2026 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

September 11, 2026 Dunkirk FR

Last night we decided to go over to Dunkirk today. It is only about 40 minutes from our campground in Belgium. Our first thought was to get a campground there, but none of the campgrounds appealed to us or required a minimum 7 day stay, so in the end we decided to drive over to Dunkirk and return to our campground in Belgium at the end of the day.

This statue now guards the border between France and Belgium at the small town we crossed.

It was a nice drive through the Flanders countryside, and the border crossing caught us by surprise in a small village. Once again there was no indication until we saw the sign indicating we were entering France and all the signs changed from Flemish to French.

The blue sign indicates we are entering France.

Dunkirk is the sight of the famous evacuation of 400,000 French and British soldiers during WWII. The Germans were in the process of fully defeating the combined French and British armies in 1940. Early in the campaign about 500,000 British and French troops were surrounded at Dunkirk. This included most of the British Army. The priority for the evacuation was the British forces as it was pretty clear that the French were going to surrender to the Germans and the British were going to fight on.

The museum commemorating the evacuation at Dunkirk.

The British government committed a large part of their navy to the withdrawal despite the great danger to the ships from the German air force. In addition hundreds of pleasure craft manned by their civilian owners were asked to assist, as well as significant numbers of French navy vessels. The British initially hoped to rescue 40 to 50,000 of their troops, but in the end they saved over 300,000. The French defended the shrinking pocket while the British were given priority for withdrawal. The French troops fought valiantly to hold off the Germans on the ground. The last three days priority was given to withdrawing French troops and nearly 100,000 were withdrawn to Britain.

A monument to the forces that defended Dunkirk.

The 300,000 British troops saved went on to make up the core of the British forces that participated in the liberation of France in 1944. Unfortunately, the majority of the 100,000 French troops were returned to France just as the government surrendered to the Germans.

The majority of the troops were evacuated through the port of Dunkirk, but nearly 100,000 were evacuated across these beaches using small craft manned by civilian volunteers from England who sailed their personal boats over.

After the museum we headed into the city to take a look at the port and the town hall. The town hall was largely destroyed during WWII, but has been rebuilt to its original look and is now a UNESCO site.

Dunkirk with the correct French spelling.

English is funny with place names. English uses the Flemish spelling for the French city of Dunkerque, but for the Flemish city of Ieper 30 miles from Dunkirk we use the French spelling Ypres.

A nice windmill just as you enter France.

After we had finished with Dunkirk we realized there was still time for more exploring so we decided to return to the Witches Kettle to enjoy the ambiance of the place. When we arrived it was much busier and Lena had her hands full, she hit us with a flurry of Flemish which we didn’t understand, but one of the customers translated for us. We were to pick our beer out of the cooler and bring it to her to pour.

François had good company in the parking lot as a rich peoples sports car club was visiting, the parking lot was full of Porsches, Jaguars, and even a really cool Citroen two seater I had never seen. That is the road the bicyclists are on, not a bike path.

Since the place was full we asked our impromptu translator if we could join him and had a great conversation about beer, economics and politics. We asked what he does for a living and it turns out he runs a campground which competes with the one we are staying at. We promised him we would stay at his place next time we are passing through.

Ton loves this old Laurel and Hardy display holding a tray promoting Coke Zero.

We may not be regulars at the Witches Kettle, but we won’t forget the couple of hours we spent there.

September 9, 2026 Westvleteren BE

Today was one of the days we really enjoy when we are traveling. We saw nothing spectacular, but we will really remember this day when we look back on this trip. Our plan was pretty small for the day, we wanted to visit two breweries that are quite close to our campground in the Belgian Hop farming country. But it was the place that was not on the itinerary that made the day memorable.

They are starting to harvest the hops, but this field was still untouched.

Just as we were getting ready to depart Ton mentioned one other place she wanted to visit. Some time last night while I was sleeping Ton came upon an article about a small inn that she found intriguing called De Helleketel and was very enthusiastic about it. I punched it in to Maps and found that it was on the way to the first brewery, so we made it our first stop of the day.

De Helleketel Inn on a quiet one lane road in the middle of the Belgian countryside.

We were driving on single lane roads with pull outs, and I was wondering what we were going to find when we came upon this really cute inn. De Helleketel means the Witches Kettle in English so we were intrigued. We arrived a little before noon and there was one couple sitting at a table with the owner Lena having a boisterous conversation in Flemish. We entered a little tentatively but Lena made it clear we were welcome and told us to sit anywhere.

The view from the window of De Helleketel in business since 1895.

Over the next few minutes several more couples about our age entered and joined in the conversation with Lena. Next to our table was an old Seeburg jukebox that used to fill all the corner taverns in the US. Lena saw us looking at it, and came over and encouraged us to pick out some music. For the next 45 minutes Ton became the resident DJ spinning 60’s and 70’s hits for an appreciative Belgian crowd.

The last working jukebox of its type in Belgium. (According to Lena.)

The Belgian couple next to us struck up a conversation, they are from Leuven in northern Belgium and he is a retired policeman. What was interesting was he informed us that he was having a really hard time following the conversation of the local Belgians. He told us that this was a very old form of Flemish close to the way the language was spoken two hundred years ago. He was really enjoying hearing this old fashioned dialect and told us that these kind of places, the local country inn, were getting rarer and rarer, as were people who spoke this dialect. He kept referring to the inn as a treasure which we both agreed with.

The gloriously tacky bar in the Witches Kettle.

Unfortunately, I was driving or we could have settled in for another hour or two at De Helleketel. But we enjoyed it so much we may squeeze in another trip before we head south.

