Displaced Beachbums

One of my New Years resolutions is to dust off my Flashback Friday updates.  There was a lot of dust to clear since I haven’t done a Flashback Friday since 2009!  As I was catching up with friends currently living in Germany, we discussed all the wonderful places to visit in Europe. I highly recommended they visit Mariánské Lázně and Karlovy Lázně which are two Czech spa towns within an easy drive from Grafenwöhr. Mariánské Lázně is only a 40 minute drive. Both towns are also a wonderful day trip from Prague.  Please forgive my photos in this post, they’re from the early 2000s and before I got a digital camera. All these photos are (gasp) scanned.

Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) is truly beautiful any time of year but springtime is my favorite. There are several parks with pretty flowers which I enjoyed strolling through and letting Logan run around. The main Colonnade is a cast iron construction with a wooden ceiling and a Singing Fountain. From April to October, the fountain dances every odd hour beginning at 7am. There’s a famous composition playing during the display. If you happen to be there during the evening, lights are added enhancing the water show.  Click here for a Singing Fountain schedule of music compositions.

In these spa towns, there are mineral springs, containing carbon dioxide and mineral salts. Drinking the mineral water is said to have medicinal effects ~ people have been partaking in mineral springs water since the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans.  Personally I couldn’t get past my one sip of the water.  But I did enjoy the spa wafers ~ be sure to try them while you’re there.

“Spa treatments” didn’t start in Central Europe until 18th Century and Mariánské Lázně is one of the youngest of spa towns.  The town celebrated it’s 200 year anniversary in 2008.

Whenever we would visit, we enjoyed all the various fountains around town:

Karlovy Lázně (Karlsbad) is the more famous spa town, as well as the largest, in the Czech Republic. It’s a charming town which lies in a lush green valley where the River Teplá and River Ohře (Eger) converge. Meandering through town is the best way to see it. The town has impressive Colonnades which you can walk through and drink the healing waters.The earliest mention of the treatments in Karlovy Lázně comes when, at the end of the 14th century, Charles IV submersed his ill legs in one of the mineral springs.

Sampling the mineral water

The view from the top of the hill is impressive not to mention the fun of riding the funicular train to the top:

View of Karlovy Vary

Be sure to have lunch or dinner at the GrandHotel Pupp.  It’s very elegant with fantastic customer service.  The hotel was a location site in the movie Last Holiday and it also appears in the James Bond film Casino Royale  (the one with yummy Daniel Craig) although in the film it’s referred to as Hotel Splendide in Montenegro.

We took most of our visitors to Karlovy Lázně and got a photo of them on the steps near the center of town.

Makes me smile just remembering those wonderful visits!