Karlovy Vary

Since we stayed in Europe this summer, we decided that we needed to see more of the Czech Republic, outside of Prague. Our first excursion, besides the failed spontaneous trip to Usti nad Labem (see earlier post), was to Karlovy Vary.

Karlovy Vary is a famous spa town in the Czech Republic. It hosts a large independent film festival each year, it's also been a Hollywood film setting and people go there in general to benefit from the properties of the natural mineral spring water. We avoided the film festival and all its craziness and didn't care much for the taste of the mineral water, but we had fun finding the springs and trying them.

Here we are taking a rest along the river. It is a beautiful city!

When we stopped for a rest we also found these dance chimes in the pedestrian walkway.

Many of the natural mineral springs have been tapped and colonnades have been built over them. All you need to do is pick out a special mineral water drinking cup to suit your personality from one of the many tourist booths and then set out to find the springs. They are numbered and named and each one has a different temperature. Many people claim they have different "flavors" so we convinced the kids to try them with us. The kids were thinking more along the lines of orange and raspberry flavors like the modern forms of mineral water found here in Europe. I decided they mostly tasted the same, like iron.

A large variety of drinking cups are available to purchase; the toilet made me laugh but I didn't buy it!

Jessica filling our cup for our first try of the mineral water

The colonnades covering the springs were quite varied in style

The largest and hottest spring actually spurts water up to 12 meters high and is 72 degrees C (translation - about 39 ft. and 162 degrees F) and it is inside of a large building

We also saw the Church of St. Mary Magdalene

We went to the top of the Diana Lookout Tower on a hill overlooking the city

Then we hiked back down the hill; the kids had so much fun! Since we live in the city and don't have a car, we haven't done much hiking here and I really miss it!

We saw this beautiful Russian Orthodox Church

We also saw the famous Grandhotel Pupp, seen in several Hollywood films.