Having taken in the sights of the castles and a bit of the Romantic Road scenery, we were ready to get on the road, as we had quite a drive ahead to the Czech Republic.

The route took us across Germany and gave me my first chance to drive the infamous autobahn. Larry was upset he could only get me to go up to 180 km/h (around 112 mph), but I didn’t want to push Pierre any harder. He was loaded down with all of our heavy luggage and didn’t handle quite as well. And I’ll admit, I’m not nearly as bold as Larry. Larry tried to get me to pull over and let him have a shot but I wisely refused. (Those of you who have been in the car with Larry will understand. He has no fear.) For a rerun of my speeding at work, hit play below.

We finally crossed the Czech border near dark and spent the next hour and a half or so winding through the dark Bohemian countryside, finally pulling into Cesky Krumlov near 10 pm.

We were both stunned by the sight – it is something from another time, to be sure. (If you have seen it, the childhood scenes from the movie ‘The Illusionist’ were filmed here – it’s one of the reasons the town fell onto our travel radar). Our hotel room was something else – almost larger than our apartment in New York, with a view to the castle. Wow.

As it was late on a Sunday night and we hadn’t eaten, we didn’t have many choices for dinner. Luckily our hotel pointed us to Katakomby, a high-end restaurant with traditional Czech cuisine built in a former catacomb underneath a hotel in the middle of the main town square. The atmosphere was incredible: arched stone tunnels connecting several low-ceiling dining rooms, all candle lit, with an open kitchen where you could view the chef cooking in the fireplace. Seriously a lot of fun. And lucky for us, they keep late hours. We had an amazing meal and had fun walking around the empty streets of the town afterward.

We spent the next two days wandering the town and the castle grounds above the town, watching kayakers paddle down the lazy river, eating great Bohemian food (lots of pork, duck, cabbage and dumplings) and discovering something called a “trdelnik”, a perfect circle of sweet dough baked on a round cylinder and covered in sugar and cinnamon. Yummy.

The first day we climbed the tower of the castle and partook of a beautiful view of the city.

The next day, we had an amusing tour of the castle when a group of Spanish tourists became anarchists because their tour was being conducted in English and not Spanish (though they had Spanish cards that translated everything the guide was saying, it apparently wasn’t good enough). They stopped mid-tour, screaming and yelling at the poor, terrified 90-pound young lady who was our guide, and refused to advance through the castle, which then forced the rest of us to wait for them. (Larry followed her down the stairs to deal with the group and used his stature to intimidate and shame them, which was awesome. He also got some funny shots of the melee.) Castle guides had to track down their tour guide (who oh-so-courageously had sneaked away herself in order to avoid their fury) to come and corral them away. Talk about being poor sports.

Before we knew it, our time was up. On to the next spot: Karlovy Vary (English name: Carlsbad), famous for its mineral springs that are supposed to have magical healing powers, along with being the site of the Casino Royale!