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| The Balcony Detail from my room at Hotel Kucera |
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| View from my room this morning of the snow falling |
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| View from my room this morning of the snow falling |
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| Snow Falling |
I awoke to snow, lots of snow. It wasn’t coming down heavy
just consist for most of the day. I took a little walk in the morning after
breakfast and then to the spa for lymph-drainage. I had some time before my
next treatment so I went off to do my water cure and then took a walk up the
hill to see St. Andrews Church.
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| St. Andrews |
“The Gothic style St. Andrew Cemetery Church was built in
the 15th century. It is the oldest surviving church in Karlovy Vary. The
original church was rebuilt to its present form in 1841. Several prominent
personalities were buried in the former cemetery which surrounded the church,
such as Dr. David Becher, Dr. Jean de Carro, architect F. Gilly and others. The
cemetery was closed in 1911 and transformed into the Mozart Park.”
The Mozart Park mentioned above is where Mozart’s son is buried which I wrote about in my blog a few weeks ago. It’s still a cemetery more than a park.
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| I liked the pattern of the snow over the grating. There's even a heart |
St. Andrews is now a Greek Orthodox Catholic church and
simply decorated inside with white washed walls and several religious
paintings, some red rugs and simple seating throughout. There were a man and
women cleaning it when I got up there and they kindly let me spend a little
time just being quiet in the back as they continued their duties, the man
singing softly to himself.
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| Window on my walk down hill with reflection of me taking the picture |
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| Interesting door with snow swishing past |
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| Great lamp hanging over a door on the same building as the window with my reflection |
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| Musical details on the door |
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| Snow Plow |
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| King of Italy door |
From there I walked back down to the center of town. As I
walked I passed several buildings where the doors caught my eyes. I love the
simply details on some of the doors and with the snow coming down it made for
wonderful photographs. I love the one of the window with the white metal
grating over it and the reflection of me and the plants as well as snow flakes.
I also went past a door that könig von italien written above
the decorative metal design over the glass panels. It’s German for King of
Italy.
I got a few snow shots of the river and the beautiful
buildings around it and up the hill as well a shot of the mini snow plow coming
up the hill and doing a very good job of clearing a small path up the street.
I had one of those deep disuse massages later in
the day by a very sweet young lady named Natalia who really worked the muscles and got out all those knots and the tension I'd still been holding on to. It was very good for my overall physical well-being And then I happily had a good hour or so in and out of the
exceedingly hot sauna. It’s great after a deep tissue massage to just sweat and
sweat and that’s what I did. And in between I’d do the freezing cold shower
which wasn’t as bad this time because I was so hot it was actually refreshing.
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| Dog coming to play with me while licking the snow off his nose |
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| Same dog contemplating the merits of peeing on the tree |
After all that I took a walk for about 2 hours but took a
little short cut up the hill with the funicular that goes to the Imperial
hotel. I just couldn’t bring myself to climb up the hill. It had stopped
snowing and I wanted to take full advantage of the rest of the day. Walked
around near the Imperial Hotel which has such a lovely park and as an adorable,
very friendly black dog came charging at me to play and amazingly I got the
perfect picture of him just as he’s about to reach me and just as his little
pink tongue was sticking out licking the snow off his nose. So cute!
I found the St. Lawrence monument which the tour guide at
the museum had pointed out to me on the 16th Century model of the
city. I believe there must have been statues or something in the carved out
areas but maybe they removed them for preservation.
From there I walked down the hill by the path that was next
to the hold funicular tracks. There is a pink building across from the river
that was once the entrance to probably the first funicular going up to the
Imperial but clearly it hasn’t been used for years. “13th Dorothy, Dorothy Hall
- in the street At the Imperial Hotel, CO2 and a small amount of water (13th
Karlovy Vary spring was also marked Becherovka.)”
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| Spring #13 - Dorothy Spring |
The path took me past the road where Martin had told me one
of my three missing springs was and he was right. It actually was a building
Elke and I had passed walking down from the Sanssouci Resort a few weeks ago.
It’s large pink building called the Dorothy Pavilion and is of course no longer
in use.
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| Beethoven Monument |
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| Japanese Rock Garden |
I continued down the road a little bit and got to the
Richmond Resort which has such beautiful grounds including the Japanese Rock
Garden and the Beethoven Monument. Both of which I took pictures of the first
week I was here but have included new ones since they are both now covered in a
food of snow. It was fun walking around today up at the Imperial park and down
at the Richmond because the snow was so deep at least a foot and thankfully
with my boots being so warm I could just romp around and make foot print trails
and enjoying being out in the fresh air and acting like a kid playing in the
snow. I do see the kids walking around with little plastic sleds and have
thought I should get one of those but then it’s hard enough getting up and down
these hills without any added weight. But it is tempting when you see how much
fun they are having and also it would probably more practical when trying to
get down a hill you no longer need to worry about walking snow as not to slip
you can just seat yourself down on the plastic disc like sled and slid your way
to town. Okay, yes, it’s often not a straight path with all those trees, bushes
and streams but in theory it would be fun and easy.
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| Richmond Hotel front gate |
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| Spring #14 - Stephanie Spring |
So now I went in search of the 2
nd of the missing
spring fountains and with a little plodding though the dense snow and pretty
much on the verge of giving up thinking the fountain itself may have been
removed and there is only a hole of some sort in the ground invisible to me now
because of all the snow. And just as I was getting ready to give up I came to
the gazebo, which I had seen before, but at that moment it struck me that that
would be the perfect place to house a spring fountain and alas I was correct.
There at the top of the gazebo read a sign Altas Keina Pramen Štěpánka
(Stephanie’s Spring.)