Our next stop was a former Abby Brewery. The last priest retired a few years ago and the recipes and the brewery was sold to a private party but without a priest working it can no longer call itself an Abby Brewery. The beer is being brewed the same way as when it was an Abby Brewery but the owners are marketing it widely including in the US. The last time we were in the area some local people recommended we visit it as it had spectacular views. We had our lunch here and the beer and food was excellent and the dining area was sparkling and very modern. The views from the third floor of the restaurant were spectacular. We enjoyed ourselves but it lacked the down home charm of Lena’s Witch Kettle.

All of our driving was through different fields of crops on single lane roads. Luckily the traffic was light today so we could enjoy the peace of the countryside while trying to guess what some of the crops were. Except for obvious ones like corn we were both pretty clueless.

Our last stop was Saint Sixtus Abby which produces one of our favorite beers Westvleteren Beer. The monks make just enough beer to keep the Abby open, but they make very good beer. One of their beers is frequently on the best beers of the world list so the scarcity makes for high demand and people drive from all over to get a case or two of the beer.

Painting of the monks who produce the nectar of the gods on the table.

We had our third beer of the day, (spread over 4 hours), and picked up two six packs for our trip. We then headed back to our campground in the fields and settled in for a quiet night after a memorably quiet day we both really enjoyed.

September 8, 2026 Westvelerten BE

Despite jet lag continuing to have an edge in the battle of sleep we decided to get going south The big motivator was the fact that it was supposed to rain heavily all day in Amsterdam. We selected Westvelerten as our stop because there are several breweries in the surrounding area. We stopped here last year to pick up some samples of one of our favorite beers and Ton did some research and found several more breweries conveniently located within 30 minutes of Westvelerten. It is only three hours south of Amsterdam so it is a perfect place for our first stop traveling south.

The drive was pretty easy, it was just starting to rain when we left the campground in Amsterdam but after a few minutes we were out of the rain and it was mostly dry for the rest of the drive. The traffic was light in the Netherlands though it got heavier in Belgium.

The campground is on a working farm/pub. The goats are cute and trained to look for handouts from the guests.

Right after we arrived at the campground and finished setting up François the skies opened up. We took that as a sign to hunker down and enjoy some movies.

September 5 2026 Amsterdam NE

Jet lag won the duel today. After tossing and turning most of the night I woke up first at 11:30 am, Ton a little later. In fairness Ton claims I slept quite well all night and loudly, which was why she woke up later than me.

We spent the rest of the day doing a couple of little chores, and relaxing. There was an African heritage festival going on in the park next to the campground so we spent some of the afternoon enjoying music from the festival and emailing friends.

We are working on our short term plans which includes visiting some breweries in Belgium that have been on our tucket list.

September 4, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Our start to the fall trip may have been the smoothest day of travel ever. The drive to the airport was easy and quick. We walked right up to the check in and were done in minutes. There was no line at TSA and we were through in less than a minute. We relaxed in the excellent lounge at Portland until it was time to board our flight. The flight was full but took off on time and arrived 45 minutes early in Amsterdam. We had heard about 3 hour immigration checks due to the implementation of a new biometric system in Europe. When we got to immigration we were about 10th in line, and our biometrics were collected by a nice Netherlands immigration agent and we were on our way in about 10 minutes. Our bags were waiting for us when we got to the carousel, and the Uber arrived within 2 minutes of us asking for it.

As a result of this we arrived at our storage less than an hour after arrival to find François waiting for us. A quick check and everything was working as designed and we had no mouse residents to deal with. We made a run to a Lidl near the campground to stock up with a few days worth of food, and arrived at the campground at 10:30.

Ton spent the rest of the day unpacking our bags and removing our leftover food from mouse proof containers while I sat nodding off out of the way. Hopefully, the rest of the trip will be as smooth as this day was.

May 27, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Another trip is in the books. It is one of our shortest since we began touring Europe by RV. Our end of the trip routine is pretty set now, a couple of days to clean up the inside and packing followed by a trip to the truck wash for a good cleaning before putting François in storage for the summer.

This trip we visited two new countries for us in Slovakia and Hungary. Slovakia was a country we knew little about and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Hungary we had higher expectations and we were very happy. Ton had visited Budapest before, but it was a first for me and I now see why it is on everyone hot list for tours. It was a fantastic city and one of the most beautiful in Europe. The rest of Hungary was scenic and we really enjoyed ourselves. We also spent more time in Czechia and found the countryside and smaller cities to be charming. Vienna was also new to me, and it is an impressive wealth of culture.

We discovered good wine in Slovakia that we had never heard of, and confirmed what we had heard about the good wine in Hungary. The beer in Czechia also didn’t let us down. The food in central Europe is hearty and plentiful, but we still prefer southern European food.

It was a cold trip until the last week but also one of the driest. Spring traveling is always a roll of the dice, but in this case we came out pretty positive.

We haven’t locked onto a location for our fall trip, though Ton seems to have Spain on her mind. Stay tuned.

May 26, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Today is our last day of fun on the trip. Tomorrows agenda is packing up, getting François an overdue bath, and heading to storage. But since we got most of the work done yesterday to prepare for storage, Ton agreed that we could go into the center for a last day of fun.

The canal boats were out decked out in Tulips. I guess it is the season.

The reason we base out of the campsite in Gaasperplas is it is a 10 minute walk from the metro station. Plus it is the first/last stop of the M53 line so it makes navigating easy. Today we got off at the Nieumarket stop to head for a pastry shop Ton had picked out.

The city looked a little worst for wear after the long weekend. City workers were out in force cleaning up the debris from the party that must have been Whitsunday weekend. The first place was about 20 minutes from the metro stop but was not what we were expecting. Ton had a back up which was about 20 minutes from that place, but it was also not what she was expecting. I was hoping for some of the famous apple pie the Netherlands is famous for. I mentioned a place that looked promising, it was about 25 minutes from where we were. When we got there it didn’t look good either. So after over an hour of walking on the hottest day of the year, (part of the reason we headed into the city was to find some cool air) we hadn’t found anything.

We decided to give up on pastries and apple pies and head to a bar we like for a cold beer. After a short 10 minute walk we arrived at the bar, and it was closed. At this point we were close to giving up but Ton saw a bar that looked promising across the street and we went in. We were met with an empty bar, but a blast of cold air-conditioned air so we were hoping for the best. The bartender came in and asked what we wanted so we had found our place.

Beer, bitterballen, and apple pie. The healthy persons lunch! Ank in the background went above and beyond to get the apple pie.

Our bartender was named Ank which couldn’t be more Dutch, but she was a treat. The bar was everything we expected from Amsterdam 6 good beers and lots of wood and old curiosities. Ank told us her clientele was still 80% Dutch with just enough foreigners mixed in to make it interesting. She asked about our day and Ton told her about our failed quest to find apple pie. A couple of minutes later she said I have an idea, and left us alone in the bar. About 5 minutes later she returned with an apple pie, she said her friends mother in law made it. Now that is service beyond the call of duty. The apple pie was delicious and the atmosphere and company made this the most memorable meal of the trip. A good end to the day.

May 25, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Today we spent the morning watching the Witsunday exodus from the park. There was a steady stream of motorhomes and caravans going by our spot by the entrance in the park. Yesterday all 496 places in this large park were occupied. This evening there are maybe 125 places occupied.

What a difference a day makes. If you compare these two pictures you can see the difference.

Our experience in the last week convinced us that we could never enjoy Europe in the summer. Having to book each and every stay would take all of the joy and spontaneity out of traveling. Plus campgrounds teeming with people are not relaxing for us.

We spent most of the day packing for our trip home on Thursday. As usual Ton packed and I stood by to occasionally help hand her things or move heavy bags once they were packed. We are about 90% there and still have a day and a half to go so I have proposed a sojourn to downtown Amsterdam tomorrow. Ton is thinking on it.

May 24, 2026 Amsterdam NE

Well Whitsunday weekend beat us. We like to travel in François so we have flexibility in where we go. This weekend our ability to just show up was taken from us. Our original plan of traveling slowly across Germany from Friday to Sunday was overcome by events and we ended up in a hotel on Saturday night. The first time this has happened in 8 years of traveling here.

We woke up in the morning and started looking for a place we could stay in ever increasing arcs from where we were. We didn’t trust stellplatz’s as we expected they would be full. After checking about 10 different places we checked the place we end our trips at in Amsterdam and already had a place booked for tomorrow and they showed a spot available today so we booked it and relaxed until check out time in the hotel.

The drive was busy and at one point Ton said I don’t think anyone in Germany or the Netherlands is staying home. We arrived at the large campground near Amsterdam and were assigned spot number 469. There are 470 spots in this campground and they are all full.

As we were driving Ton looked up Whitsunday and it is a minor Catholic holiday but it falls in May and appears to be the beginning of summer holiday much like Memorial day in the US. In our previous 7 years of traveling it had never bothered us which is why we were caught so off guard. But, I do remember last May we were surprised when our off the beaten path campground in the Ardennes in Belgium suddenly turned into Woodstock. It was Whitsunday. So from now on we have a new planning point for our travels in the spring. Book a place for Whitsunday weekend in advance if we are in western Europe!

May 23, 2026 Bergheim GE

In our 8 years of travel we have been pretty lucky, today not so much. As I said yesterday we learned that it is a long weekend for Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium. We were lucky yesterday that our campground in Erfurt let us stay, but we had to move on this morning.

Our plan was to drive to Aachen and head to a large Stellplatz there. Stellplatz’s are first come first served. We were up bright and early and on the road at 8am. It was supposed to take 4 hours to Aachen, but traffic was heavy and about 25% of the route today was under construction. So we didn’t make great time.

We rolled up to the Stellplatz at about 1:15 and saw the dreaded sign out on the road-full. A quick look at our camping act showed a cluster of 5 campgrounds just over the border in the Netherlands so we thought we have 5 chances. The first one was full, the second one was also full but the nice lady there than called 4 other campgrounds for me to see if she could find us a place but failed.

The Germans, Dutch, and Belgians have begun cracking down on what the Europeans call wild camping, or just parking somewhere discreetly for the night. In the past the police would just move you on, but now they move you on after they fine you. So while we were tempted we decided to splurge on a hotel.

That proved harder to accomplish than we expected. Part of the issue is François doesn’t fit in underground garages so we have to look carefully at the parking situation before we book a place. We spent about an hour in a parking lot looking at hotel options in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium before finding the place we are at tonight in Germany. Tomorrow we are going to take another crack at Aachen, but have a valid backup plan if the Stellplatz falls thru.

May 22, 2026 Erfurt GE

Our day was going to go one of two ways. At the end of the night last night we decided that if we could stay here in the campground we would for today. If we could not we were going to pick a place and hope we could get in, but be prepared to wild camp somewhere.

I was waiting at the office when they opened at 8am. While I was waiting I began to mentally decide where we would go today as taped to the door was a notice that they were completely booked today and would not be accepting any unreserved arrivals.

When the door opened I went in and said I know you are full, but is there any chance we can stay today? The lady said we are full but asked my name. She typed in her computer and said M8 (our spot in the campground), after a couple more key strokes she said today, but not tomorrow.

Our plans for the day then became doing laundry, and relaxing. Early in the afternoon we walked to the nearby mall to look for a stool to replace the one I had run over Ceske Krumlov. We hadn’t eaten lunch and instead of a stool we ended up with a bag full of food all of which looked delicious at the grocery. As they always say, don’t shop for food when you are hungry.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around François and watching the campground fill up. The plans for tomorrow are an early departure and a 4 house drive to Aachen Germany near the Dutch border.

