My current walk along the E3 has now finished, to be continued next year. Today was a chance to see a bit of Karlovy Vary before catching the bus to Prague.
This morning I regretted celebrating the end of my walking last night with a second (large) glass of wine, and reading until midnight to reach the end of my book (which had unexpected twists in the plot).
After a breakfast of bagel with poached eggs, smoked salmon etc. and a coffee and orange juice I felt a little better.
My hotel was in the commercial centre of the city, the famous mineral springs and associated colonnades were a little walk away in a valley where hotels, spas, shops, restaurants and other buildings were squashed in. An architectural feature of this spa town, the colonnades were made of wood or stone and contained fountains of the hot mineral water. You are supposed to sip this water from a special cup through a spout while promenading. Numerous stalls were selling these cups doing a brisk trade to the many visitors. The colonnades mean you can walk in the dry while sippping when it is raining. I imagined Jane Austen type conversations between people as they walked and sipped. They also sold round, flat wafers which were a tradition but did not look appetising.
As a famous city there were lots of tourists, so I sought a coffee at somewhere a little quieter. Based on Google maps I found it at a posh hotel, a steep climb out of the valley. The coffee was served in what might once have been a ballroom.
Returning to the railway station I was in plenty of time for my bus (only a hour's wait)! After a few hours I was on a flat plain, the farmland disturbed by logistic hubs beside the road. In the distance the skyscrapers of Prague (or Praha) could be seen. Due to the heavy traffic it took a while for the bus to reach the centre, then I had a walk through a canyon landscape of tall buildings rising each side of the roads to reach my hotel. I am hoping to see a different side of Prague tomorrow.
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