“Štěpánka Spring 13°C - This spring was discovered in 1884.
Its composition made it an indispensable part of drinking cure. However, the
spring vanished in the first half of the 20th century. It was re-discovered as
late as 1993.” The fountain is covered by a large metal cover and no longer in
use.
So Dorothy spring is number 13 and Stephanie is number 14 so
that just leaves number 16 to find and if Martin is correct it should be just
up the street from the old Post Office in the center of town and I’ll go in
search of it maybe tomorrow. So I won’t be able to say I tasted the water from
every spring because these three are out of commission but 13 out of 16 still
isn’t bad. And I really don’t find the water so offensive. There was a group of
American college students here on a tour for the day and I just happened to go
for my water cure just as they were arriving with their teacher/guide and
overheard them making a fuss about the taste. Maby I’m just so happy to be here
drinking the healing waters I just don’t think it tastes bad.
Also, something that is a quintessential treat from Karlovy
Vary is the spa wafer. The history of the traditional Czech spa wafers
(lázeňské oplatky) goes back to 1856 when Karel Reitenberger started to produce
them on a large scale. Their taste and shape have not changed ever since. I’ve
actually come across them in the US sold oddly enough in TJ Maxx. The first
time I saw them I was shocked but I guess they buy lots of thing in bulk for
the stores and who knows maybe there was an abundance of wafers here a few
years ago and so they got a great deal for their stores.
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| Karlovy Vary Wafer held in front of Spring 1A |
Anyway, today I had a cinnamon one which was heated to
perfection and as I walked with my elephant cup sipping my water cure I had my
little treat. I took a picture of it, after a few nibbles had distorted its
usually perfect roundness. Yum, yum!
Also in the Spring Colonnade where I bought my spa wafer and where I get my water cure they have a few little shops and stalls selling everything from the special Karlovy Vary cups to jewelry to Karlovy Vary cosmetics and skin care. There is also an area where they have a glass sculpture gallery. The picture below shows the gallery area and they have some lovely pieces particularly the blue horse in window in the back and some of the beautiful bowls. But what always catches my attention when I pass is the large glass sculpture of what I imagine is suppose to be wings but all I can think each and every time I see it is the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond" when Raymond's difficult mother Maria takes a sculpture class and makes something almost exactly like this one except to everyone in the show including some nuns at the convenient where she had donated her sculpture found it so offensive. I'm sure if you've watched the show you know exactly what I'm referring to and and why the image offended so many people.
I also, like many of my walks since I’ve been here, came
across some snow sculptures. The first was three little animals, the bird being
the most easily distinguished and then a fabulous sculpture near the Japanese
rock garden of a woman I think now covered in parts by the new fallen snow but still
really beautiful crafted. I’m sure who ever did it really enjoyed themselves and
was happy to embrace the child within as well as their artistic abilities.
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| Snow Sculpture Richmond Park |
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| Three Little Animals |
So after my evening water cure and my walk I was ready to go
back to my warm room and have dinner which consisted of feta cheese, cabbage salad
and Karlovy Vary bread sticks. It was actually very good and I wasn’t actually
sure when I went grocery shopping that I had in fact bought feta but thankfully
I had made the right choice. I like any cheese for the most part except goat
and that was my concern that I had picked up goat cheese which for whatever
reason I just detest it. But dinner was satisfying and I am happily snug in my
bed typing this blog and looking forward to tomorrows adventures.
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| Grand Hotel Pupp at dusk |
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| Quissisana Hotel in the snow |
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| Even the man hole covers are interesting |
I continued down the road a little bit and got to the
Richmond Resort which has such beautiful grounds including the Japanese Rock
Garden and the Beethoven Monument. Both of which I took pictures of the first
week I was here but have included new ones since they are both now covered in a
food of snow. It was fun walking around today up at the Imperial park and down
at the Richmond because the snow was so deep at least a foot and thankfully
with my boots being so warm I could just romp around and make foot print trails
and enjoying being out in the fresh air and acting like a kid playing in the
snow. I do see the kids walking around with little plastic sleds and have
thought I should get one of those but then it’s hard enough getting up and down
these hills without any added weight. But it is tempting when you see how much
fun they are having and also it would probably more practical when trying to
get down a hill you no longer need to worry about walking snow as not to slip
you can just seat yourself down on the plastic disc like sled and slid your way
to town. Okay, yes, it’s often not a straight path with all those trees, bushes
and streams but in theory it would be fun and easy.
So now I went in search of the 2nd of the missing
spring fountains and with a little plodding though the dense snow and pretty
much on the verge of giving up thinking the fountain itself may have been
removed and there is only a hole of some sort in the ground invisible to me now
because of all the snow. And just as I was getting ready to give up I came to
the gazebo, which I had seen before, but at that moment it struck me that that
would be the perfect place to house a spring fountain and alas I was correct.
There at the top of the gazebo read a sign Altas Keina Pramen Štěpánka
(Stephanie’s Spring.) 
“Štěpánka Spring 13°C - This spring was discovered in 1884.
Its composition made it an indispensable part of drinking cure. However, the
spring vanished in the first half of the 20th century. It was re-discovered as
late as 1993.” The fountain is covered by a large metal cover and no longer in
use.
Also, something that is a quintessential treat from Karlovy
Vary is the spa wafer. The history of the traditional Czech spa wafers
(lázeňské oplatky) goes back to 1856 when Karel Reitenberger started to produce
them on a large scale. Their taste and shape have not changed ever since. I’ve
actually come across them in the US sold oddly enough in TJ Maxx. The first
time I saw them I was shocked but I guess they buy lots of thing in bulk for
the stores and who knows maybe there was an abundance of wafers here a few
years ago and so they got a great deal for their stores.