May 21, 2026 Erfurt GE

Ton picked Erfurt because it had a medieval bridge that has homes and stores still built on it and in use. This used to be a common thing in Europe. A few cities most notably Milan still have bridges with businesses on them, but apparently Erfurt is the last place that still has people living on the homes on the bridge.

From the surface of the bridge it looks like a typical medieval street. The apartments above the stores are still residences.

I knew we were walking on the bridge, but it is difficult to tell you are on a bridge when you are crossing it. It feels like any medieval street. You have to go around back to see that it is indeed a bridge.

The bridge from behind shows the buildings that line either side of the roadway over the river.

It is not a large bridge, but during the middle ages when most cities were fortified real estate was at a premium within the walls. This caused many towns to build stores and housing on bridges. Over time this practice faded because of maintenance cost and other reasons, think about how much stuff that makes your house a home is buried in the ground. So today there are only a handful of bridges like the one we saw today.

This puppet shop specializing in recreating medieval puppets is one of the businesses located on the bridge.

We were both surprised by the size of Erfurt. The population density is much lower in Central Europe than Germany and it showed up today when Erfurt which is at best a regional city felt much more bustling and crowded than Bratislava or Brno.

A nice restaurant doing good business mid-afternoon.

We headed out to check the Cathedral and walked by one of the icons of the town Bernd das Brot. He is a character on a children tv show and is characterized by chronic depression. Ton called him the Grumpy Breadman until we learned his real name.

After posing with Bernd I decided to do another must do thing here which was to have a Thuringen Bratwurst. The Brats here are lower in fat than normal Brats. It was good washed down with a beer which interestingly was the Bud from Czechia and not a German beer.

The entrance to the old main department store which has been converted into a mall.

Erfurt is located in the old East Germany and despite that appears to be quite prosperous and on par with the cities further west to our eyes. There are a few reminders of the communist past including the main avenue being called Yuri Gagarin Strasse.

An image of Yuri Gagarin painted on an old Lego style apartment building.

Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut and the first man in space. He visited Erfurt after his flight and they named the main road after him. After the fall of communism they retained the name for the road. Ironically Gagarin never returned to space because after a fatal accident involving another cosmonaut they government decided it would be bad for the first man in space to die in a rocket accident so they sent him back to the Air Force. While retraining as a fighter pilot Gagarins Mig 15 crashed and he was killed.

Not a Soyuz capsule, but a BMW from 1962. You enter the car from the front.

We enjoyed Erfurt but decided to head back to the campground. It turned out to be a misadventure as I had us get on the right bus, but heading in the wrong direction. After a couple of stops we got off and crossed the road to get on the one going in the right direction, but the next bus didn’t come for 30 minutes it was the same bus we had got off so we might as well have gone on a city tour, the bus driver gave me a knowing nod when I waived our tickets at him. Not my best day.

We got to enjoy a bit more of Erfurt while we waited for the right bus.

When we returned to the campground I noticed that it was very full. Erfurt is not the kind of place that should fill up a campground on a Thursday in May. We had decided to move on to Frankfurt tomorrow, but I decided to check availability at the one campground in Frankfurt and found there was no room. While I looked at a couple of other places I asked Ton to see if this is a holiday weekend and it turns out it is Whitsunday and Whitmonday. So it is a long weekend both here and the Netherlands.

We may have a chance to see more of Erfurt tomorrow, if we are allowed to stay.

I tried several campgrounds on our route to Amsterdam and all of them were fully booked for the weekend. Our hope now is that they will let us extend here but we don’t even know if that is possible as we didn’t realize the problem until the office was closed.

Lots of trams in Erfurt. Not as many busses.

So tomorrow is very much up in the air. The good news if worst comes to worst we can dry camp somewhere safe for a day or two on the way to Amsterdam.

May 20, 2026 Karlovy Vary CZ

We are not spa people but decided to visit Karlovy Vary as Ton’s research indicated that it had a great number of 19th century hotels and villas that had survived both wars intact. Despite not being spa people we visited Vichy a couple of years ago and had really enjoyed it, so we wondered if our second spa visit here would be as fun.

Driving over from Melnik we passed thru the main hop growing region in Czechia. So we got to see a lot of our second favorite plant.

The hot springs at Karlovy Vary got their start in the 1400’s when King Charles IV soaked his injured leg in a hot spring here and was pleased with how it healed. He then built a lodge near the spring so he could enjoy the soaks on a regular basis.

A small royal lodge eventually spawned a giant resort in the 1800’s.

In the 1800’s spa treatments were the rage among the beautiful people of Europe and Karlovy Vary (then known as Karlsbad) went thru a boom period as one of the hot places to visit. As a result hundreds of hotels and pensions sprung up to pamper the rich and famous of that time, and they are spectacular buildings.

In the 1800’s hotels and villas sprung up on both sides of the Tepia River.

If you like 19th century architecture then you will be in heaven in Karlovy Vary. The promenade along the Tepia River, and the hills surrounding the town are full of gorgeous and large 19th century buildings.

After the fall of communism there has been a great deal of investment in the town and the buildings have been wonderfully restored to their original grandeur.

The coffee house at the Grand Hotel Pupp.

We decided to punch above our weight socially and dropped into the coffee shop at the Grand Hotel Pupp which is a gigantic complex at the end of the promenade. It has always been the grandest place in town since its founding. They have a walk of fame of previous guests and we got a kick out of two names side by side on the walk, John Malkovich who stayed there in 2009, and Sigmund Freud who stayed there in 1912. There was a brick available between the two of them and we wondered if we got a room whether we could claim the brick.

Another stunning building along the boardwalk.

