We started our cold morning with a city tour. I am talking wearing 2 pairs of pants and 5 layers on top. 36 degrees when most of us brought shorts and tee shirts. During our tour many of the buildings were decorated with a technique called Sgraffito. It is derived from an Italian word meaning to “scratch.” It is produced by using layers of plaster in contrasting colors and has been used here since the 16th century. It is everywhere and below is a very plain example of the technique.

This little village looked like something out of a storybook set in the Barvarian Alps. Narrow little streets with 700 year old buildings. It was really nice to stay at a place like this for three nights.

As part of the tour we climbed a huge hill to reach the Cesky Krumlov Castle that was built in 1250 and has a moat filled with live bears. I guess they thought that bears would be a better deterrent than water.

After our tour we had the afternoon off to shop, eat and explore this fascinating village.

Lunch was at a very small Czech restaurant on the river that served wonderful food. We all had potato soup to start. The trout was exceptional along with the wine.

Then of course there had to be shopping. The evening before I had found a closed shop, called Bambas Art Bags, that had hand painted purses, shoes, etc. You name it and it was painted. It was finally open the following afternoon. My first walk around I picked out 3 possibilities and finally picked something very practical. If you know me well, you know I never pick out practical things. Unfortunately the owner of the shop, an elderly man, did not speak English and was unable to answer any of my questions about the process, paints, etc. Tommie was going to take me back to the shop so he could translate but we never got around to it.

Dinner at night was the home hosted dinner that OAT is known for. We were divided up into two groups. The city guide we had in the morning was hosting the dinner. Three out of six of our group had dietary issues so we were together along with three others who ate “normally.” Our meal was hosted by our guide’s husband and their 23 year old son. Their home was built during the Soviet occupation and they were all basically plain concrete buildings with windows. The family had done extensive renovations inside and out and it looked just as modern and contemporary as any house at home. The food was wonderful.

We began our last full day in Cesky Krumlov with a “controversial topic” about the border lands between Czechoslovakia and Germany. To make a long story short, the Czechs were originally living in the border lands and when Hitler came into power all the Czechs were expelled and forced to find new homes with no compensation. When the Germans lost the war the land was given back to the Czechs so they expelled all the Germans who had been living there for the last 20 years. The numbers of people who were expelled were staggering. 1.6 million Germans were deported to West Germany and 800,000 were deported to East Germany. Definitely tit for tat.

Next off to the Vyssi Brod Monastery, a Catholic monastery founded in 1259. Inside was a gorgeous church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. We were only able to take a few pictures before the guide said no pictures.

After our tour of the Monastery we were off to go river rafting down the Vltava River that runs through Cesky Krumlov. We were in two rafts with Therese and I in the front.

When we hit the first “small rapids” no one bothered to tell us to put our feet under the straps. We both flipped backwards with our feet in the air into the laps of Janice and Mary. Of course, we were all laughing hysterically. There was no way for us to get back up in our seats because there was no way to get leverage. Janice and Mary literally had to push us back. If anyone had been able to take pictures, they would have been priceless.

Back on land we had to do shots to celebrate our success.

The next part of the evening was probably one of the best part of the trip so far. There was a children’s choir concert scheduled for 5:30 PM at the Castle and the family that hosted our home dinner had 2 of their children participating. What we did not know until we got there was that there was a choir from Florida College, a small Christian college north of Tampa singing.

This was one of my favorite groups.

The choir from Florida was wonderful. There was probably a 100 students. After the finale we were walking out and I saw the choir master of the Florida choir walking ahead of us. I dared Teri to go up to him knowing she never says no to a dare. They were so excited to meet us and even invited us to come to the school and visit them.

Tomorrow we will leave this magical place. I am sorry that we will never see the movie that was being filmed on the street where our hotel was. It will be shown on Christmas Eve, probably similar to our Hallmark movies.