My (Eastern) European vacation 2008, part 3 of 4
Just like the first two installments, a whole lot of pictures under the cut. Part 1 | Part 2
Olomouc
Olomouc (pronounced roughly O-lo-mootz) is a wonderfully photogenic town of about 100,000 people halfway between Krakow and Vienna by train. I feel in love with it pretty much at first sight. We got off the train to a beautiful warm sunny day (it had been raining when we left Krakow) and easily found a tram to take us downtown to look for a place to stay. Then there was a lot of walking around little hills cobbled streets with rolly luggage.
We tried to stay in a guest house on this lovely quaint little street but everywhere was full.
First glimpse of the town hall over the tops of buildings as we searched for a place with rooms free.
And we ended up here. That's the hotel sign on the right there under the light.
I fell in love with that little chapel, St. Jan.
Part of that love probably had to do with proximity, this was the view out the window of our room.
The town hall in the main square (Horni Namesti).
The astrological clock on the town hall. It used to have a mosaic and statues of saints that paraded out from behind the clock face when it chimed but then the communists came along and "fixed" it so now it's all workers and washer women.
The square itself looking away form the town hall. This is right near a coffee shop that we went to mornings for good coffee (since sadly the free breakfast coffee at the hotel was Nescafe). But, since the main square was a mere two blocks from the hotel and the food and drink was insanely cheap (a really good bottle of wine for $9 ordered in a restaurant) it was hardly a hardship.
St. Elisabeth's cathedral (at least I think it as called Elisabeth). It was huge and there wasn't anywhere in the eastern part of town you could go and not see it.
There were benches in the square in front of the church and I sat there on a Sunday evening as the sun was going down and watched two older Czech couples come out of the church, chat for a bit and then get into their cars and drive off. The way they were dressed and the cars then were driving made me feel like I had gone back in time.
St. Mary's, a smaller church kind of attached to the big one.
A gate across the way.
Olomouc is quite small, and I think we probably walked every street in old town which was a pretty nice feeling. Random streets and such.
I love all these little dormers.
There was quite a long strech of the old city wall still intact with a lovely park between it and one of the rivers that flows through town.
On our last day in town we played mini-golf just over the river from here. Like everything else in Olomouc the mini-golf was also insanely cheap.
We passed by this door every day on a way to the square from our hotel.
And this is the view heading back up the same street away from town.
More random streets and such.
I don't know the name of this church, but there was something about the simplicity of it that really fascinated me.
Olomouc was a lovely lovely place I would go back there in a second.
Olomouc
Olomouc (pronounced roughly O-lo-mootz) is a wonderfully photogenic town of about 100,000 people halfway between Krakow and Vienna by train. I feel in love with it pretty much at first sight. We got off the train to a beautiful warm sunny day (it had been raining when we left Krakow) and easily found a tram to take us downtown to look for a place to stay. Then there was a lot of walking around little hills cobbled streets with rolly luggage.
We tried to stay in a guest house on this lovely quaint little street but everywhere was full.
First glimpse of the town hall over the tops of buildings as we searched for a place with rooms free.
And we ended up here. That's the hotel sign on the right there under the light.
I fell in love with that little chapel, St. Jan.
Part of that love probably had to do with proximity, this was the view out the window of our room.
The town hall in the main square (Horni Namesti).
The astrological clock on the town hall. It used to have a mosaic and statues of saints that paraded out from behind the clock face when it chimed but then the communists came along and "fixed" it so now it's all workers and washer women.
The square itself looking away form the town hall. This is right near a coffee shop that we went to mornings for good coffee (since sadly the free breakfast coffee at the hotel was Nescafe). But, since the main square was a mere two blocks from the hotel and the food and drink was insanely cheap (a really good bottle of wine for $9 ordered in a restaurant) it was hardly a hardship.
St. Elisabeth's cathedral (at least I think it as called Elisabeth). It was huge and there wasn't anywhere in the eastern part of town you could go and not see it.
There were benches in the square in front of the church and I sat there on a Sunday evening as the sun was going down and watched two older Czech couples come out of the church, chat for a bit and then get into their cars and drive off. The way they were dressed and the cars then were driving made me feel like I had gone back in time.
St. Mary's, a smaller church kind of attached to the big one.
A gate across the way.
Olomouc is quite small, and I think we probably walked every street in old town which was a pretty nice feeling. Random streets and such.
I love all these little dormers.
There was quite a long strech of the old city wall still intact with a lovely park between it and one of the rivers that flows through town.
On our last day in town we played mini-golf just over the river from here. Like everything else in Olomouc the mini-golf was also insanely cheap.
We passed by this door every day on a way to the square from our hotel.
And this is the view heading back up the same street away from town.
More random streets and such.
I don't know the name of this church, but there was something about the simplicity of it that really fascinated me.
Olomouc was a lovely lovely place I would go back there in a second.