Marienbad - Farewell from Czech Republic

Our last day in Czech Republic was spent in Marienbad. Our campsite with the fancy name 'La Provence' was only 5 kilometers away from Marienbad, so we decided to go for a hike to the spa town.

This decision was almost reconsidered in the morning when we woke up to constant rain and 11°C. By the time we started our journey, at least the rain had stopped, although the dominant color in the sky was still gray (and no filter on our phone camera could change that).

We strolled through a lake and the forest to the spa town, which is younger than other resorts in the region. The beginnings of a spa operation were established here only around 1800.

We already came across a spring on our way through the forest: The Bear Spring bubbled up from the ground.

Shortly afterwards, we reached the outskirts of the city with its approximately 40 springs.

Our first impression was that there were many beautiful old houses, some of which, however, were in need of renovation or even vacant.

But of course, there were also, especially in the center, splendidly renovated hotels and a very beautifully designed spa garden.

The first spring we visited was the Forest Spring. After our experiences with the Karlsbad water, which we did not like at all, we tried it very cautiously, but were pleasantly surprised.

The water here was noticeably colder, but not as salty and quite drinkable.

So I dared to try all the springs in the pump room, where the Cross Spring flows and where you can also tap water from other springs. I quite liked some of them, at least in the small amounts that I tested.

But now we were in the mood for a different type of drink and we sat down in a café in the New Colonnade, where a big band was playing for the spa concert.

Unfortunately, the concert ended just after we placed our order, but we still enjoyed our hot drink to warm ourselves up in the still cool weather and admired the delicate cast iron construction of the 120-meter-long colonnade.

Right next to the New Colonnade is a fountain whose water games are accompanied by music every odd hour. Since it was now 11:45 am and drizzling rain, we didn't wait for it and continued to stroll towards the White Colonnade.

There you can taste the water from the Caroline Spring, which I also liked in small amounts.

Past the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, we walked to Goethe Square.

The poet prince, of course, also stayed in Marienbad, as a statue on the square recalls.

In his advanced age, he fell in love with 19-year-old Ulrike von Levetzow in Marienbad, who, however, rejected his marriage proposal in Loket.

To conclude our three-week stay in Czech Republic, we took the cable car to a mountain near Marienbad to visit the Boheminium.

In this open-air museum, over 60 buildings of Czech Republic are recreated and exhibited in a 1:25 scale model.

This allowed us to revisit some of the places we had visited during our trip.

The bird's-eye view allowed us to discover something new about some of the buildings that we hadn't noticed during our on-site visit.

Some places we hadn't seen at all, although the model already looked interesting.

Maybe that's something for a future visit to Czech Republic.

All in all, we really enjoyed our trip through Czech Republic: The diversity and beauty of the artistic and magnificent buildings exceeded our expectations.

At the same time, we noticed that some places are very little developed for foreign tourism and that mainly tourists from Czech Republic can be found in the areas further to the east.

After this review, we took the cable car back down and went to eat in a Bohemian restaurant once again: traditionally goulash with dumplings and goulash soup in bread.

Before we left Marienbad, we bought the obligatory wafers in a store that only sold wafers (something that hasn't made it to other parts of the world despite globalization). Back in the motorhome, we enjoyed coffee and chocolate wafers.