Ton was very interested in sampling the waters. There are 15 springs that are located in cool buildings that you can drink from as you walk along. To make it easier you can purchase a decorated ceramic mug whose handle acts as a straw. After some careful shopping and much discussion about the size, shape, and decoration on our mug we were on our way.

Some examples of the mineral water cups.

In our walk we found about 10 of the springs without trying too hard. The temperature and the strength of the minerals varied quite a bit from spring to spring.

Procuring my water from one of the springs.

Most of the springs were nondescript pipes in the middle of large buildings, and we were a little surprised more people weren’t trying it. We enjoyed it, though after a while we were getting a little waterlogged.

This one was the snake spring and the water is 96 degrees Fahrenheit.
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The promenade is over a mile long and with all of the buildings and springs it was great fun to walk. If you like 19th century architecture with a small dose of communist brutalist buildings mixed in for contrast you will be in heaven as we were.

This geyser of spring water was located in one of the few communist era buildings on the promenade.

We took a couple of turns up and down the promenade. There were enough people to make it interesting, but not enough that you felt crowded. Plus Ton was entranced, she said to me at one point, everywhere you point the camera there is a beautiful building.

One of the colonnade buildings holding the hot springs.

We weren’t done walking after the colonnade. Ton wanted to check out the Orthodox Church here (a lot of the investment in Karlovy Vary after communism was Russian money) that is modeled on a famous cathedral in Moscow.

The beautiful Orthodox Church in Karlovy Vary.

When I put it into google maps I asked Ton if she really wanted to go. Once again it was not how far it was, but how much we would have to climb. Karlovy Vary is built in a valley, and while the promenade follows the river, the town quickly climbs the hills.

The climb began by scaling about 120 steep steps, half way up Ton was questioning my routing. After the steps it was a steady climb for another 10 minutes. But when the church came into site Ton took off and left me in the dust. So in the end the climb was worth it.

In the last three days we have visited two of the prettiest cities I have seen. Both Ceske Krumlov, and Karlovy Vary were spectacular. The fact that I didn’t know either one of them existed even made it better for me. As we have traveled the last 6 weeks I have been thrilled to be exposed to several towns that were either vague places on the map, or places I didn’t know existed that have been wonderful.

The tourist train in front of one of my favorite buildiings.

Tomorrow we are going to leave Czechia behind as an airplane is now calling us. But I have to say that it has been a fantastic visit.

A cool building I guess is from the early 20th century.

May 19, 2026 Melnik CZ

When we woke up this morning I proposed Prague to Ton, but she pointed out that we are running out of time. She had two more places she wants to visit so Prague was struck from the list.

Holasovice is one of the smallest UNESCO sites, and one of the least visited.

Our first stop for the day was only about 40 minutes from Krumov and is another UNESCO site. Holasovice is a small farm village of about 30 homes and businesses built in the Gothic style that was common in the late 1800’s. The original villagers were German speaking, but today the village is Czech.

The May Pole and a small chapel on the village green.

Driving to Holasovice had us mostly on small country roads that are impeccable . While the roads are not wide, the condition of the surface is the best we have seen anywhere. The first time we visited Czechia we swooped into Prague on a freeway from Germany, and swept out of Prague on a freeway to Wroclaw Poland so we did not experience Czech national and secondary roads.

An advertisement for a local ceramic shop.

This time we have spent quite a lot of time on national and secondary roads and Czech roads are the best we have driven on in Europe. They are not particularly wide, on par with Germany and Austria, but the condition and quality of the surface of the roads is exceptional, it makes driving very relaxing.

About half the roofs had triangular facades, and half had rounded facades like the one above. We both decided we liked the rounded one better for looks, but expected it cost more.

After spending about 45 minutes walking thru Holasovice we set off for our final destination of the day. Melnik is located about 30 kilometers north of Prague so I was dreading driving thru Prague. It turned out to be not that bad. Part of the reason is in the 2010’s the Czechs completed a 3 mile tunnel under the center of Prague. As a result thru traffic is kept off the surface freeways. It worked really well today for us.

When we arrived at the campground in Melnik there was no one in the reception, just a phone number to call. This is becoming more common. You call a phone number and they tell you what to do, and give you a window in the morning when you can go pay them. We debated whether to move on from Melnik, but our next destination was too far to tackle so we decided to stay.

After setting up we decided to walk to the center of the city. I checked google and it said it was about 1400 meters which we usually cover in about 20 minutes. I noticed that google also called out a 120 meter change in altitude which is steep. What google didn’t make clear is that 110 meters of that climb were in the last 800 meters, it was very steep and had Ton asking me why we didn’t call a taxi.

Our first stop once we successfully scaled the hill to the town center was the city museum which featured a wine shop serving local wines. The person serving us didn’t speak English, only Czech and German. She decided to speak to us in German. Instead I asked her to speak to us in Czech since we weren’t German and it would be a good chance to learn Czech. I could see she appreciated that, and while I didn’t learn much Czech (one word) it made for a fun experience.

Melnik is a pretty city, but tonight it was largely empty in the old town.

We enjoyed the wine and one of them impressed Ton so much that we bought a bottle of it. But we had come here to see the place where the Vltava River enters the Elbe River. Melnik was originally established as a Castle to guard that critical point.

The confluence of the Elbe and Vltava Rivers. The river barge is turning into the Vltava. Note the vines in the foreground.

We walked around Melnik for nearly an hour and Ton was enjoying taking a lot of pictures which is a sign she is enjoying herself. At the end she said she was glad we stayed in Melnik and that the climb was not that bad.

May 18, 2026 Cesky Krulov CZ

We woke up to blue skies but cold temperatures. Once again I got up and turned on the heat at about 4am as the temperatures inside François had gotten uncomfortable.

