Getting Out, Part III

Take another trip, take another trip, take another trip...with me. Anyone remember that song? Ok, me neither. We got outside of the city again, this time to a tiny town called Benešov (pronounced Beneshov). The town itself wasn't all that much, but very close were two amazing castles, Konopiště (pronounced Konopishtye) and Český Šternberk (pronounced Cheskee Shternberk). You can read more about them by clicking on the links. Remember ole' Archduke Ferdinand? The one whose assassination started WW I? Yeah, Konopiště was his pad (one of the many.) Besides the rain and getting stranded in Český Šternberk for a couple of hours, the trip was quite nice. Okay, since you're already wondering, here's the story: We left last Monday night after my physical therapy and took a train to Benešov. We arrived at the train station and had no problems whatsoever finding our hotel.



We just can't get away from bathrooms offering a peek at the action.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel - you know, the typical bread, sliced deli meat, cheeses and pâté. Luckily, there was also some honey for the bread. After breakfast, we headed to the bus station, only to find that there wasn't a bus to Konopiště until noon (if there really was one at all, we couldn't really tell). So we began the 2.5 km (1.5 mile) walk/limp up to the castle. It was a nice walk once it stopped raining, so we didn't really mind.



Along the trail.



Overlooking the lake.



Yep, that's a bear. In a pit. In front of the castle.



The front gate. We're thinking about modeling the front gate of our first home after this one.




The backyard.



Matt and Mama.



I tried to pet the dogs.



Me and my Mama.

After Konopiště, we walked back to the bus station and finally figured out how to catch a bus to Český Šternberk. Let's just say the bus schedules are not as precise and easy to read as they are in Prague. We finally made it to the castle after hiking up the hill from the bus stop (in the rain again) and took a tour around inside.



The view from the bus stop.



The stairs up to the castle. Good thing they had horses to ride back then. Bad thing we didn't have them.



The courtyard of the castle.



Mama, trying to open a locked door. She does that a lot.

Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside either of the castles that day, so if you want to see them, you'll have to come on over.



Okay, I lied. I did manage to sneak some pictures in this castle. But I had to wait until Matt and the tour guide weren't looking. Don't tell.



For some reason, this reminds me of my MawMaw.



The dining room.

We walked back down the hill to the bus stop, thinking we had plenty of time to get back to Benešov, grab our bags from the hotel, and hop the next train to Prague. The only problem was that there was only one more bus leaving town and it wouldn't take us all the way to Benešov. In fact, there were no more buses into Benešov that day. There would be a train, we found out, but it wouldn't put us in Benešov until 10:30, which would put us home in Prague well after midnight. That didn't exactly work since we had planned to take a 6:30 train the next morning to Vienna. We asked around at the local restaurant about a taxi and they all sort of laughed at the though of a taxi in their tiny community. So we wandered around town, waiting on the train that we though was our only option.



See that little shack right there? That's the "train station". Yeah.


Waiting by the tracks with a great view.



Mama's hair held up a lot better than mine in the rain that day.

Most of the conversations, by the way, were in our very broken Czech with very patient Czechs. Amidst our wandering, we stumbled upon *gasp* a real hotel (!) and my mom, the adventurous woman that she is, struck up a conversation with the manager, who spoke just enough English to realize our predicament and offer to call a taxi! Woohoo! Precisely 1 hour and one very scary cab ride later, we were back in Benešov and waiting for the train to take us back to Prague.



Just a pretty rainbow. Maybe it was our sign that everything was going to be okay.

Now, as a reward for your dedication to this story, here's a picture of me, halfway through the hike up to Konopiště and still pretty grumpy about having to walk instead of taking a bus: