Ceski Krumlov: The Water Sports

So we drove on from the Danube, knowing we would see it again, heading north, back into the Czech Republic,* our destination the Rickie Stevie League of Undiscovered Cities town of Ceski Krumlov. It also happens to be another World Heritage Site. We found it easily enough, and though the only campground location we had was on GPS, we found it easily enough too. What we found, however, had no RVs or Wohnmobils, only tents, hundreds of them. Many hundreds. We thought maybe it was a Czech Woodstock. The throng was gentle enough, however, mostly young, and many with young children. We generally feel safe around young children. Anyhow, we found the recepcion and paid our 10 dineros, and all was well, if somewhat goofy, until the mother of all thunderstorms hit. We probably were the only persons in the campground who were not flooded out.

What we had wandered into was a 3 day Czech weekend, in the summertime, and one of the national past-times, floating the gentle and shallow Vltava river that wraps itself almost entirely around Ceski Krumlov. From Wulingyuan in China, to Ceski Krumlov in the Czech Republic, I continue to see river floating as one of the great humanizing activities, one in which people show their true nature. Etc. The Czechs appear to be a very orderly and peaceable lot, if a bit prone to sunburn. We saw no river drunks and no water fights. At the TI, between her English and my Czech, I discerned that the holiday celebrated the two saints who had brought Christianity to the Czechs. A fitting occasion for weekend water sports, I thought. We hoped we might also join in the festivities until we learned that every boat in the county had already been rented.

The lower of three levels of tents; from the middle, looking
up-river

Ditto, looking the other way; you can see our camper
middle-right; there was another such campground, a few
hundred meters up the river with, presumably, hundreds
more tents

The campground cafe/pub, just before the deluge

Next day was sunny and warm; the less quiet parts of the
river are navigated through little chutes, thus

And thus

As I said, they are an orderly people; here passing by a
cafe where we had stopped to snack

From the castle heights, queuing up for the portage

And re-embarking

I think this may have been a mandatory beer stop

Another chute, another queue; another day on the Vltava

*our primary motivation here was to avoid the Austrian autobahns, heading west, which require a hefty “vignette,” or usage fee, or rather, for our size and weight, purchase of a “GO Box” that uses GPS to track and charge for usage of said autobahns. Austrian restaurants charge for bread by the piece, ordered or consumed. Similarly for autobahns. It would be an outrage for the Czechs to so charge for use of their “autobahns.”