[Day 17] On to Český Krumlov

We packed our things are got ready to move to our next city: Český Krumlov. I was looking forward to visiting this small town because a lot of my friends told me how beautiful the town was. We called 2 Ubers to head to the bus station. However, we ran into some problems with the Uber. A lot of the European cars were smaller than the States and had less trunk space. We could not fit all our luggage in the back and the driver would not let us hold them in our laps. After some struggles, we were able to get everything settled and headed to the bus station.

While on our way, I saw some interesting building, including the National Museum! I wish we could have visited this place. It was very picturesque. It did not take us long to get to the bus station but we had to look around to find the right platform.

We were at platform 1 and by the time we found out, there was a long line. We were towards the back of the line but since we had assign seating, I wasn’t worried about it. What worried me was the way baggage was being handled. You just threw it in the bottom compartment yourself and it filled up quickly. By the end, we noticed that people were trying to play tetris with the luggage and finding space for their stuff. And once everyone was checked in, the bus driver decided to help out. It was a bit of a mess.

The ride to Český Krumlov was uneventful. On our way, all there were was fields after fields. It was about a 3 hour ride and I was able to get some reading in.

Once we arrived, we claimed our bags and started to walk towards the city. At first, we did not know which was to head to. We ended up following the road down towards the left and found the city. You can also walk towards platform 9 and you will see a staircase that leads to the main street.

While walking, we found a small viewpoint of the city and it was so cute. Very serene with the river running through it. Almost fairytale like. And we were at the entrance of the city. The walk from the station took about 10 minutes because of all the luggage we had. And luckily, our accommodation was right at the entrance. We booked 3 rooms and we were able to have a whole floor to ourselves.

After unpacking, we headed out to grab some food. We ended up at a restaurant called Papa’s Living Restaurant. It was a cute restaurant that offered a mix of local cuisine and Italian. The decor was more modern and had a long selection of wine. We enjoyed our meal indoors but they had outdoor patio seating and during the spring and summer time, I think it would be amazing to sit outside with the view of the river.

After our meal, we aimlessly walked around town, visiting different shops on the way. We found a chocolate shop and ended up getting hot chocolate. The hot chocolate here was thick and they even gave me a spoon with it. Plus, they offered white and dark. Of course I had to go with the dark. It was extremely rich but it wasn’t too bitter nor sweet.

We also visited several souvenir shops and before we knew it, it was already dark! We headed to the town square to see the Christmas Market before heading home. Compared to Prague’s, this was really small. It only had about 15 stalls and most of them were food.

They also had a merry-go-round and we watched the children riding it. What we didn’t know was it was manual. The owner of the ride pushed the ride by hand and also stopped it by holding back one of the bars. It was interesting to see. And a lot of children were in line to board it.

After people watching for a bit, we headed home to get some rest. Even though it was early, it was already dark and the stores were mostly closed. To get an early morning start, we headed to bed.

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[Day 14] Off to Prague

Today, we were moving on to Prague and meeting my sister-in-law’s family there. Again, this was a new place and I was excited to explore it. My sister-in-law’s family had been there before so I didn’t do much planning except to look for places to eat at 🙂 It took about half a day to get there so plan out your schedule wisely.

Once at the Václav Havel Airport Prague, I was amazed at all the Korean I was seeing on the signs. Usually they have their native language, English, and Chinese but here, the only Asian language they had was Korean.

I think it was because back in the early 2000s, there was a really famous Korean TV drama called Lovers in Prague. This show got really high rating and attracted thousands of Koreans to visit Prague. It was interesting to see how a TV show could influence a country.

We were able to use UBER in Prague and used it to head to our accommodation. The airport is about 40 minutes away from the city and it felt like we were driving through the country side.

Once at our accommodation, we met with the family, unpacked, and shared gifts with each other. We got each other matching tops and hats so we had some fashion coordination for the coming days.

As dinner time came close, we headed out towards the heart of the city. It was raining but we still wanted to go out. If it is your first time going to Prague, look for hotels near Charles Bridge or the Old Town Square. This felt like the main area and offered a lot of things to see and from here, everything was pretty much walking distance.

For dinner, we did not make any reservation and ended up at a burger place called Joy Burger. They had regular burgers but I wanted to try something unique so I got the Olomouc beef burger. I was interested to know what olomouc cheese tasted like since I’ve never heard of it before. It was really good.

