Tim and Gem's Honeymoon Adventure: Roadtrip! Germany, Czech Republic and Austria, November 12-17

I find hiring a car can be like the lotto; you select the car class, mini, compact, mid sized etc, and then the models range from anything from a smart car to top level BMWs.

We opted for the compact class so we avoided the chance of getting a smart car smart car, but it wasn’t going to be a BMW M3 either. In the end we got lucky. Originally we had a two door Fiat 500 which would’ve been a tight squeeze, and would put a sizeable dent in my manhood, but he was a nice guy and we got an upgrade to a beautiful little Mercedes A-Class turbo diesel.

We loaded the car, threw our bags on the nice leather seats and we were on our way. Driving on the opposite side of the road and changing gears with the wrong hand was a little challenging, but it didn’t take long to get used to.

Our first stop on the trip was Dresden in the south of Germany for a couple of nights. It was only 2-2.5 hours away, but that’s depending on a couple of things, traffic and how fast you drive on the autobahn. Ah the autobahn…wide, smooth, flat roads with a line through the speed limit sign (meaning no limit!). Our little speed-machine cruised along at an easy 160km/h, no troubles at all. Even at the peak of our speed (which I won’t mention), there were still cars flying past us!

After about 2 hours, we were rolling along the cobbled streets of Dresden and found our hostel. We had no idea what Dresden would be like and picked it purely based on its location/photo opportunities.

We checked in, and went for a little explore before the sun went down. We were on the northern side of the river, which was the arty, bar scene area, and with a short walk south over the river, you were transported to a magnificent old, fairytale town, with beautiful architecture and horse-drawn carts cruising the streets. We walked around, brought some tacky magnets to add to our collection and sat by the river as the sun was setting.

Day two we decided to visit Schloss Moritzburg, a tiny little town a short drive from Dresden that was home to a stunning manor, complete with surrounding moat. When we got there, we were confronted by a monstrous, impressive manor, but the moat was not what it looked like on Google. It was half dried up and muddy, making it a little less impressive. Don’t get me wrong, the building and the grounds were amazing, and unbelievably symmetrical, but some more water in the moat would’ve been nice. We then drove further north to Spreewald, a little town on a series of rivers that looked like a cross between Venice and the Cotswolds.

The town was tiny, one street probably 300m long, with only a handful of shops, and with it being off season, most of them were closed which made getting lunch a bit of a challange. After a big lunch, we walked around and found the canals we had come to see except due to it being down season we couldn’t take a cruise through the maze of canals, as there were no boats! This little town was so peaceful, pretty and so quiet we still enjoyed wandering around there.

An hour later and we were back in Dresden, chilling out with a cold drink and some currywurst, already packing our bags ready for the drive south to the Czech Republic the next day.

We were on the road pretty early, as we were going to try and see Bastei, as our last attempt wasn’t overly successful, as the GPS didn’t know where it was, but this time we were organised.

It was cold (about 3 degrees), the sun still hadn’t fully risen and there was a low fog lingering around, but we managed to navigate there successfully.

Bastei is a rock formation that towers 200m above the Elbe River, and was formed by water erosion over a million years ago. From 200m up, you can imagine it’s a pretty amazing view down along the river and into the valley, not to mention the appearance of the bridge built into the rocks is a sight in itself. We spent an hour exploring and taking in the amazing views on the bridge and surrounding peaks and valleys.

Back on the road, we decided to stop in Prague for lunch, which only took a couple of hours. We found Prague easy, but finding a park in Prague was as possible as winning the lotto. We drove around for close to an hour with no luck, and decided to cut our losses and continue on the way. We did manage to disrupt Prague’s tram system. We turned up a street and after 25m we realized it was only for trams. So with an Austin Powers style 26 point turn (and holding up about 4 trams), we managed to turn ourselves around and head back to the roads that welcome cars

Two more hours in the car and we arrived in Cesky Krumlov, our home for the next few nights. We parked the car, got our keys and settled into our cosy little Czech style apartment.

We went for a walk that afternoon to check out the tiny little town, and found a place that overlooked the river to have some dinner and have a drink. And this is where I met Eggenberg…

Eggenberg is a small, old school brewery in Cesky Krumlov where the methods of brewing having never changed, and apparently either has any of their brewing equipment, no fancy stainless steel vats or electronic controls there. I ordered one of their dark beers, and it was love at first sip. Unlike any other beer I have tasted, rich and smooth with honey after taste, it was delightful. And I tried three different kinds of their beer, the dark, the larger and then what they call the normal one, and they all were amazing and all had the unusual honey like flavor. I wish we could get it at home! I am looking into getting some shipped over! Anyway, enough about beer…

Our next two days in Cesky Krumlov were pretty chilled and relaxed, it was a small, sleepy town so it made it really easy just to unwind and get lost in the curling, cobblestone maze of streets. We visited the castle up on the hill that provided a stunning view of the whole city, and we learnt some amazing new photo poses from the Japanese tourist groups.

One meal in particular that is worth a mention, was when I was served what looked like a whole chicken, complete with a whole wheel of camembert and a huge serving of cranberries on top, plus about 1kg of potatoes on the side. Gem’s meal wasn’t far behind with an extremely generous lump of steak complimented by a mountain of mash and veggies. We washed it all down with about 5 or 6 beers and it came to the bargain price of about $35! Brilliant.

On the walk home from our feast, we saw flashing lights and heard bad music coming from one of the hotels that we knew was home to Asian tour groups. We hoped they were having a karaoke party and we wanted in. So we let ourselves in through the closed gates and Gem was making a b-line straight for the door, but I thought better check what’s actually happening, and to our bitter disappointment, there was no karaoke, just 3 couples slow dancing on the dance floor, we were pretty devastated, we were ready for some singing!

Cesky Krumlov was beautiful. It was such a cute, little medieval town that made you slow down to be in tune with everything. The buildings were beautiful, the people were lovely and there was some solid street food. We indulged in some goose legs and bacon potatoes for lunch, enjoyed some honey mead that the town is famous for, and tried one of their tasty treats that still to this day I am not sure what they are called, they are like a donut kind of roll thing covered in cinnamon and are brilliant.

Cesky Krumlov was good to us, but our time there had finished, and the next stop we had to part with our little silver bullet. So it was off to Salzburg, Austria, one stop Gemma had been excited for since planning this trip!