Never was a beer fan. But during our Eastern Europe trip, I made it a point to try the local brews as you really don’t get to have it anywhere else. So yes, in almost all our meals, we had beer.
This brew was in a restaurant in romantic Cesky Krumlov.
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Now clearing up space on my iPhone hence the old photos. 😀
I thought RC Cola was only in the Philippines. There actually are in Czech Republic. Saw this in Cesky Krumlov.
Vienna was a dream ever since childhood. And Prague was a dream ever since we started planning our Italy trip. But Cesky Krumlov was a dream when we started our planning for the Eastern Europe trip. True, I wouldn’t have known about the place had our travel agent didn’t recommend it. And the moment I learned about it, I was more excited about it, compared to finally visiting Vienna and Prague. Why so? Because of every girl’s fairy tale dreams. This place has retained its charm from the medieval times up to now. Mark, Cesky Krumlov is one of the few, if not the only one, who wasn’t bombed back in World War 2 hence it’s just but logical for UNESCO to mark the whole town a World Heritage.
But I’ll save my post of the place for later. This post will be about the place we stayed in on our 1 night and 1 day stay in Cesky Krumlov – Hotel Gold.
We’ve only been to a handful of cities in Europe so it may be different with other cities. But at least with the cities we’ve been to, this I can surmise – a four stars hotel is an equivalent of two stars in Asia.
Our Vienna hotel was four stars yet the size of our room is just equivalent to a six-tatami-mat room. Our kitchen at home is twice that of the hotel bathroom. No toiletries except for a 3-in-1 soap/shampoo/rinse (although I really don’t want to complain with this because the shampoo was good for my hair). No bathrobe nor slippers.
Our Prague hotel was even worse – the hallway is reminiscent of a sanatorium or hospital. We’re thankful though that the staff gifted us with two bottles of sparkling wine to celebrate our honeymoon/anniversary with.
But we are most thankful in that our hotel was best where it should be best – at the charming and medieval town of Cesky Krumlov.
We arrived at the town just when it was getting dark. And it was raining. There was only one taxi in the station so we shared the taxi with another Japanese couple (I had to urge hubs to go approach the couple to have the ride with them otherwise we’ll be out in the cold for a long time, waiting for another taxi). As expected, and really almost all guidebooks warned us of this, the taxi driver cheated us; charging us 200czech crowns with only a 5 minute ride.
Wet, cold, hungry, cheated on, we really didn’t feel welcomed. But our moods changed the moment we got inside the big doors of our hotel.
It has a courtyard!
So unlike the hotels we’ve stayed before and even unlike some of the hotels we saw in the area (we dropped off the other Japanese couple earlier and their hotel didn’t have the same courtyard as ours had).
As hubs filled in our info, I was giggling right beside him, taking in the delicious aroma of the food wafting from some part of the building.
The guy showed us to our room and carried our luggage hence he saw me squealing with delight as I saw our charming attic suite room. It’s like a little girl’s dream come true – I’ve ALWAYS dreamed of having a room in the attic even when I was already an adult. Room was about 2.5 times the size of our room in Vienna.
Was taking the pictures from the landing where we laid our luggages. Yes, even the landing was sizable.
The room was traditional. But the bathroom is certainly modern. And big. Twice the size of the bathroom of the room I stayed in in Makati Shangri-la.
And they have the proper toiletries. and we have slippers!
The bathroom has its own heater by the way hence even during winter, you wouldn’t mind staying inside the bathroom for a long time.
Which reminds me. It was already pretty cold during our stay in Cesky; almost like the place is already transitioning from autumn to winter. Yet our room was comfortably warm. Despite the fact that we didn’t use the heating system. The room is sooo comfortable it was quite difficult to get up the following morning to explore the place. And oh, it wasn’t only the room that was warm. The people as well. Will be sharing our story of that warmth in another post.
Charming. And rustic. Typically Bohemian.
Bohemian crystal chandelier is just about everywhere.
I love their key holder.
From the outside, the hotel looked like a farmhouse, similar to the ones you can see in the Bohemian region, as you cross the boundary of Austria and Czech Replublic.
I wish there’s a Philippine flag in there. But at least Japan flag is up so we’re happy.
