Imagination and hotel descriptions

Czech Trip, July 2010

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Penzion Zámecké Schody

The week before we departed for the Czech Republic, we visited the Czech Tourist Board, which is about 150m or so from our apartment in Brussels. We were after a booklet on walks in the Czech Republic, a copy of which I had picked up from a stall at the Brussels Czech Street Party in June. Joelle said she had already picked one up, so I returned my copy to the stand to save wastage. In fact she did not have a copy of the guide.

We failed in our attempt to locate the walking guide, but had a friendly discussion with the Czech Tourism employee on duty. We told him our first destination would be Cesky Krumlov, where we would meet up with friends coming from Vienna. He then enthused about a Pension that he had personally stayed at. It was located just below the castle, had a view over the rooftops of Cesky Krumlov, was reasonably priced and included breakfast in your room at no extra cost. We imagined sitting in our room with the castle floodlights casting an eerie glow in the room while taking in a vista of Cesky Krumlov’s rooftops and church spires. When we showed interest he telephoned and booked two rooms one for us and one for our friends.

We found the Pension (the Castle Steps in English) easily and checked in. It turned out that what were were told was indeed true. But it was not the picture we had formed in our minds from the information given to us. We ended up with a room smaller than a Formule 1, but it did have an en suite bathroom with power/massage shower. The view over the rooftops was just that, a view of rooftops. No recognisable Cesky Krumlov landmark visible. The breakfast in our rooms option was the only one available as there was no restaurant. The ground floor is a souvenir shop. We did however enjoy our stay and all ate breakfast in our friends’ family room which was much larger than ours. The price was about £38 for a double room including breakfast which compares to most super budget hotels. On the plus side it was located very centrally in Cesky Krumlov. If we had not been meeting up with friends we would have had their room for the same price. It also had an arrangement with a private car park for with parking £5.50 for 24 hours.

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View from outside Pension

Bierhütte – a good name for a German village?

Czech Republic Trip, July 2010

On our way to Cesky Krumlov in the  Czech Republic, I came across this village in Bavaria perched on a hill. If you zoom in you can see that some houses have their roofs covered with solar panels. This is encouraged by genorous payments by the Bavarian Government for renewable electricity going into the grid. I think they look better than the big solar energy farms in the Czech Republic. What do you think?

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