by Justin
One of our most action-packed days in the Salzburgerland region was our time with our friend Samo Rovan (my favorite photographer in all of Europe). The first thing that we did when we got to the rural and beautiful Gosau valley area was have an …
The lake in Bluntautal Valley is a beautiful alpine spring with a surface like stained glass. This valley looks like it was pulled directly out of a fairy tale story. This valley is surrounded by a beautiful forest and huge mountains that jut into the …
Located over the Salzach Valley, Hohenwerfen Castle is a large and imposing medieval fortress positioned like a sentry over the town of Werfen. Despite being so imposing, the castle is quite a magnificent site with its pinnacle towers jutting into the sky like arrows.
The most exhilarating part of Hohenwerfen Castle is its incredible falconry display. The birds that flew in this demonstration ranged from the spunky Cooper’s Hawk to the huge and graceful Golden Eagle. One of the amazing parts of the show was how the falconers figured out when to release and call back their birds. In the middle of the demonstration, two wild Buzzards flew over the walls of the castle, but caused no major disturbances in the show. Towards the end of the show, when the falconers were calling back their original birds, a Cooper’s Hawk took a huge dive and almost went through a tree on the way down. One of the most amazing things about the show was that birds that would attack each other in the wild, such as Peregrine Falcons and Golden Eagles, flew at the same time. The only inconveniences for me were that the falconers did not speak English and that the hill back up to the main castle was very steep. Overall, the falconry show was the best part of Hohenwerfen Castle.
The inside of Hohenwerfen Castle was almost as cool as the falconry show. One of my favorite parts of the tour that we took was the Chapel Hall, with its ornate furnishings and velvet decor. Outside of the Chapel Hall, there are paintings of a knight and a nine-headed horse on the wall. After the Chapel Hall, we went down the stairs to the cannon slots, which features ancient cannons and the pitch kitchen. The pitch kitchen was a room where boiling pitch was made and lifted up a shoot to be poured onto the heads of enemies who tried to siege the castle. The view from the unused cannon slots made me feel like a falcon when I was looking over the beautiful valley below me. Another cool part of the tour was going up the bell tower and getting to view and hear the bell ringing from up close. Overall, Hohenwerfen Castle may have been the most picturesque fortress on this trip.
My Fürst recommendation for when you go to the Salzburg region is to go to Cafe Fürst and try some original Mozartkugel. 125 years after their creation, Paul Fürst’s original Mozartkugel (a delicious chocolate orb with a pistachio marzipan core) is still famous today. A …
If you want fun activities, relaxing luxury suites, amazing wildlife, great scenery, and rich history, look no further than the Schloss Fuschl; it has all of this and more!!! This incredible hotel is actually a refurbished palace in an amazing rural lake setting. It is …
The best part of Český Krumlov was the castle and its spectacular bear moat. One of the most amazing features of the castle was the huge ornamental tower sticking out like a giant toothpick in vibrant shades of green, red, and yellow. Another incredible feature is the huge garden at the top of the hill. These gardens are an excellent place to take in and photograph the city below. Arguably the most unique part of Český Krumlov’s castle is the bear moat (instead of water they have a bear enclosure in a trench protecting the castle). The bear moat has been there since the middle ages and has always had bears in it.
Possibly my favorite thing in Český Krumlov was the refurbished blacksmith shop. This shop, the castle smithery, was actually the middle age’s blacksmith shop for Český Krumlov’s castle and surrounding areas. It is now part museum, part store, and part experience. The museum portion contains a farming scythe, a vintage sword, and a chariot wheel, among other things. The experience was that you could make either a nail or a coin using a wide variety of hammers and molds to whack it into shape. I made a nail under the instruction of the blacksmith and it turned out quite well (I think you could actually use it for a construction project). Making my nail was hard work, but it turned out amazingly well. Although it has a slightly lopsided head, I think it turned out great. The hammer was surprisingly heavy so this meant that lifting it was a lot harder than swinging it. It took around 30 well placed whacks all around it to completely mold it into shape. The blacksmith actually said that it was a great first attempt. As we were leaving the blacksmith’s shop, I bought the points of fire and standard arrows made right there in the forge. The fire arrowhead had long metal shafts that could be coated in tree sap and set ablaze enabling it to burn most wooden substances on contact.