Small acts of thoughtfulness doesn’t escape me. Hence I’m really happy with these chocolates they’ve put on our pillows (the pillows are the softest I’ve had by the way – in fairness, the pillows in Vienna, Praha and Cesky is just pure heaven).
Cesky. English. German.
Of course, half of it is advertisement. The chocolate was really good, in fairness.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here so much so that I so wish we can come back here again.
And that wish was granted just this evening, actually.
I was so happy with the hotel and how the hotel staff treated us in that I dutifully filled out their questionnaire re: our stay in the hotel which promises the chance of winning in a raffle if I completed the form albeit I was just so happy that I actually didn’t pay heed to this promise.
Now, three weeks after our visit, hotel staff emailed me, informing me that I won below enumerated perks.
Package for two persons including
– A romantic accommodation in the castle-style room for 1 night
– Candle-light dinner
– Relax massage
– Breakfast in your room
– Parking
Arrghhh. But validity is only within six months. Curious because the last day of validity falls on our wedding day anniversary hehe. Of course, much as we’d like to visit the place again, it’s insane to go back there only after six months. We’re not exactly overflowing with money.
Fortunately, it is transferrable and hotel informed us that we can give it as a gift to a friend. And fortunately again, I do have a friend who’ll be having her nth honeymoon as well early next year. Lovely. Inggit na ako sa inyo Rezza! Haha. But I’m really happy that I could share around a possibly great experience like what we had. 🙂
Can’t wait for the voucher to be sent to us! And I hope we don’t loose it like how we lost the postcards we sent ourselves from Vienna. 🙁
A note: This is a continuation of my Charles Bridge and the search for John and George Café post in our atsushiandmarjorie.wordpress.com blog.
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So we found the Lennon Wall. But there were only two restaurants in site. I figure John and George Café would be a bit modern.
But this one is very Czech, complete with duck and Pork knee entree (the conversion rate is pretty good though).
And the other is this.
This cafe’s summer garden points to the very same spot that was described as the location of John and George Cafe – by a small alley just right beside the Lennon Wall. Hungry and not up for pork knee, we decided to try Campanulla instead, hoping that John and George had changed their name to Campanulla. A number of people were already seated in the summer Café and it wasn’t really summer already. It was actually cold what with autumn in full gear. And it was getting dark by the minute so we really couldn’t enjoy the garden much anymore. Hence we decided to eat inside instead. Took a few shots of the garden.
I later learned that Ludwig van Beethoven himself likes to hang around this garden.
Although we missed the chance to lounge in a place where a famous composer used to hang around, we still loved (and preferred) to stay inside the cozy Cafe. My guess is that this is a Tonino Lamborghini restaurant.
Photos of famous personalities who used to hang around the place (?) were on display.
I love G12’s shots on the place that I’m posting the shots I took inside the cafe unedited save for the watermark. The places we went to were really beautiful and breathtaking. Yet this shot is one of my favorites.
This is Italian yes. There are lots of stuff in the place that suggests the place is Italian actually. Really good juice.
The bread that’s on the house was really good too.
Curiously, the smell of salami followed me everywhere we go in Praha hence I didn’t order for a pork dish anymore. Ordered a salmon even when I had salmon already the day before.
I tasted Atsushi’s pork before eating my fish and the moment I ate it, I regretted not ordering pork. The meat tasted so flavorful my mouth waters now at the memory of it. Pork tenderloin with green pepper sauce.
When I tasted my salmon though, I got happy I didn’t make the wrong decision after all. Salmon was cooked just right. I ate three salmon dishes during our Praha visit and this salmon is the best one I had. And it’s easily one of the best salmon I’ve ever had. A far cry from the salmon in El Nido even. Grilled salmon with chipotle sauce, cream, butter, onions and chipotle chilies.
The tourists.
Of course we capped our meal with dessert – apricot crumble cake.
Had it with uber rich hot orange chocolate drink that was just simply marvelous.
I wanted to have our anniversary dinner here again, the following evening, but of course we had to try out other Czech restaurants to have more experience with the place.
But if ever I’ll be back in Praha, I’d surely eat here again. And again.