Cesky Krulov from the castle gardens. It is a beautiful compact city in the shape of an Omega.

We weren’t in a hurry to get going as the weather was supposed to be good all day and we didn’t have any particular plans. After a while we set out for the town along the river.

Cesky Krulov is located on a horseshoe bend of the Vltava River.

We began by heading to the castle gardens which are located on the same bluff as the castle. The gardens are actually higher than the castle so it involved a good climb to get up to them.

The most interesting thing in the gardens was this communist era panoramic theater.

The gardens were nice but nothing special as castle gardens go. But on one end of the gardens was a modern theater built in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The theater can rotate 360 degrees. What this means is when they stage a play there; instead of changing sets they build multiple sets and rotate the crowd to the new set. It is an interesting if complicated concept. Cesky Krumlov is a well deserved UNESCO site, but they are butting heads with the World Heritage People who want them to take out the theater because it is not congruent with the rest of the city. It seems like a weird request to us as it is part of the cultural heritage of Cesky Krumlov even if more recent than other things.

Looking down on the roofs of the city as we descended from the gardens.

We took a route off the beaten path to return to the city so had a quiet walk for about 30 minutes past rows of “Pensions” which is what the Czechs (and French) call bed and breakfasts. There are a lot of them and most of them looked quite charming.

The palace from the city side. The arched columns are called the Cloak Bridge. The bridge connects two parts of the castle.

We spent a lot of time looking up as many of the buildings are decorated with paintings or art on the facade of the building. There was a fascinating array of different decorations.

This paining of a bear in a window was on one of the hotels in the city center.

I kept losing track of Ton because another detail on a building caught her attention and needed to be studied and photographed. I could tell she was once again enjoying Cesky Krulov after her twenty year gap.

They were selling funnel cakes in this beautiful courtyard.

Unfortunately almost all of the museums were closed today as there were several we wanted to visit. We are considering if we want to extend another day to visit museums or move on for a second visit in François to Prague.

An aluminum sculpture outside the art museum.

The town wasn’t as busy as yesterday, but for a Monday in May there were still a lot of tours from Asia walking around. Today we heard Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, and Thai being spoken by different groups of people.

Another example of building art. The figures in the windows were interesting. In the last several cities we have noticed that many buildings have painted rectangular patterns that can be quite intricate and colorful. It is a form of decoration we have not seen anywhere but in this region.

It is not a large city so after a couple of hours you start to see the same people over again. We had run into our neighbors in the campground a couple of times, and in the church we struck up a conversation about traveling. After a few minutes we decided we needed to exit the church as we were getting a bit loud.

The facades of the buildings are varied and interesting we were intrigued from street to street.

They had traveled by RV in Canada a couple of times and we exchanged stories about the Alaska Highway. They had done the Canadian part but ran out of time to do the US part. They asked us about our visit to Morocco, and in the end they remarked that they were learning about traveling in their region from Americans. Ton was proud as they were the second couple to make the same observation on this trip.

Some more interesting buildings. We had lunch in the one on the far left.

After another typical central European lunch we decided to take a couple of days off from eating out. The meals are hearty, but we need a break from pork and potatoes. Ton in particular needs some rice and vegetables.

This building was the fire department in the middle ages. It is now a hotel but maintains the symbol of the firefighter on it.

After 5 or 6 thoroughly enjoyable hours we decided to head back to François for the evening. It is a much quieter and non-smokey campground than last night.

Heading home through one of the city gates.

Cesky Krulov is one of the best preserved and maintained medieval walled cities we have seen. I think Ton was not let down by Cesky Krulov which is always a chance when you revisit a place that you have very fond memories of. For me it was a charming and interesting place and I understand why it is on all of the central Europe travel lists. We have been to many UNESCO sites now, but Cesky Krulov may be the best one for me as you really do feel the “culture” of the place.

May 17 2026, Cesky Krumlov CZ

Cesky Krumlov is a favorite place of Ton’s. She has told me about it many times over the years. She visited it about 20 years ago with some of her old friends from Thailand and it was a memorable three day visit for her.

Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful city, everything you think of when you think of an European town.

We had waited to visit until we had a good weather window as we wanted the city to be able to dazzle us. The weather was supposed to be sunny today so we were up early for the 45 minute drive to Krumlov. We pulled into the campground and quickly set up François. Just as we finished setting up I noticed a van getting ready to leave from a better spot down by the river. I told Ton lets move to that spot. So I quickly unhooked our electric and got ready to move. I normally do a walk around François before moving, but since we were only moving about 50 yards I didn’t. I forgot I had set out our two folding plastic stools on the passenger side. One stool we use to help step into François, and the other is a utility stool that is handy. As I was backing up I heard a crunch and knew I had hit something-it was the two stools and somehow I had managed to crush both of them. It will only cost about €15 to replace them and they are commonly available, but my stupid haste put me into a bad mood.

Part of the castle at Cesky Krumlov. It is quite a climb to the building on top.

I was stewing over my stupidity when we arrived at Krumlov. Ton really wanted to tour the castle and unfortunately it is closed tomorrow so we needed to get the tour in today. The castle tours are guided and scheduled. I tried to schedule it on line but could not. So we headed to the ticket office. When I went to the ticket office the lady quite clearly said that she did not sell the guided tickets. Ton and I both heard it. So we were confused and went out to look for another ticket office that did sell them.

We didn’t see one in the castle so we headed to the tourist information office but it was closed when we got there for lunch. After a 30 minute wait for lunch to end the nice young guy at the tourist info office told us that they didn’t sell tickets that we would have to go to the ticket office in the castle. My day was getting worst and my bad mood was getting to Ton. We trudged back to the same ticket office, saw the same lady who said she did not sell tickets and bought two tickets for the 1:40 tour from her. I have no idea what the miscommunication was the first time.

