Cesky Krumlov

Going south from Prague there were some thunderstorms. So we took the advice of the nice tower guys to forget about trying to reach Vienna and instead land at Cesky Budjovice for Cesky Krumlov, 'the jewel in the Czech Republic's crown. We convinced a German couple, Ellen and Eckhard, who'd landed just before us in Prague to do likewise.  The kind airfield manager lent us his car so that we could drive the 30kms to Cesky Krumlov.

Of course once we'd all landed and dealt with all the admin the thunderstorm caught up with us and we ended up spending more time hanging out in a chilly but dry bowling alley than here at the picturesque castle...  You can see the rain evaporating off the ground in the background.

You can just see the river around Cesky Krumlov

Hluboká nad Vltavou chateau near České Budějovice from the air

This castle near the home of Budvar beer (Budweiser) is modelled after Windsor castle.

Hluboká chateau from the air

Hluboká chateau from the air with extra castle

Prague

Prague is very beautiful, but not really our kind of place, being completely overrun with backpackers and other tourists.  We prefer to be the only obnoxious tourists.

On the plus side it has a fantastic airfield (Letnany) with kind and friendly staff that is only a short walk from a train station that takes you straight into town.

We had a menu misunderstanding, it seems that all dishes are actually sharing plates.

Julian up the tower with one of the fantastic tower guys.

Terezin or Theresienstadt (concentration camp) from the air

Terezin or Theresienstadt (concentration camp) from the air

I thought this was just a happy snap of a nice star fort.  Star forts are fantastic things that were developed for better defense against cannons, and we saw several other ones on our journey: Kastellet in Copenhagen and Kronborg which holds Helsingor (also Denmark).  As a nice bonus they photograph well from the air.

I was finding it unusually hard to identify this star fort in the Czech republic, until google images showed me that it is also known as Theresienstadt (named after the Habsburg empress).  And it's been raining here for 18h.  Why does it all happen at once????

Anyway Theresienstadt was a concentration camp rather than part of the 'final solution'.  There were however many deaths due to overcrowding.  After WWII it was used as a punishment camp for ethnic Germans until 1948, after which it was used by the military.  More information.

Děčín (Tetschen) castle from the air

We left Pirna flying East along the Elbe, past Koenigstein Fortress and not long after Děčín (Tetschen) castle.

Děčín (Tetschen) Castle, with it's long ride (long street up to the castle) and the Elbe in the background

Festung Koenigstein on the Elbe from the air

This fortress is 240m above the Elbe and was used for centuries as a prison.  You can see why.

Koenigstein fortress

Pirna

Pirna is where we started our journey up the Elbe by bicycle.  You're probably wondering why I'm posting the photos in reverse chronological order?

Well the truth is that just thinking about Pirna makes me feel sad.  The airfield is fantastic, the people are lovely, it's historic centre is pretty.  But it's where a whole heap of mentally handicapped people were herded into a church and set alight.  The castle complex containing the church is now a sheltered workshop for the disabled, which seems like an odd choice to me, but I really don't want to have to read any more about this to understand why they made this choice.  What do you think, would you place a sheltered workshop somewhere where the kind of people who work there were massacred 60 or so years earlier?

And what do you think about grim little memorials like this fire stained church?  My gut reaction is to tear it down, take it away and what is represents is just too horrible, but maybe we need this kind of reminder?

Over the door: a strong fortress is our God.  Maybe for some.