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The countryside of the Czech Republic is dotted with some beautiful historic towns, such as our previous destination, Cesky Krumlov, and our next destination, Karlovy Vary. However, the Czech Republic’s relatively recent communist history is very evident in some of the smaller towns dotting the country. They are still trying to pull out of their past of neglect and current problem of industrial rot. Seriously – we stopped at a grocery store in one small town that if I had to live there, I would probably curl up in a ball. Towns like that are the epitome of the communist regime thinking that the optimal plan is to build an ugly factory in the middle of nowhere, throw up a few box apartment complexes for the workers to live in, and assume that the residents would be shiny, happy, workers for the people, perfectly contented with their lot in life. How did these people endure it? The drive was otherwise gorgeous. Between the struggling towns there was some beautiful forested countryside. The Western and Southern portions of the Czech Republic are the heart of traditional Bohemia, and it’s beautiful scenery. It makes me think of fairy tales and mystical people living in caravans in the forest.

Any guesses as to what king od nectar he's selling? — Any guesses as to what kind of nectar he's selling?

Karlovy Vary is about 80 miles east of Prague. It grew and still exists as a spa town as it has 15 main hot springs at various temperatures and with various mineral contents, along with 300 smaller springs. It was first discovered and used as a healing sanctuary by King of Bohemia, Charles IV (hence the name Carlsbad, or Charles Bath) in 1370. Karlovy Vary became much more accessible with the completion of the railroad in 1870 and was quickly built up as a spa destination. The architecture of the main town reflects this timeline – it’s very Victorian. Our hotel in Karlovy Vary was a beautiful little building right in the middle of the town, along the river, and about a stone’s throw away from the hotel they used in Casino Royale.

If you're a Casino Royale fan, this needs no introduction. All that's missing is the Aston Martin parked out front.

Up the mountain

Our first day there, we decided to take the funicular up to the Tower Diana which is on the hill above the city and offers a grand, sweeping view of the entire area.

It was a beautiful day and we shared our lunch with a cute little peacock from the nearby petting zoo. She was quite particular about what she liked (lettuce, cabbage) and didn’t like (tomatoes, potatoes). Each time she finished with the piece we had given her, she’d pop her head up at us with a quizzical little warble like, “do you have any more?”

Drinking Cure

Karlovy Vary’s spas are very serious about using the healing power of the waters to treat health ailments – everything from diabetes to digestive disorders to obesity to metabolic disorders to gout. The spring waters are both bathed in and drunk. In fact, you can walk through two major colonnades in the center of town where each of the main 15 springs dispense lukewarm to very hot water from a faucet for what is known as the drinking cure. Each spring is labeled with its name and the temperature of the water – anywhere from about 50 degrees celsius to 73 degrees celsius (122 F to 163 F). As I discovered on the city’s website, there are important RULES to partaking of the drinking cure. The most important of these are:

First, it is advisable to partake of the drinking cure under the supervision of a doctor. All the major spa hotels in the city have doctors on staff who prescribe treatments for whatever ails you – including prescribing the drinking cure from certain springs (as they all have different properties and mineral contents).
Second, one should partake of the drinking cure while walking slowly to aid in digestion. There are several “spa walks” – routes that go around town and up in the hills above it which are advised.
Finally, the drinking cure should only be taken from specially made porcelain mugs that essentially have a built-in straw. These mugs are conveniently sold at every souvenir store and newsstand in town.

Larry and I are game to try anything once, so on our second day we bought the special mugs and proceeded to sample from all 15 springs. It was not a pleasant experience. Imagine sipping on lukewarm to scalding hot water that tastes like it has had a handful of coins steeping in it for a few days. Yea. Not tasty. But we were determined to sample all 15 springs and I’m proud to say we finished it. Along the way we stopped to buy some “spa wafers” which are essentially very large round wafer cookies. They are supposed to aid in the digestion of the drinking cure. I say they were invented to try to overcome the nasty taste of the water.

Mill Colonnade, where some of the springs are housed

Some of the springs used for the "drinking cure"

Unpleasant Residents

While we were enjoying our walks through the town, we noticed that the lazy, warm, spring-fed river that runs through the center of town seems to spawn an inordinate amount of very large and healthy spiders. No kidding, they are everywhere. We stopped to have dinner along the river the first night, at the tables which sit under the umbrellas of one of the many restaurants that line the river, and after we were seated we quickly noticed that we were surrounded. They were all busily getting to their night’s work of spinning webs – in the railing next to our table and on the underside of the umbrella above us. Larry counted 37 spiders just in the umbrella above us. Some of them were very, very large. It bothered Larry a little less because his response to every bug he sees is, “He’s my friend!”. I spent the entire meal freaking out that some little guy was going to go off course and land on my head. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. It’s too bad because otherwise this is a gorgeous, clean, relaxing town. (We soon discovered that Karlovy Vary wasn’t the only Czech town with spider issues – see my entry on Prague).