TIP: Similar to Spain, every restaurant, bar, cafe took reservations. If you have somewhere you want to try, make reservation

After finishing our meal, we continued to walk towards Old Town Square. They were having a Christmas Market here and was said to be the most popular. And it was! The place was crowded with tourists and locals, buying food and ornaments, and looking at the decorations. They had huge Christmas trees, all covered with lights, and it looked amazing with the surrounding Gothic architecture. I believe every hour, they also had a light show with music.

And because of the food, the area even smelled good! You could definitely come to the Market and fill up on different foods. Make sure to bring cash here. Different from Spain, Prague had a lot of places, even shops, that did not take credit card.

One of the food we fell in love with was Trdlo/Trdelník. This is a must try! It’s a tunnel cake and they use nutella or marmalade jam as a spread. Since this was the Market, we were able to get one right off the grill. Super fresh. Nice and hot. This would become our go-to dessert for the duration of our time in Czech Republic.

After getting our dessert, we moved to see the Prague Astronomical Clock. We had perfect timing as it started to ring right when we got there. It is impressive, even in the dark, and at each hour, as the clock strikes, you were able to see the 12 apostles appear. The clock tower was also bigger than I expected and I found out it was a tower you can go up! However, by the time we got there, it was closed.

After seeing the Clock, we kept walking and ended up on the Charles Bridge. Even thought it was late at night and it was raining, there were lots of tourist on the bridge taking pictures and taking in the night scenery. From afar, you could see the Prague Castle. After a quick look around, we headed back to our accommodation to get ready for a full day in Prague.

[Day 13] Day trip to Segovia

My last full day in Madrid, I decided to check out Segovia. I really wanted to see the Aqueduct of Segovia. This was as great place for a day trip and I highly recommend it. I was an 1 hour 20 minute bus ride and I booked the bus ticket using Omio. This website is super convenient for all travel in Europe!

In the morning, I made my way to Moncloa Station, which was a transit bus and train center. Once you were inside, you should see a line of people waiting by their bus gate number. I did not get my gate number on my ticket so I had to look for it. I could not find any information booth here so I went from gate to gate, looking at the signs and luckily, I was able to find the gate. The seats are the assigned so it’s first come, first serve. If you have someone you want to sit with, it is best if you get here early.

TIP: Even though it was off-peak season, the bus was filled! So I would recommend booking tickets early and getting to the transit center early, too.

This bus had two stops. The first one is Cristo Mercado and the second one is Segovia. Do not get off at the first one! This is a local bus stop by the street. They don’t really make clear announcements on the bus and lots of locals were getting off here so I can seem like this is the stop. Wait until the next stop and they should stop at a Bus station.

Once we got off, we started to walk towards the Aqueduct. The city is very small and everything is walking distance. Once you start walking towards the city, you should see the Aqueduct in the distance. And once you get close to it, you will notice how huge this is.

Walking through the arches, you are just amazed by ancient architectural beauty. Seriously, how did they built such a thing back in the days? You can walk up to the top and get a view of the city with the aqueducts. It is just spectacular.

After admiring it for awhile, we headed towards the city to find a place to eat. There were several restaurant choices but a lot of them were closed. So we ended up at Restaurante El Sitio. It didn’t look it from the outside, but it wasn’t a cheap bar/restaurante. I guess never judge a book by its cover.

We tried lubina horno (fish) and cochinillo racion (suckling pig). We didn’t get to see them actually cut the suckling pig but I was told that if we order 4 servings of it, they will bring out the whole pig.

TIP: If you are looking for something on the cheaper end, look for MENU DEL DIA. This is like the daily special menu and for a set price, you get a small course meal.

After our meal, we headed towards Catedral de Segovia. This catedral was not as grand as the one in Seville but still amazing. The gothic architecture and its details were so pretty. When we went inside, there was a ticket booth. There were two options for tickets available when we got there : General entrance fee (€3) and entrance and bell tower (€7). We wanted to get a good view of the city so we decided to do the bell tower. However, for the bell tower, they had a specific time slot and they only had the 4pm one available.

