Rožmberk, Southern Bohemia

Voyage upon life's sea
To yourself be true
And, whatever your lot may be
Paddle your own canoe
-Sarah Bolton

We needed to get out of town for the weekend. V left it up to me where to go.

I really wanted to do a little canoeing. I strongly considered Český Krumlov, but decided it might be too booked up, and we might not get on the river on short notice. I had similar concerns about places on the Sazava River, near Prague.

Instead, I chose Rožmberk, a favorite hideaway for us, 30 minutes south of Krumlov by car, near the Austrian border. It's about three hours from Prague. We've been a number of times.It's a tiny town and was pretty empty on a Saturday. Granted, the weather had turned spotty.

I should also note that this was the town that football forgot. There was no Prima TV reception, so I couldn't watch any Euro 2008 matches.

Anyway, this is not a place to party too hard (except perhaps at the one local bordello). It's a place to relax.

Just a couple of days ahead, I was able to book us the cheapest room -- just 900 CZK -- at the Hotel and Restaurant U Martina.We had a view of Rožmberk's down-at-the-heels, but picturesque castle. The poor man's Krumlov, if you will.Rožmberk's sits on a big bend in the Vltava River, which runs up all the way to Prague.

We ate a lot of our meals on the patio behind U Martinu.It's right on the river, and there's a great view of the castle from there. I enjoyed it while eating my eggs and bacon.There's also a good-looking, stone-walled dining room inside.On our first night, V had the koleno (pork knee). She liked it, but I thought it was dull and lacked flavor.I had a simple klobasa with mustard and horseradish. Nothing too special.We finished with pancakes and jam. They were great. All too often, they come to the table cold and tough. These were freshly made and must have traveled quickly from the pan to our table.I should add, though, that we had them again the next day, and they weren't as good.

Next to U Martinu, there is a little shack where we spent part of an evening once sitting by the river drinking beer and eating little snacks.The next day, we took a five minute walk outside of town.

We went to a recommended restaurant, Rybářská Bašta.

There is also a wonderful view of the castle and river from there, but from a different and very pleasing angle.

You can watch the people going by on their boats.We started sitting outside, but lightning and rain kicked up, so we moved inside.V started with fish soup. It was a very Czech version with fish roe, and she absolutely loved it. She said it reminded her of soup she had when she was younger.I had the roe deer in a cranberry sauce with fries(220 CZK). The meat was very tasty with a smoky flavor.It did have a lot of gristle, but it had been pounded so hard that it was not bad. The sauce was quite sweet. The fries were good.

V had river pike. She thought it was good. I thought it was a bit dry and bony.On our last day, we ate at U Martinu again. V had very greasy potato pancakes. She said the grease tasted old.I ordered the pork schnitzel, but got a chicken schnitzel. Which was funny because that was what I wanted but didn't see it on the menu. Anyway, it was good, though the breading flaked off with each bite.We walked around the town at night. The rain had brought out armies of snails.

They fascinated V, who is a big escargots fan, and she just had to play with them.We finally got some canoe time on Sunday, when the weather was better. It is possible to go from Rožmberk up to Český Krumlov. We've done it before, and it takes 4-6 hours.

We wanted a shorter trip, so we had the canoe rental shop drive us about 10 kilometers south to Vyšší Brod. There is a famous monastery there.

It took us less than two hours to make it back up to Rožmberk. Part of the fun is stopping along the way for beer and/or sausages.Generally, the food is nothing to write home about. But it was good to get in some nature, and it is far from the most expensive weekend you can spend outside of Prague. I think the canoe rental cost, which included the ride south, cost around 600 CZK for everything.

Paddling our own canoe past some beautiful nature really helped to clear our heads and replenish the spirits.

I highly recommend it.

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Slavonice, Southern Bohemia

I've lived in Prague for years, and I still love it for many reasons. But sometimes, you just need to get out of town. Change the scenery. Leave it all behind.

But where?

Round up the usual suspects: Český Krumlov, Telč, Mikulov, Lednice-Valtice, Rožmberk nad Vltavou, Český ráj, Šumava.

All these destinations have their charms. But, at this point, they all have multiple entries on the been-there-done-that list.

We were looking for something new and different. Some friends came up with a name I hadn't heard before:

Slavonice -- a small, renaissance town just one kilometer from the Austrian border. It is about 200 kilometers from Prague, and took us about two-and-half hours in the car.

Our friends wanted to check out the town and, especially, stay at Hotel Besídka. The hotel still has its historic facade. But its interior was completely redone.

Its award-winning, modern art makeover was designed by architect Roman Koucký. My friends had booked it weeks earlier.

There are just a few rooms in the hotel. Until June 1st, a double costs 1290 CZK -- a good, hot breakfast included. After that, the rooms are 1490 CZK. Dogs are allowed for an extra 200 CZK, which was good news for L and Big M.

I only saw one room -- where Big D and H stayed. It is quite different than most hotels and fairly spartan.

The spiral staircase that leads to all the rooms is wild. It is not for the faint of heart. And dogs don't seem to love it so much.

There are plenty of other pictures of different rooms on the hotel's website.

V and I tried to book the Besídka at the last minute, but they were full, so we ended up at Apartmány pod věží (Apartments Under the Tower), just across the street.

