11-13 September 2017 - Lipno nad Vltavou - Cesky Krumlov

After the beautiful days in the big city, it was time to go back to nature. For this, we drove through half of Czech Republic to the south to Lipno, the largest lake in Czech Republic. The journey was exhausting and in the end we laughed. I activated the avoid toll roads option on Google Maps and that's why we ended up taking every dirt road. An exciting drive and the realization that by avoiding highways you can discover so much more.

The lake is another dam on our journey. Lipno is apparently a relatively well-known winter skiing resort, expensive and polished. However, we found a camping spot right by the road, only 10m away from the beach.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and it rained for 2 days straight. This was a new experience, as we couldn't or didn't want to leave the 6m². The time was used for reading, being annoyed, and building Käthe. Cycling tours were out of the question.

But there were also many good things, firstly Käthe is starting to look more and more comfortable, the windows, through which a lot of heat is lost, are now well insulated. This is necessary because we already had temperatures between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius at night. Secondly, one develops better ways to deal with such a situation. At least in the next few days, we noticed that we can handle various forced breaks much better. You learn that you can't and shouldn't force anything - which is difficult for me and always makes me feel unbalanced.

During a break in the rain, we hiked to the treetop path and then decided to drive to Cesky Krumlov on the Moldau in the late afternoon. The right decision. Cesky Krumlov is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Surrounded by the Moldau, you will find an incredibly well-preserved castle fortress.

We were impressed and moved at the same time. To top it off, we found a great parking spot right by the castle garden, which was even legal and monitored. After another walk through the city, we decided to escape the rain and continue to Austria, where at least the next 2 days were forecasted to have good weather.

Conclusion about Czech Republic: I am in love with the nature, the historical cities, and the beer culture. We never saw extremely drunk people, but everywhere, by everyone, at any time, beer is celebrated. Czech Republic is unchallenged in first place with 142 liters per capita per year (in Germany it is 104 liters, ranking 3rd). Unfortunately, I didn't find a real connection to the people, which I primarily attribute to the language barrier. Czech is very difficult for me and despite my efforts, I only learned the most basic words. I want to go back again with even more time and especially explore the east, which we haven't seen at all.