The castle was very beautiful and having a guide added to the interest. The site has been a castle for about 800 years and passed thru several “owners” over the centuries. It has some wings in Gothic style, some in Baroque and one in Rococo.

A painting from the 1500’s showing the castle with the town under it.

When Ton visited 20 years ago the castle was open to the public and there was no guide. We guessed that as Cesky Krumlov has become more popular they have gone to the guided tours to keep the crowds down.

A dining room from the Gothic wing of the castle.

I appreciated being guided and since we are early in the season there were only about 15 of us on the tour so we had time to linger and enjoy the rooms. The castle was never fought over so it served primarily as a residence for very rich people of different eras.

A dining table from one of the Rococo rooms. There is a simulation of a wedding cake on the table given to one of the owners by the Austrian Emperor.

The highlight of the tour was the ball room which was elaborately decorated with paintings of over 130 human figures from the late 1700’s. They varied from nobles to street urchins. The paintings were done by an artist and his assistant in 6 months and they included their self portraits.

The ball room with the painted figures occupying nearly every inch of wall. The figures represent the people you would typically see at a ball that would be held in the room.

The paintings were done based on real people from the era. The paintings strike me as being more humorous than serious. It is not high art and probably is not being studied by any serious art students.

The art is very well preserved and because it has not been damaged over time it has not had to undergo any major restoration. At the end of the tour I thought it was one of the more interesting palace tours because it was not the home of an Emperor, but a well preserved palace of a mid to high ranking noble. Rich but not luxurious.

After the bad start to the day, Cesky Krumlov had charmed me and gotten me out of my funk. We walked around the town for a while doing some recon work for tomorrow as well as people watching.

Ton found this art display on an alley way off of the main street.

Cesky Krumlov is a day trip destination from Prague, so by 4 pm the streets were starting to thin out. With the lighter crowds we could take in the beauty of the town in a more relaxed way.

The other thing that makes Cesky Krumlov special is that there is almost no vehicle traffic. There are a very few taxi’s that deliver people to the hotels in the city, but other wise the streets are pedestrian only.

The most picturesque of the many watchtowers we have seen in Czechia.

We ended our first day in Cesky Krumlov at the brewery. The beer was a smoked beer which we have not seen since Germany. We both really enjoyed it along with the pickled sausages we had as a snack. I can see more pickled appetizers in my future included pickled cheese which was on the menu.

The gate heading back to the campground.

When we got back to the campground it had gone from sleepy to hopping. A couple of groups had built campfires, and unfortunately one of the campfires is closer to François than I would like. Hopefully, they will be respectful of our sleep.

May 16, 2026 Trebon CZ

It poured rain all day so today ended up being a day of rest. Luckily the campground here has exceptional Wi-Fi so we spent the day relaxing and streaming movies on the internet. The only problem is it was quite cold so I fired up the heater a couple of times to make it bearable inside François.

We headed into the restaurant at the campground for dinner. I had carp and Ton had another fish called Zander that is similar to Walleye. Ton said the carp reminded her of catfish but not as good. I agree with her carp is adequate but now that I have had it I will not be seeking it out.

The local beer on the left and the Anheuser Busch beer that is the distant relative of Budweis brewery.

The weather is going to break tomorrow and we will be off to a place that Ton has been looking forward to since we began the trip.

May 15, 2026 Trebon CZ

We had a debate about what to do today. We were still discussing it in the morning with three possible course of actions. It was supposed to rain today and the rain is supposed to be worst tomorrow. It is also supposed to be cold with lows in the low 40’s. So our debate was go to Ceske Krumlov the next place on our list and wait for the weather to get better. Go to Prague and get a hotel room for a couple of days. Or, move to a town about 20 kilometers away that is supposed to be pretty and wait out the weather.

The town center in Trebon. Note the winter fashions on display.

The winner was going to be decided on where we could get our laundry done. Czech campgrounds don’t feature washers and dryers like we are used to. Also, it appears for some reason Czechs have not embraced laundromats so they are rare even in larger cities. We are getting low on clothes and in another couple of days we would be getting desperate. None of the three campgrounds at Ceske Krumlov had washers and dryers. All of the hotels in Prague were really expensive so it didn’t matter if they had washers and dryers. The campground in Trebon didn’t have a washer and dryer, but when I googled laundromats near me one came up in a shopping center on the way out of town.

I never saw what this store was selling, must have been antiques.

So the decision was swing by and check out the laundromat and then head to the campground in Trebon which was about 30 minutes away. We pulled into a small shopping mall and sure enough in the mall they had a slightly expensive laundromat. An hour later with enough clothes to get us to the end of the trip we headed out to Trebon.

The gate to Trebon with an interesting decoration on top and tiled walls on the side.

It had rained overnight but as we were driving we noticed that the weather today was better than yesterday. After we set up in a nice campground by a lake I checked the weather, and it looked like we had a few hour break in the rain so we headed into Trebon.

Trebon is a pretty little town with the same long rectangular square common in this part of Europe.

Trebon is a center for aquaculture in Czech. As we walked into town we walked by a large pond, and a commercial fish farm. They have been producing fish in this area since the middle ages. Interestingly the fresh water fish of choice in central Europe is Carp.

Ton and I have noticed that Carp is the most common fish featured in menus since we arrived in Central Europe. Neither of us have ever tasted Carp as Americans don’t eat it, and neither do the Thai. But in Central Europe it is a staple and part of the Christmas Eve meal. The campground has it on its menu so we decided we would give it a chance tomorrow.

The town features a brewery from the 1300’s, but unfortunately we couldn’t get in to sample their product as they were only doing Czech tours today.