One of our dinner companions — Mugshot of one of our dinner companions

This is me trying to act calm. But I want to run. Fast. The railing where so many of them were spinning is on the right side of the picture, which is why I'm so far to the left.

Bond, James Bond

Karlovy Vary is home to the famous Grandhotel Pupp. The Grandhotel Pupp is arguably one of the most famous and gorgeous hotels in the entire country, and as such has hosted many members of royalty, movie stars, and movie shoots. Sadly, it was reclaimed for the state and renamed “Moskva” during the 40 years that the Czech Republic suffered under communist rule. In a testament to the “efficiency” of communism, once communism was eradicated in 1989, the first order of business was a complete renovation of the Grandhotel Pupp to undo the 40 years of neglect the poor old girl suffered under communist rule (as well as the return of her proper name and title to her rightful owners).

The Grandhotel Pupp was used in the Queen Latifah movie “Last Holiday” but its most famous co-starring role is in “Casino Royale”. Larry and I love the movie and own it at home, so we had a lot of fun visiting the different spots around the hotel where the movie was filmed. The Casino Royale itself was an old spa building that is just across a park from the Grandhotel Pupp. See how many scenes you can place in the pictures below:

The train station where Bond and Vesper were picked up (really a colonnade for the springs) — The train station in "Montenegro" where Bond and Vesper were picked up (really just a colonnade for the springs)

Restaurant where Vesper and James celebrated his poker win

And finally, a few parting street shots of this beautiful town . . .

View from our hotel room - other direction

And now we’re on to Prague!

The pressure to make more progress on our projects has driven us indoors more often lately. That said, we’re still getting out 2-3 days a week to explore the beautiful country here in Provence. We had loosely planned to go to Carcassonne for Bastille day, but the ~6 hour round trip was less appealing than seeing what our charming little town Carpentras would do to celebrate.

A week ago, we left the house to take a drive and found the parking spot where we left our car empty. Not the best feeling as some of you know. But the fact that the entire main parking lot of the town was completely taken over by a massive caravan of trucks, trailers, and vans quickly evaporated any thoughts of theft that we might have had. No, the police were responsible for this one. It seems we failed to read a sign properly that said that all but one row of parking would be taken for the traveling carnival for the next week or so. But I’m off on a tangent. I tell that because part of the Bastille Day celebration in this small town is that carnival that cost us 125 Euro, and we didn’t even ride any rides.

As the carnival set up over a few days the main squares of the town were also taken over by a variety of musical performance venues, equestrian exhibitions, and other displays of local flavor. We took a stroll each day, either on the way to the store or specifically just to look around, and found the little town bustling with activity relating to the celebration. The movement and mood of the people was not really excitement, nor was it obligation, but instead it was more clearly that of tradition.

In the days leading up to Bastille Day (July 14th, French Revolution/Independence) the air was full of drums from wandering bands of costumed drummers and their entourage of dancers. Day and night. It was fun to see and hear them when we were out and around.

On Bastille day we stayed home and worked during the afternoon, but later we went to dinner at a great little restaurant nearby. We noticed a continuous flow of people going around the old town and through the middle of it, all heading generally northward. I dismissed it as people going home for the evening and, as the carnival had taken over the main parking for the town, they must have parked somewhere in that direction. Lisa was more intuitive. She said “I wonder if they’re all going the same place. Maybe there’s fireworks.”

Wise woman. We followed the crowd through the pedestrian streets of the old town to the open space on the northern side. Sure enough, a very large crowd had gathered and continued to gather until 10:30pm when the Mayor of Carpentras gave a speech and introduced the fireworks with a “Liberte. Egalite. Fraternite. Vive La France!” The fireworks were quite impressive for a relatively small town, even choreographed to a mixture of pop and traditional music. Some of the kinds of fireworks used we’d never seen before. Perhaps the most impressive were rockets that launched higher than the others and, upon bursting, release twenty or thirty red paper hot air balloons with burning cores into the air. The cores continued to burn which kept them aloft for a long time as they slowly drifted toward the ground. The wind carried them out over the crowd and many landed in trees no more than 20 yards from us. Really cool. Really. Aside from the balloons our favorites were some spinning discs of fire that fell slowly and brightly to the ground, and some cascading streams of sparkling fireworks that shot up from the ground. The best way to describe them, I think, is upside down waterfalls of sparkling gold fire. We have been used to the big Washington, DC July 4th fireworks bash, and the annual NYC light show, but for a small town these guys held their own and showed us something new. So glad Lisa pressed us to check it out.

Sorry the pics aren’t going to faintly do it justice, but here are some…