A Day to Recover

Today was our day to take a break, if we wanted to...... Don decided to take the horizontal trail today and got a massage ($41.00) and of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ride. this was our chance to go short which we did. Again, winding about 22 miles through the hillside burgs around Cesky Krumlov.

Our Room with a View

Here's a shot of one of the small villages. A simple 2 lane road in and out, very quiet except a few chickens. 

 This afternoon we were able to walk the town a bit and then met our beer tasting guide who is also a tour guide for a tour of the castle. Again, stories of many struggles and changing of hands. This area is very well preserved as the people were poor and pretty much left alone during the major wars.

Tonight, we had a round table Q and A session with Helen who is also a local. A stout strong woman who says it straight. When asked about discrimination against women she said no one has discriminated against me.... I don't doubt her. Again, she told about her life under communism and how everything changed like "waking from a bad dream" when it ended. About 80% of the people are agnostic here which is surprising because of the many shrines and magnificent churches. The reason is for the most part the people have been so battered through the years, one take over after another both politically and religiously that they don't trust anyone anymore and thus are agnostic. Then Helen took us through town and left us at a small family run restaurant that was outdoors in a cave like setting. A huge fire pit was the kitchen and a group of three men played away on banjo, guitar, kazoo...... We celebrated well our last night in Bohemia. Tomorrow we're off to Austria.