This place was reconstructed only four years ago, but the building is about 500 years old.

There is antique furniture, a great, old stone staircase, along with a modern, but small bathroom.

We loved it.

It also had a bargain of a mini bar -- a half-liter bottle of Pilsner Urquell for 30 CZK. Who needs TV?

Anyway, let's talk about food.

As we drove through the darkness of southern Bohemia at 10:30 pm on Friday night, avoiding small deer and large hare, a call came through with some good news.

H and Big D had landed in Slavonice ahead of us. The Besídka Restaurant's kitchen was open until midnight. We were only 30 minutes away, and I was hungry.

I was also very pleasantly surprised when I saw the menu. This would not be a weekend of only schnitzels, potato pancakes, sausage, and cabbage (although there was some of that). There was a nice list of pizzas, pastas, steaks, fish, and salad.

And there was another happy surprise -- low, low prices.

I could not resist going for my usual -- steak tartare with fried bread (topinky). It was one of the more expensive items on the menu at 210 CZK. But it was a serious amount of meat, maybe even too much.

The minced beef is topped with an egg yolk and surrounded by the following items: chopped onions, salt, black pepper, sweet paprika, mustard, ketchup, and cloves of garlic to rub on the bread.

The meat was fresh, but it had been ground so finely that it had a very creamy, almost non-meat-like texture. I didn't really like this, but V said this was how she was used to having it many years ago and did like it.

It came with a large amount of fried bread. V didn't like it so much. She said it tasted like French fries -- she thought they might have tossed it in the fryer instead of cooked in fresh oil in a pan. I liked it.

It just goes to show how widely opinions can vary on the same dish. Or that we disagree a lot.

Big D got the spaghetti with pesto and pine nuts for 80 CZK. It looked really good, but I didn't get a picture of it. Most of the pastas are less than 100 CZK and they offer a wide variety of sauces and other items to go with them.

A few in the group chose the pizzas, with also have a fair number of toppings to choose from.

You can get a pizza with prosciutto, salami, fresh tomatoes, artichokes, peppers, and more. The crusts are very thin and slightly charred, which I like.

No ketchup pizzas here.

V has a trout for 110 CZK, which she said was not the freshest and was heavily fried.

On another night, I tried the beef carpaccio (120 CZK). I've been eating a lot of raw meat lately.

It comes with lots of lemon slices, lots of sharp, shaved Parmesan cheese, and lots of black olives. The meat itself is sliced fairly thick, almost roast beef style, and had streaks of fat through it. Not bad, but nothing too special.

The first night, a small musical group played in the non-smoking room. They sang everything from traditional Czech folk tunes to "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

A friend who didn't make the trip with us said that Slavonice is known as something of an outpost for the Prague artistic community. A guy in a car with Prague plates did stop us in the street and asked us for directions.

If you want to make your own art, Besídka also has a store where you can paint, glaze, and fire your own ceramics like coffee mugs and plates. The website shows kids having fun with it.

But Besídka is not just for kids and artists. A newsreader from Czech television sat across from us. The town attracts its fair share of bicycle and motorcycle riders passing through. There was also a small group of American tourists. We drove around a little on the Austrian side of the border, but there was not much to see there.

The Besídka restaurant is not big or too fancy, but it is probably one of the more stylish places you'll find in the whole region.

Yes, that's Jan Amos Komenský's bust next to the subwoofer. On the lower shelves of the bar, they had busts that looked like Charles de Gaulle and Adolphe Menjou.

To me, at least.

And don't let this picture of the restaurant's tables, taken in the morning, fool you. The restaurant gets very full at night. Every table was taken, and we were lucky that one opened up for us at 9 pm on Saturday night.

We felt sorry for the two waitresses there, who worked every meal -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner -- all weekend.

For breakfast on Saturday, I had smaženka, which is basically bread soaked in egg, fried like an omelet, and then covered with mustard and onions.

I'd say it was a bit too heavy after a night of drinking. It goes for 55 CZK.

A number of people opted for the "hemenex" for 38 CZK. You'll see this word on many Czech breakfast menus.

If you are not from around here and don't know what this word means, try saying it very slowly and looking at the picture on the left.

On the menu, this is also called the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's Last Breakfast."

The menu has a number of creative names for their offerings. There is also a breakfast called "Komandante is dead." For 149 CZK, you get a shot of Baccardi rum, a cigar, and temporary possession of a photo of Fidel Castro.

V is not a big breakfast person. But when she does show up, she can be pretty creative, herself. She had a latte and a glass of sekt with a strawberry. C'est tout.

Restaurant guests get their own special breakfast menu. Non-guests are welcome for breakfast and can pay for the guest menu or order à la carte.

The weather when we were in Slavonice was terrific. After breakfast, we all went for a long walk through the bright yellow canola fields outside of town. We passed an old church, inspected some sadly unused concrete defense bunkers from 1937, and followed some logging trails.

Aside from a few stinging nettles, the whole weekend was a pure pleasure. The weather certainly helped.

If you are looking for something a little different, Slavonice is a great idea.

Besídka Hotel and Restaurant
Horní náměstí 522
378 81 Slavonice, Czech Republic
Tel: (+420) 384 493 293

Slavonice in the distance

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