Travels with my Daughter Part I (Cesky Krumlov)

After not really being able to go on vacation in the last 2 years, I decided to gift Emma travel for her birthday again. She was able to go on a language vacation to Singapore on her own and surely nothing can top that experience. But at the same time, who knows how much longer she is willing to travel with me and so we embarked on discovering some historic sites in Europe.

Our first stop is an UNESCO city called Cesky Krumlov. Someone had recommended it and the location just a bit South of Prague made our travel a nice loop. It has everything one could want. It is small and walkable. It has adorable houses, some bridges and a few scenic view point. Oh and yes a castle too. The 2nd largest in the country as a matter of fact.

We were lucky that due to the pandemic, travel is not quite back in full swing and there were plenty of people, but not nearly as many as it was before. The local guide told us at some point 2 Million people would visit per day! I am very grateful that was not the case while we were there.

We stayed 2 nights and that was perfect, so we could enjoy the morning and evening when the tour bus tourist had returned to Prague, and our Pension was central located, offered good breakfast.

Detour Parking Skills:

I had booked the Pension because it had parking, but imagine the smallest court yard, already full with cars. I had to get trough a narrow brick entrance gate and drive straight through to a open shed. That night I had nightmares of how to get back out of there. So when I saw the next day free parking spaces I decided to rearrange my car. While trying, emphasis is on trying, to maneuver, the owner comes out and tells Emma: "No manipulating" , which meant to say don't move your car unless you are leaving. Emma made it clear that I feared not being able to get back out, and so he relented and helped me park my car backwards into 1 spot. I am sure he laughed really hard, because I simply could not move my car around in that narrow court yard. But in typical Czech demeanor, he looked at me sternly while guiding me around.

I was very embarrassed and grateful, and made it out of there without denting my car, much to my relief.

The weather was favorable almost the whole stay. But the best part by far was spending time with Emma. Away from phones and just wandering around a city, soaking in the historic views and some sunshine. Her willingness to have conversation about really nothing and so much at the same time. Connecting and bonding.

We had booked a little Raft Tour as one of the last things to do and there was rain in the forecast, but that is never true, right? So picture the scene, the guide in the front entertaining the Czech tourists, he seemed quite funny too. Then we in the last row and behind us a second guide in English telling us about his love for rowing. And a little about the sites. He was trying hard, but really had not the same story telling skills his colleague appeared to have. It was sweet that he was telling us about his life and passion of rowing, and we did do another guided tour earlier in the day. So I was contend seeing everything from the Vltava River. There was a drink included and just after receiving my beer it started pouring down. I drank that beer in record time, to not have it watered down, laugh. We got soaked, despite rain jacket and grateful the Pension was not far away, so we could get changed. But I have not laughed hard like this in a long while. The situation was just too comical.