One Enchanted Evening and a Day

So I finally got my castle fix thanks to Mr. John Davey!!  The Thursday before I would leave the Czech Republic for Germany Caroline and I were asked to have dinner at John's place.  He actually lives inside a real castle!!! And since there is a zero tolerance policy when it comes to drinking and driving in the CR we spent the night as well...IN A CASTLE!!!  John lives in the town of Bechyně which is about 30 minutes away.  We had a lovely drive out with him pointing and identifying points of interest along the way--it was beautiful.  He took us the back way in so we could get a good look at the castle before we went in.  It was a castle out of a storybook...picture this... tiny sleepy village right next to a curving river that wraps itself around a big craggy hill with a castle on top!! The castle walls are right on the edge of the clif.  The castle moat is empty of water and now has deer that look like goats grazing in it.  When we got up to the town we parked and met his wife Ilena who runs the tourist information office and gift shop.  Then we made our way to the castle doors which are remote controlled--very cool.  Just before the doors we passed by an old building that John pointed out to us--it used to be the first post office of the Austro-Hungarian Empire--freakin awesome!
John's place is a great 2 room house built right into the castle wall with 4 foot thick walls and windows that look down the cliffside to the river and village below.  He cooked us a wonderful dinner with Caroline and I prepping and peeling veggies.  Dinner was chicken alla John (chicken breasts with crumpled chips and cheese on top), bean pot, sweet potato mash with pineapple and walnuts --super tasty.  An Irish friend of his from Prague joined us as well for dinner.We had such a lovely time, good food, wine and good conversation and bad jokes;)  After dinner Caroline and I got to retire to our own little cottage for the night just down the wall from John's to sleep.  Waking up in the morning and looking out the window was great. I took a morning walk around the grounds and up to the main castle.  Finally my first castle in the Czech Republic but not my last.  Little did we know that John had a whole day of sightseeing for us before we went back to our workaway stay.  So John, Pete ( Irish friend), Caroline and I got into his station wagon and set out to see some castles since John thought it was ridiculous that we had not seen any yet well only 1 now.  He took us to the castle that is a copy of the Windsor Castle in England... This wealthy Czech guy went to the real Windsor Palace in England liked it to much he went home and built himself one.  The door knockers to the main castle gates are Ghengis Khan's head with a raven boring it's beak into it right between the eyes.  Apparently the conquering hordes made it all the way to the CR and some of the soldiers stayed and there is some Mongolian heritage in the Czech people.  The next castle we saw was one that was used as a hunting lodge and the last castle we saw was Cesky Krumlov and it was the best one.  The castle sits up on top of a hill with the town below complely wrapped up in a river with only bridge access.  The castle has a huge covered walk way to a riding arena and barns because the king did not want to be cold and have to walk outside and ride outside in the winter time.  The castle moat is empty of water and instead houses 2 European Brown Bears.  The story goes that way back when, a traveling Russian circus came to town and the town's people of Cesky Krumlov were upset by their treatment of the dancing bear, so upset that they did not let the circus keep their bear but took it when the circus left town.  And since they had no better place to keep the bear they put it in the moat.  But the bear got lonely so the town got another one to keep it company and they have been breeding bears ever since.  We wandered the town up and down tiny cobbled lanes and had honey cake and coffee in the Golden Cafe just off the main square.  After we got back into the car and drove through Cesky Budivice the home of the original Budviser beer and even passed by the brewery. The route that we took to the castles and back passed right by a nuclear power plant, so close you could see the water running down the cooling tanks...it was unreal. Pete drove Caroline and me back to our farm and back to reality in the evening.  Thanks John for such a splendid fairytale evening and day in the CR, I will always remember it!!