(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s post takes us off to two off-the-beaten-path destinations in the Czech Republic. Our first adventure was a day trip to the town of Mělník, located 33 km north of Prague.

We took a very local bus from Prague and were dropped off in Mělník’s main square. Our main destination for the day was the town’s castle, which is also home to one of Europe’s most northerly wineries. You can see the castle in the photo at the very top of this post: the vineyards are on the terraced slopes below. We had a very enjoyable tour and tasting session at the winery, and emerged ready for some hearty Czech food.

There didn’t seem to be a lot of dining options in the historic centre of the town, so we settled on the Hospoda u Beníšků (see photo below). This was no tourist trap: it was clearly a local restaurant. It was so dark inside that none of my photos turned out…but I do not think the decor had changed since the early days of Communism. Unlike every restaurant in Prague, there was a unilingual menu. No problem: I knew the basics like brambory (potatoes), knedlíky (dumplings) and palačinky (crepes)…what could possible go wrong?

Alas, even after a week in the Czech Republic, we saw absolutely no familiar words on the one-page menu. Attempting to get an explanation in German didn’t help. Somebody’s friend apparently spoke some “French”, but we didn’t recognize a word of whatever language she actually spoke. So, we ordered blind: pointing confidently to items in the middle of the menu, we prayed that we hadn’t selected anything too dodgy. For me, at least, it turned out okay: gravy, non-specific meat, a greenish selection of vegetables.

Our unusual day continued with a trip to the ossuary. Here, the bones of 15,000 people had been artfully arranged into various sculptures and displays. At one point, thousands of bones spell out the words Ecce Mors, which I believe is Latin for “Look, Death!” (You can’t make this stuff up!)

We returned to Prague for dinner, and two days later left for our second “off-the-beaten path” destination: Hrubá Skála. The “village” of Hrubá Skála (which is little more than a large castle) is situated near the top of a small mountain ridge in the Český ráj (“Czech Paradise”). It is a national park with extensive and often bizarre sandstone formations. Our hotel was located in the castle…it promised to be a unique adventure.

But getting to Hrubá Skála took quite a bit of effort. We tried to take a train to a nearby town called Turnov, but there was some kind of accident or washout (we didn’t want to know too many details). So, somewhere around Mladá Boleslav, we had to get off the train and take a bus for a while. Then, in Turnov, we had to catch another train to Hrubá Skála. The detour had cost us some time, so we were quite keen to arrive at our destination. Alas, Hrubá Skála (the train station) is a few kilometers from Hrubá Skála (the actual place). After a long walk, and then a steep hike through the woods, we finally arrived at our impressively rustic castle.

Sadly, the overcast skies and the disappearing daylight conspired against me in those pre-digital days of photography. I don’t have any impressive, or even half-impressive, photos of our hikes through the forest and the sandstone. But still – we stayed (and ate our meals) in a castle! And with it being late October, there were very few other people in the castle.

After leaving the castle, we began to make our way to Frankfurt, Germany, and our flight back to Canada. You can expect to see some pictures from the final portion of the trip soon!