Our hotel in Český Krumlov is actually a historic medieval tower from 1505, meant for the knight who protected the logs on the Vltava River. Out of three floors, we had 1/3 of the whole tower to ourselves (aka one floor). The third floor, which is where we stayed, consisted of: two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a central hallway. My bedroom had an antique crossbow and two deer skulls as wall hangings, however, my mom and dad’s room had a beaver’s skin rug. On the ground floor, there was an entire suit of armor with a sword and shield attached. My recommendation is to book well in advance, go early in the summer, and take the Hunter’s Room, the highest of the three floors. I recommend this because I did it, and I was very pleased. Click here to learn more and book your reservation.
Our first day in Český Krumlov was spent on the river. We rented a three person raft and rode down the river to avoid the tourist-packed hours of the day. The rafting company told us to go on the more rural route because it was …
On the road from Prague to Český Krumlov we saw two amazing castles. Their names are Zvíkov and Hluboká, and they are almost completely different… aside from one thing, they are both spectacular in their own ways. Zvíkov was at the point where the Otava …
Our second walking tour day was mostly on the hill where Prague Castle and Strahov Monastery are situated. I think the best part of our tour was the monastery on the top of the hill. The Strahov Monastery on the hill overlooking Prague Castle is home to a collection of about a million books (or at least it felt like a million books). Every room on our tour was jam packed with books of every size, shape, and color everywhere you looked, and more books than I could read in my life (and boy do I read a ton)! In the first room of the library, our guide pointed out some strange cages. At first, I guessed that they were the spots that the books go when someone puts them on hold, but this was actually the place where the monks kept the forbidden books to avoid people finding and burning them.
The second equally amazing room of the library was enormous and even had two secret passages up to the second floor walkways. The stairs are actually hidden in the corners of the room behind a wall of fake book spines. The doors to the staircases have keys in the bottom panel, but some of the real shelves (shelves with actual books) have fake keys in the exact same positioning as the keys to the hidden passages. At first, I guessed the second floor was decorative, but then I learned that the monks of Strahov Monastery actually used these stairs to reach the second floor. In summary, getting a private tour of the Strahov Monastery is very important to get the full experience here, and is possibly the best part of Prague… So don’t miss it!!! This website can give you more information about the library and the private tour: Strahov Tour Information or you can contact our guide at Caput Regni.
Another great feature was the cabinet of curiosities, housing a remarkably well-preserved dodo among lots of equally interesting or strange artifacts. Some of the things that I remember most were armadillos, over 20 types of crabs and lobsters, and a narwhal tusk (which was actually believed to be the horn of a unicorn at the time).
The next part of our tour was on the Prague Castle grounds. Prague Castle contains the office of the President and in my opinion is even more spectacular than the White House (from an architectural and historical standpoint). It is not just the central governmental office, it also houses the incredible Prague Castle grounds containing the Golden Lane and the St. Vitus Cathedral. The Cathedral is so big that it actually required the lifetimes of two architects to create this behemoth masterpiece of a cathedral in the 14th century.
After we walked to Prague Castle, our guide Lucka told us a very strange story about someone hanging giant bright red boxer briefs on the flagpole above the president’s office. Apparently, the president was very angry about it and he increased the security at the castle, and this is why you can now find security guards and metal detectors at the entrance. The guards at the castle range from the old traditional ones for the changing of the guard ceremony to newer ones wearing police uniforms and having modern weapons (not just ancient rifles). The castle and the basilica are amazing from an architectural standpoint, but are rather crowded and are better in the evening for close-up viewing.
After Prague Castle, we walked down the hill below it and found out that the buildings were covered in house signs. Some examples of these are a pear, a golden griffon, a blue trout, a golden carp, a red bear with a gold goblet, a golden horseshoe, and both black and golden eagles to name a few.
Another amazing destination that our guide recommended to us in Prague was the Alchemy Museum. We went here before dinner to pass the time, and it was great. It was amazing to see all of the tools of medieval alchemists and how they work in the lab. It was also amazing to see how objects as diverse as dried boa constrictors and pickled lizards actually had uses. I especially liked the homunculi section of the lab, closest to the wall on the left side as you enter the main room. To me, the best part of the entire museum was the drink bar after the tour. The drinks were served in glasses shaped like a potion flask and had all sorts of delicious combinations. Another great feature of the bar was that they put dry ice in the drinks to make them steam like a real potion. They were also quite delicious and were made with fresh ingredients. The delicious combination that I chose was lemon-orange, the perfect combination of two citrus flavors (but none of them were actually bad). Overall, this museum was one of the best things in Prague and was a super worthwhile detour.
The first stop on our recent trip was Prague, a city overflowing with fun and history. Both of our days were super-fun private walking tours around the city. Our guide Lucka made sure that we had a great time on both of our tours and …
You must be logged in to post a comment.