After an hour walking thru the town we saw the skies darkening and decided to head back to the campground. We tried to hitch a ride on the tourist train which stops at our campground, but we didn’t have a ticket, and they didn’t offer one stop prices even for old people.

The tourist train passing us on the walking path to the campground.

We got back just as the rain started again. We had a light supper and then sat back and watched the lake and the other campers from inside François as the temperatures fell into the 40’s.

The man made lake that is the source of the carp industry.

May 14, 2026 Ceske Budojovice CZ

For the first time on this trip we are having to plan on dealing with wet weather. Today wasn’t supposed to rain, but we ended up with some spotty rain. On top of being wet the temperatures have fallen into the 50’s again during the day, and into the high 30’s at night.

The city hall in Ceske Budojovic is pretty and has a nice glockenspiel.

We started the day by heading into the city to check out the town square. It was another nice town square with a good representation of Baroque and Renaissance buildings that are well preserved.

The fountain was a little more “normal” than the ones in Brno.

We gave the square a look from all 4 quarters, and since this is not a town focused on tourism did some real shopping in the stores lining the square. Instead of the normal tourism stores and restaurants the stores here were clothes and shoe stores. Ton has been casually looking for a jacket and a pair of shoes to take home. She didn’t find anything, but enjoyed looking.

How do you tell if a square is for locals or tourists? If the town allows parking in the square it means that the square is being used mostly by the locals for shopping. Ton was impressed that the tulips were still blooming.

While she was shopping I popped into a bank and got a couple thousand Czech Crowns, just in case we need to pay for something in cash. Most of central Europe has not joined the Euro and having to deal with Crowns, Forints, and Zloty’s every time you change countries is a pain.

The Black Tower. Most Czech cities have preserved the watchtower that was part of the city walls.

But we didn’t come to Ceske Budojovic to shop or because of its beautiful town center. We came to visit Budvar Brewery which produces a beer called Budvar Budweiser and they claim they are the true Budweiser, but a little American company called Anheuser-Busch disputes that.

Like all of these kind of things it is complicated. Ceske Budojovic has been a beer brewing town since the 1200’s, and brewing has been a mainstay of the economy here since then. The town always had a mix of Czech and German inhabitants, the Germans called the town Budweis.

In 1795 a group of German residents formed a brewery called Budweiser Burgerbrau and were successful. In a trip to Europe in the mid 1800’s Augie Busch discovered it and decided to brew a beer of a similar style in St. Louis calling it Budweiser. That business worked out well for him as all of us Americans know.

A cool wood carving representing the process of brewing beer.

In 1897 a group of Czechs got together and formed a competitor to Budweiser Burgerbrau called Budweiser Budvar Brewery. Since then there has been a great deal of jousting in courts around the world, and in the court of public opinion over the use of the name Budweiser. To make things even more fun Anheuser-Busch acquired the former Budweiser Burgerbrau brewery in 2012 and produces a beer there called Samson. Budweiser Budvar cannot use that name in North and South America and is marketed as Czechvar in the Americas. But in Europe you will see both the American Budweiser and the Czech Budweiser Budvar on the same shelf.

While the story was complicated, the beer tour was fun and the beer is very good. We took the English language tour with a couple from Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, and a daughter and father from Hungary. So of the 10 people on the English language tour I was the only native English speaker!

When we came out of the brewery it was raining steadily so we splurged and took a Bolt (Uber equivalent) back to François to settle in for the night. Tomorrow and Saturday are supposed to rain all day so we will see how hardy we are feeling.

May 13, 2026 Telc CZ

Our original plan was to give Brno another day so we could visit the castle that dominates the town. When we woke this morning Ton told me she had done some research on the castle. From the 1700’s on it had been turned into a prison by the different governments that ran Brno. So when the prison was closed and the castle was returned to Brno they decided to embrace its ugly history. So today it is a museum of torture. There are whole wings devoted to torture devices, and executioner axes. There is a display of cells showing how people were put into various uncomfortable positions using tools and rocks. Since we are not interested in this kind of thing we agreed that we didn’t need to visit the castle. So after some thought and faced with a deteriorating weather forecast the next few days we decided to move on.

Telc is a UNESCO site because of its well preserved town center.

Our next stop was Telc which was a nice 2 hour drive through rolling hills and farms. The canola fields were at their brightest yellow and Ton was entranced.

There were miles and miles of beautiful yellow canola fields on the way to Telc.

We parked up at a municipal parking lot that had a little food cart. While I was getting organized Ton had bolted out of the car and run to the cart. She had noticed that the cart was selling rotisserie chicken and she wanted to make sure they would still be open when we returned. Once we knew their closing time we moved on to the town square.

The large square is full of these beautiful renaissance facades on three sides.

The square is about 300 yards long and 100 yards across and lined with buildings that all have 3 colonnades on one side and larger buildings with 2 colonnades on the other. They are painted in various pastel colors. It makes for a striking picture.

The town is flanked by two large ponds that used to contain fish farms.

One of the towns main source of income in the past were fish farms from the two large man made lakes that flank the town center. The water in the ponds is remarkably clear but today the lakes go unfarmed.

A close up of one of the buildings showing the original facade from the 1700’s.

The town had a fairy tale like feeling, and its main business is now tourism. There appears to be room to grow as a lot of the spaces facing the square were still vacant, but there were plenty of places to eat, and a couple of interesting shops.

In addition to the scattering of tourists there were a couple of student groups doing some sort of scavenger hunt assignment. Telc was a pretty stop with almost a movie set feeling. It is the kind of place that feels like it is one “break” away from being the new must see place.

Most importantly we got our chicken and a pork knuckle from the food cart so our next couple of dinners are set. We didn’t finish our day in Telc but decided to move on to Ceske Budojovice for the night. Tomorrow we will be visiting the most important business in Ceske Budojovice or to use towns German name Budweis.