Český Krumlov and a brief jaunt into Western Europe

Sleepy Bear in the Moat, Český Krumlov, Czech Republic
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

After leaving Krakow, we decided not to head over to Prague as we had planned, but instead to explore the southern part of the Czech Republic. The highlight was a small town called Český Krumlov, near to the borders with Germany and Austria. We have seen so many “Old Towns” on this trip that we thought that we were getting jaded, but Český Krumlov is definitely one of the best – a really laid back atmosphere with lots to do (particularly a huge canoeing scene – our campsite had more than a hundred canoeists staying on it) and all in a very pretty old town with lots of lovely cafes and bars. Amazingly, it was not completely overrun with tourists and was in fact much quieter than many of the places we have seen – it is obviously not on all of the European coach tours etc. It should be and we would definitely recommend a visit to anyone who finds themselves in the Czech Republic, south eastern Germany or northern Austria. We had a really good couple of days wandering around town in the glorious sunshine; sitting in cafes; and pootling along the river in a canoe (see the video of us going down one of the weirs). We had a few beers with some New Zealanders who have been living in England for a couple of years and are now travelling around Europe in an old-ish VW camper van, which is like a slightly newer version of “Hectar” (the van we hired to go to Scotland in 2005), the major difference being that Kitty and Dan have painted up their van with pictures of their travels – see the photo of them with their paint job.

Post Poland, we have racked up a hefty number of miles (and a big diesel bill) by making a side trip into Western Europe: firstly to Munich to have our van serviced and pick up our Carnet de Passage; and secondly to Budapest to organise our visas for China. We had decided before this trip that we wouldn’t spend any time at all in Western Europe, bar doing various bits of admin there, as we want to spend our time and money further east. So motorways have been our main scenery of the past few days.

The trip to Munich was easy and the German Autobahn (complete with German drivers who clearly fancy themselves as mini-Schumachers) is a joy to drive on compared to some of the rutted roads we have experienced of late (and no doubt what is still to come). On arrival in Munich, Michael uttered the fatal words “we have had consistently good weather on this trip - no persistent rain at all”. The following day, it poured down relentlessly for the entire day. We got completely drowned during the morning and thus spent the afternoon, whilst waiting for the van to be serviced, in Starbucks (the first we have seen since leaving the UK, but we weren’t going to start moaning about US chains taking over the world given the decent coffee and a hot radiator to dry our soaking clothes). Thankfully, the VW garage in Munich was very efficient and the service was done very quickly, the only downside being the unexpectedly hefty bill for the routine first oil change (Brooksies be warned for our van’s cousin – VW’s special long life oil for a full oil change doesn’t come cheap at Euro 166 a pop!).

We also picked up our Carnet from ADAC (the German equivalent of the AA) amidst much nervousness. The Carnet is, aside from the van, the biggest expense of our trip. We basically had to lodge a horrible sum of money so that the ADAC will guarantee to various countries around the world that if we try to sell our vehicle there contrary to their rules, ADAC will pay the customs duty to that country. In theory, we get the deposit back when we get our van back to the UK and send the Carnet back to Munich. But that is in theory. If the van gets stolen or written off, the deposit is in danger (though that may of course be the least of our worries). We have to get our Carnet stamped when we enter the applicable countries and then stamped again on the way out. We also have to rely on the customs people at the exit border matching up their bit of paper with the bit of paper which the customs people at the entry border (hundreds of kilometres away) have kept. What are the chances of that? Little to none, by the sounds of things. ADAC told us that countries like India often make claims on the Carnet. This did nothing to ease our fears of never seeing our deposit money again. Anyway, at least the lady at ADAC was very friendly, helpful and displayed typical German efficiency, so we gained some confidence that she would be a useful person to know should we have issues with the Carnet. We are now fiercely guarding the Carnet document and hoping for the best.

Post Munich, we headed into Austria and nearly had our first accident of the trip when a learner driver did his best to swerve into us in a tunnel, but Michael managed to swerve equally quickly and no damage was done bar our heart rates increasing significantly. Given that we were keen to get to Budapest asap, we stayed at a truck stop for the first time on this trip. Sadly, no greasy trucker’s breakfast was available next morning as we had hoped.

In Budapest we were amazed to find that all of our research on opening hours, fees, forms, which window to go to for each part of the process etc had paid off and we got our Chinese visas surprisingly easily on an express, one-day turnaround. They were even fairly cheap compared to the cost in London. If only all our visa applications were all like this – getting Russian visas in Kiev is going to be five times as expensive, take ten times longer and will no doubt be a much bigger headache given our experience to date of the language barrier and Russian bureaucracy.