So while we waited, we decided to head over to Alcázar de Segovia first. The line for the ticket was really short but they had ropes wrapping around for busy season. General palace tickets were €5.5 and an extra €2.5 for Torre de Juan II. Since we were getting the bird’s eye view of the city from the Catedral, we decided to just do the Palace.

Before entering the palace, we spent some time admiring the outside of the Palace. Some people were saying that this place inspired Disney when they were designing the Cinderella’s castle. And I could see some resemblance in the pointy tops.

The inside was also impressive. The decors in each room were vastly different and each were unique. The Galley Room was my favorite with the gold molding. All the rooms had lots of windows that brought in sunlight and I bet the Royals living here loved to look at their land while enjoy the sunlight.

After walking through the rooms, you end up outside on the castle walls. It’s not the highest part of the castle but provides some view of the outside area.

After seeing all the rooms, we headed back to the Catedral for our tour. Unfortunately, they only provided one English tour and we had missed that one. Our tour was conducted in Spanish but our guide was able to answer questions in English and most of the signs had both languages.

We had to climb up several flights of stairs but had breaks in between which helped a lot. And once at top, you won’t regret it. The 360 view of the Catedral and the city was amazing! One really interesting fact I learned was that this Catedral’s tower was burned down due to a fire and they had to bring in another architect to rebuild. And their new architect decided that instead of a tower, he built a dome in a different style.

After seeing the view from up top, we headed back down and looked around the Catedral and found a small museum. We couldn’t take photos but they had several different Virgin and Child paintings. And as it was getting closer to sunset, we headed outside towards the courtyard and was greeted with amazing colors. It was hard to find the entrance to the courtyard and because of this, we had the whole place to ourselves. It was beautiful.

After viewing everything, we walked around the city. We needed some pick me up and ended up at Confitería El Alcázar, a sweets shop, and tried Ponche Segoviano. Guys. 100% please try this! This was amazing! It was like custard filled pastry and it was so good! I wish I could have bought a bigger size as take out! It was that good.

This was a really good day trip. Since it only took 1 hour 20 minutes, you got to spend more time seeing the city than in a bus. You can definitely make this into an overnight stay if you end up seeing both towers and doing some hikes around the city.

[Day 11 +12] Relaxing like the locals in Madrid

I am combining day 11 and 12 because most of the days, I just hung out with my brother and sister-in-law. After our other brother’s family left, we just wanted some time to be lazy.

My brother and sister-in-law really wanted me to try this restaurant called Taberna El Sur so we headed there for dinner. This place was really small and I would recommend that you make reservation in advance. There are lots of bar seating if you are ok with that as well.

It was tapas style and we tried different things from the menu. We all got sangria first and ordered tapas like ropa vieja (braised flank steak) and carrillada (braised pork cheeks). They were so good. And the portions were good too. We ordered 4 tapas and it was enough for us.

After our filling meal, we walked to Plaza de Cibeles to see Cibeles Palace. I saw this place while driving by so I wanted a closer look. The building is all white but during the night time, they flashed different color strobes on it, making it look green, red, and more. We tried to go inside but they were closed.

TIP: I also did not realize how close this place was to Retiro Park. I would see this Palace first and head into Retiro Park for a half day tour.

And because it was the holidays, the streets were full of decorative lights. And by the Metropolis Building, they even had a giant Christmas Ornament. While walking back to Puerta del Sol, we saw several Christmas trees as well. It was really beautiful during the night time.

Our Sunday morning started with us visiting a church. We walked most of the way to church but on our way back, I got to ride the metro for the first time. The ticket was easy to use but we ended up getting off at the wrong stop and had to buy another ticket. They had pretty bad customer service.

We didn’t know what to eat for lunch and ended up at Tierra Burrito Bar and it was similar to Chipotle. But the portions were huge! They couldn’t even roll the burrito all the way, which was better for me 🙂 I think this solved my craving for American food.

Afterwards, we headed to the Royal Palace of Madrid. I just wanted to see what it looked like. There were lots of street performers outside the Palace and many tourist and locals taking walks. It was pretty peaceful. I did not get to go inside since I did not have tickets but by the size of it, you would need to spend at least 3 hours to see the place.

I also got to see the Catedral de la Almudena and this was impressive. Even more so than the palace! The architecture was stunning. We couldn’t go in because it was too late but still amazing. I would recommend staying here and seeing the sunset. It would make a killer photo.