As I’ve said a couple of times, I haven’t entirely fallen for Prague but there are things you can love anywhere and for me, that something was St Vitus Cathedral. I spotted it not long ago when my parents were there and I was trying to make sense of the photos and messages I was … More St Vitus Cathedral alone is worth going to Prague for
It’s the last post of the West Bohemian Spa Triangle series! I’m in Prague! Prague is one of those cities that it feels like I should have been to before now. My parents ask “Have you been to Prague?” with alarming regularity and follow it up with “I think you’d really like Prague” despite the … More Seeking out Mission:Impossible locations in Prague
After my adventures round the West Bohemian Spa Triangle, I flew home from Prague but because trains can, occasionally, be a little unreliable, I wanted to be back in Prague on Sunday ready for my flight home on Monday evening, which would also give me a day to start exploring Prague, which is a city … More I had my very own jacuzzi in a hostel room in Prague
A week of exploring spa towns and relaxing in warm waters should be the sort of refreshing, rejuvenating experience that has you dancing back into work feeling like a new person, rejoicing “as a strong man to run the race” but instead it’s Thursday, just after lunch and I’m taking a five minute break from … More Discovering the West Bohemian Spa Triangle by train
On the Friday I was walking around Karlovy Vary, marvelling at the mineral springs, which unlike at its sibling towns on the West Bohemian Spa Triangle, are hot here. Marvelling and also wondering Where’s the pool fed by this water? In Iceland, if so much as a dribble of hot water springs out of the … More Saunia has the no 1 best pool on the entire West Bohemian Spa Triangle
On Friday afternoon I arrived at Karlovy Vary, the third spa town on my little train adventure round Czechia’s West Bohemian Spa Triangle. Karlovy Vary, or Karlsbad in German, is the biggest and best-known of the three towns, meriting an entire chapter in my guidebook instead of a mere “and this place exists too” like … More Karlovy Vary: a shock to the senses
One thing I expected when I started researching my West Bohemian Spa Towns trip was that every town would have some kind of central bathing experience, probably using the famed spa water and what I found instead was hundreds of small-to-medium hotels offering a list of medical treatments that would put most hospitals in the … More Aquaforum: Františkovy Lázně’s big central water experience
I’m writing this on the platform of the Františkovy Lázně-Aquaforum station, waiting for the tiny shuttle train to take me to neighbouring Cheb, whence I will travel to Karlovy Vary. It’s partly to keep me busy while I wait and partly because I want to get started while it’s fresh in my mind. It looks … More “Sedate” Františkovy Lázně feels like an open-air hospital
After you’ve sampled all Mariánské Lázně’s natural health-giving spring waters, you have to soak in the stuff and, quite frankly, there’s only one place in town to do that. Well, lots of the spa hotels have pools and some may even have mineral pools (which might only be available on prescription because spa in Czechia … More Taking a Roman bath in Mariánské Lázně
I’ve just got back from a week discovering Czechia’s contribution to the UNESCO list of Great European Spa Towns, which is three towns up in the top left corner known by the tourist title, the West Bohemian Spa Triangle. Even as I was on my way round, I was already excited about transforming all this … More Half a day in Mariánské Lázně
I Am A Polar Bear 