karlovy vary was the last town mom and i visited during my time in the czech republic this summer...we arrived to a rainy town in a valley, after a bus ride from plzen...it rained as we walked to the information office to figure out where our hotel was located, argh...
mom was surprised when the taxi driver didn't know immediately where the hotel was located, the information office told us the name had been changed in the last few months, so it wasn't entirely surprising...that being said, you'd think the hotel would've made sure people like taxi drivers would know about the name change...
according to the little brochure map handed out by the information office, the legend of the discovery of the local springs happened when emperor charles IV went hunting in the area...allegedly one of the dogs along for the hunt fell into a hot pool of water, and instead of being hurt, his injuries were healed due to the properties of the water...when the emperor heard about this, he put his arms in the water, and his body was healed as well...then he ordered the area to be settled, and now we have karlovy vary...somehow i doubt a dog fall into steaming hot water and felt good afterward, but i bet at least part of the story is true...
karlovy vary is a spa town...back in the day, czechs from all over the country would come for 2-3 weeks at a time, to 'take the waters' and be cured of their bodily ills...these visits were state sponsored!! can you imagine anything like that happening now??? (i'd be the first to sign up)...now the town is filled with spas and businesses catering to the tourists spending time in those spas...
mom noticed she heard almost no czech being spoken while walking along the streets...i noticed most menu boards and signs were written in russian and czech, a few had english as well...booo...
back in the day, people we start their daily treatments in the morning, then spend the afternoon walking along the promenade while drinking water from the springs in special cups...there are benches all over, so people can sit for a while...obviously, this is a great town for people watching...
our hotel was in the spa area of town, and since this is the area mom wanted me to see, i didn't have time to explore anywhere else in the city...
after checking into our hotel, and relaxing for a while, we went for a walk...it was nice to see the famous springs for which the town was founded, and the areas along which people walk walk walk...
we stopped for a snack/drink at cafe hotel pupp, the oldest hotel in the area...it's an old hotel, but still quite glorious...some of the people who have stayed there are well known, of course they promote the names of their famous guests...(i think every business in this town promotes its history and famous patrons?)
dinner that night came from food vladka had packed for us, YUM...
the next morning mom and i were both slow about waking up...after finding our way to the breakfast area (we had to take the elevator down, then walk across the building, then take a different elevator back up...neither one of us understood why two parts of the same hotel aren't connected) and taking a while at breakfast, we tried to figure out how to sign me up for one of the spa services offered by the spa in the hotel...massage, mud wrap, baths, etc...some needed a medical check ahead of time, others were possible straightaway...all prices listed in euros...
this is one place where communist bureaucracy still exists...mom asked the front desk how to sign me up, that lady sent us to a room in the spa area...then that room said we should go somewhere else...since mom and i have both lived in the west, we were both annoyed by the total lack of convenience...if you want visitors to spend money, you have to make it possible for them to do so!! at the same time, because we've both spent time in the east, we understood that bureaucracy sometimes exists just to give people official jobs...(in which they don't always actually DO anything)...
anywho, i ended up getting a foot massage at another place in town...it felt sooo good...i wish i had a few days so i could take advantage of more spa options...we checked out of the hotel, then walked around for 90 minutes before heading back to the bus station for our bus back to prague...
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