Christmas Day in Český Krumlov

Our Christmas Day in Český Krumlov in photos.

The view from our room with the River Vltava below.

Grace and Lily pausing to take a photo of St. Vitus Church, reconstructed in the early 15th century.

A sister huddle in one of the city's squares.

Purchasing a couple of Czech Christmas decorations that we will hopefully enjoy for many Christmases to come.

Some more Christmas market food to sample.  Barry has caught me with my mouth full of a large potato pancake and it is quite clear that my hand is poised to grab more.  Not so elegant.

Meandering through the town, with the castle on the hill as our destination.

A gingerbread shop looking very Christmasy.

A tad bit larger than the macchiato that you get in Italy, but no complaints.  It was a yummy Christmas Day coffee treat.

A view of the tower of the state castle, the oldest part of which was built in the mid-thirteenth century. More information on the tower here.

Great view of the town and the Vlatava River from the castle grounds.

A castle window just the right size for Lily.

Where we stayed is the red house with the black roof on the right side of the river.

Heading back into town under the Cloak Bridge that links the castle complex over the deep ravine.

Christmas dinner reservations at the Restaurant Bohemia.

There was no turkey with stuffing on the menu, but Barry and Grace ordered the chicken with cinnamon apple slices and cranberry sauce which seemed quite festive.  I quite enjoyed my pork stuffed potato dumplings with cabbage.

Svornosti Square after dark. We were so full after dinner but had to come back for another Christmas market treat and our last taste of Trdlenik.  This is a sweet bread that is made from dough rolled out in strips and then wrapped around a spindle and glazed with sugar.  It is then cooked in open coals until the outside gets browned and the inside fluffs up to spongy, soft bread-like dough.  After cooking, we almost always chose to have ours rolled in cinnamon sugar, and once Lily had one with Nutella spread on the inside, which she would highly recommend.

Closing in on the Christmas stall in Svornosti Square where the best Trdelnik in the whole of Czech Republic is served.  Okay, so perhaps we don't quite have the authority to make such a claim, but considering we were only in this country for 5 days, we sampled quite a lot of Trdelnik from multiple vendors and this was the best by a long shot: very fresh and nicely puffed up.

Our order is done and just being removed from the heat.

An after dark shot of St.Vitus Church on the way back to our room. So beautiful.  Barry was feeling pretty chuffed with himself at this moment as we had just been in a store for the girls to buy a few postcards and stickers for their travel books and upon leaving Barry gave the storekeeper all the Czech he had;  "Děkuji" (thank-you), "Ahoj" (casual goodbye), "veselé Vánoce" (Merry Christmas), and the shopkeeper gave him a big smile and said, "Oh, you live in Czech!".  

We so missed family and friends, but today is a Christmas that will stand out for our family in the years to come.

Merry Christmas!  Veselé Vánoce!