19 June ’04, Saturday. Our campground was quite different from any we have been in before. What made it different, was there was only 3 of us that were “camping” and all the others had rented “bungalows” that are found on the campgrounds. Not only had they rented the bungalows, they also had one heck of a Czech Party complete with camp fire. A good time was had. We pulled out and headed back into Mariánské Lázne for the morning. Mariánské Lázne was founded in 1193 by the grandee Hroznata, a later prior of the monastery. Thomas Edison proclaimed that there is no more beautiful spa in the entire world when he visited in 1911. This town is an “electrifying freeform collection of romantic turn of the century Art Noveau hotels, pensions, colonnades, and promenades. Many other famous people have visited this spa including Mark Twain, Kipling, Chopin, Strauss, Wagner, Freud to name just a few. Again, this town is known for the special spring waters and their healing powers. As we were walking around the area of the springs, people were drinking water from “their own cups”. There was even a nice storage area that the “regulars” could store their cups in. Each time they wanted a drink, they would check-out their cup and enjoy the “spring waters”. We had to be part of the party so we bought a cup and joined in with the drinking of the “spring waters”. This town has some of the most beautiful buildings that are set in the hills above the town and right in the middle of some very nice forested areas. The streets and the sidewalks are wide and flow in nice arching way to enhance the beautiful lines of the buildings, gardens, and parks. It was 2pm and we were on our way to Prague and with one potty stop taken we arrived at our campsite just outside of the big city in time for dinner. Now we will take it easy for a couple of days while waiting for Mikleane, Ric, Louise and Drew to arrive.
0 Comments
18 June ’04, Friday. Readied the van for travel and by 09:30 we were headed to Františkovy Lázne. Now I must admit, we had heard the story from Gerda and we were still shocked as we pulled in to this unique little city. Our question is “Why Hasn’t The Tourist Literature got this listed as a must see?” The first “written” mention of local mineral waters dates back to 1406. The waters have been drank from the local springs for “Curing” By 1714 there was an inn at the springs with 12 rooms and 14 bathing cabins. Today, there are “many” hotels and spas to accommodate the masses that come for the curing waters of Františkovy Lázne. I tried to take pictures that would do justice to the city but as I was doing my editing it didn’t show the “true” beauty the city deserves. For that reason I took a picture of a painting that would do a lot more to give you a glimpse of what we saw. Now, saying all that, there is a lot of cosmetic fixing that must be done on the buildings to bring them up to the standard they once had. It will take a lot of money and I hope that the government of the Czech Republic will help. Next we were off to another “Spa” town and then onto Prague tomorrow evening. Our next destination was Mariánské Láznì which we pulled into at 3pm. This gave us a hour and a half of sightseeing before heading off to our campgrounds for the night. This wasn’t near enough time so we will….. Tomorrow….More Mariánské Lázne and then off to Prague for Saturday night at the campgrounds 17 June ’04. Thursday. We had the longest walk to the showers and potty this morning…. That will never happen again if I can help it. Anyway, it was one of the coldest nights that we have had since starting our journey and we were looking for extra blankets (can you believe we couldn’t find them…). It must have been a front that brought all that cold in. Today was quite nice all day long (Thank You Lord). We had breakfast looking out over the lake this morning and it was warm even then. After doing the dishes we went into town for our first visit to a Czech town. One of the first things that had to be accomplished this morning was to get some Koruna’s (Czech money 30 Kc = 1 Euro). Cheb has a population of about 30,000 and all the main town area was very quite all day. We went looking for the Tourist Information Center to get up to date maps and find out what was going on in the area that we might be interested in seeing and doing. This is always a good way to get started in a new area. I love the architecture of the buildings and the soft pastel colors that each is painted. We also visited the Dom (St Niklas’) and tried to get into a couple of other churches but they were closed. There is a wonderful castle that was founded by Freidrich Barbarossa. It sits right on the banks of the river. An original Romanesque fortification. It houses the “Black Tower of Cheb”, St Erhards and St Urlulas Chapels. This town isn’t really on the tourist maps so there were very few people to see this beautiful structures but we were very impressed. After we got back to camp we met with Adrian and Gerda for a beer and exchange our stories of the day. They have a motorcycle that they use to get around in the more remote areas and today was one of them. Gerda was telling us of a place just 6 km north that they had discovered this afternoon. She got us both excited to see it so…. Tomorrow…Františkovy Láznì |
*Locations*
All
*Archives*
November 2016
|