Cesky Krumlov 2

Today the weather cleared a bit, a few drops trickled down, but mostly sun spots and white billowy clouds. After queuing up for “We We time”, showers, dental care, hair fluffing, toe taping, and discussions on the effectiveness of a high fiber diet, we headed out for the castle. As we walked up the hill, Linda noticed that a guy appeared to be following us. We stopped, and 100 feet back he stopped. We lingered for a photo shoot and he leaned up against a wall watching us. Keep in mind were in a very public place with a smattering of tourists constantly about. This went on for about 20 minutes.

I even took out my camera and took his picture and made sure we locked eyes so he knew we knew who he was (see photo). But he continued to follow us up every cobblestone path we took on the castle grounds. I took out my umbrella and as a the bull elephant protects the women and children by tucking then into a tight cluster behind the bull, I herded us on.

We walked towards one tunnel that leads to another courtyard. I had all of us go inside, wait until he entered, then doubled back out of the tunnel. He stopped and moved back towards the entrance and waited for us to return, with his hood on, face enshrouded by darkness, he looked like the archangel of death. There was only one logical place for us to go and he was content to wait us out.

He is tailing us. The thought came to me, “What would Dave do? Surely he would be near his garage with access to untold sharp and powerful tools”, no help there. Steve our friend would whip out his paragliding wing and fly off the castle walls. Bruce would talk really loud and make the stalker our best friend. I’m not getting any useful neighborly inspiration.

I considered asking the ladies for another umbrella and using them like ninja dragon swords for defense. Testoterone powered me into a “Bruce Lee” like stance. I entered the tunnel alone and walked up to the guy and defiantly asked him why he was following us. He kept saying “prosim” which means “please”. Waving my umbrella like a mad conductor, I told him to stop following us. “Prosim, Prosim”. “See that lady over there (pointing at Linda), she’s connected. You ever watch the Sopranos? Badda Bing!” O.K., somewhere I crossed over the line between fact and fiction, let the reader beware.

When we all exited the tunnel and lingered in the following courtyard our tail was gone. Why watch the Bourne Ultimatum when you can watch the Bob Ultimatum? With our heartbeats buzzing, we felt the need for nourishment and headed for lunch. We were told about a wonderful vegetarian restaurant that sits out over the river. I had fried cheese, with delicately fried assorted vegetables. Gayle had Indian Dahl which was a dense flavor packed lentil dish. Linda went for chilli which had red beans, veggies, and Arabic Bread.

Dinner tonight was another over the top feast. I had a grilled, chicken breast stuffed with blue cheese and smoked ham. Linda had a pork cutlet wrapped in ham, with a delicate layer of blue cheese sauce, sealing the deal. Each of us had a full liter of dark Eggenberg and not so surprisingly befriended 7 German’s sitting next to us. They had moved on beyond beer and were drinking shots of plum brandy and schnapps. They told us that they were celebrating their grandparents at the end of the table and then started laughing. So we topped that by saying Linda was our grandmother, Lindka Lyonova!

As we were leaving we ran into the perky couple of Deon and Candice. We keep bouncing into them around the village. They told us they were “homeless and unemployed” engineers who were staying in England. They will be returning to Australia in a few weeks and are doing a short “walk about” before leaving Europe.

Today we are off to visit the castle gardens and perhaps walk up to the monastery. We all feel that Cesky Krumlov is someplace we would like to return to for at least a week’s visit. There is so much more to eat and drink here. If you come, bring lots of memory cards for your cameras. In 1-1/2 days we have shot 748 photos, talk about picturesque!