Prague in Winter

In recent years, winter days have been warmer than we were used to even a few years earlier. The temperatures can be considerably above freezing, making the motorhome perfectly appropriate for a few days' trip. This time, it's Prague's turn. A beautiful city that I heard many nice things about, stopped for a couple of hours when I had the chance, but it was far too little.

We loaded the motorhome with the absolute necessities and headed towards our goal. Considering the fact that we began travelling at about midday, it was clear that we would have to stop along the way for some sleep. We decided to spend the night in Ledenitzen. It's a town, not too far from Vienna, about ten kilometres from the Czech - Austrian border. I believe that most have not yet heard for Ledenitzen and the monument located there. It is a majestic manor under UNESCO protection, with a large park around it. The park is supposedly the biggest in the Czech Republic. Late at night, in thick fog, and after a few unnecessary kilometres due to "Micka", the navigation, we finally arrived to an entirely empty parking lot. The manor and the park are officially open through the year, but not in the winter, which is understandable. We took a short walk through the town and found out, that we will not learn anything, as there was not a soul in sight, so we returned to the motorhome. In the morning, we walked around the castle and park, which was truly beautiful. A visit of this gem in May is priceless.

After the walk, we headed past Brno towards Prague and, early in the afternoon, arrived to the part of Prague called Troy. In the street, where we reserved a space in the motorhome stopover, we noticed, that it is the main activity of the whole street. Quite a few mini campsites can be found there, which admit motorhomes. Owners of houses with gardens discovered, that the rearrangement of gardens into campsites is a good business opportunity. We were excited, and the owner (incidentally, a pretty and kind lady) was good with foreign languages, meaning that the communication was not an issue. The toilets and showers were orderly and clean, so that not even the female part of the crew made any remarks, which otherwise pop up rather quickly. The lady kindly told us how to reach the centre, and also had public transportation tickets in stock, which we liked a lot.

Of course we immediately headed for the station, a couple hundred metres away from the camp, and off we were, towards the centre. We got out in the old part of the city and, in the following two days, explored old streets, sights, crossed Charles' bridge which was, of course, always packed with tourists. We also climbed up to the castle, of course, and enjoyed the view of the city, but also the colourful offer of the market stands. Food on these stands was absolutely wonderful so we did not go hungry.
We also explored Troy and discovered that a zoo, botanical garden, and a beautiful manor are nearby, but the latter is sadly closed in the winter.

After exploring Prague, we headed towards Česke Budejovice, where we filled our trunk with beer to the brim. It's a good beer, for a rather good price, compared to ours. From there, we went on to Graz, where we spent the night at Reisemobil Stellplatz. A large stopover, very orderly and almost always full. A bus from there goes to the centre, which was already in the expectation of the Advent. A walk through the city was quite pleasant.

In the morning, we headed back to Slovenia and, to do it justice, stopped in Ptuj. Well, we found that, as opposed to the Czech castles and manors, the castle here was open for visitors. We were happy to see it and were excited about the furnishing, preservation and, in the end, once again found out that things are beautiful everywhere but the most beautiful at home. Who would have thought...

Well, this was also the last item on the list of a short, but nonetheless intensive trip. And next time elsewhere, perhaps Budapest, perhaps Vienna, who knows where.