapt near the top of our favourite towns we've visited in Europe. I don't think we're getting any more visitors, or at least none who can plan their own itinerary, but we would recommend trying to work in a side trip to Česky Krumlov to anyone planning a future Prague trip.
-Jason
There are more pictures on the picasa site.