Olomouc

Mr. @tripticity_, who had planned this trip through Eastern Europe, felt regret when we arrived in Olomouc. The idea was to make a stop on the way on the train trip from Krakow to Prague, in the Moravian region, so that the journey would not become so heavy. The choice was Olomouc, a small town that seemed to offer several attractions in its historic center.

A bit gloomy, still, as if without life, with the hangover left by communism.

At the end of the short visit we concluded that the good thing of having arrived to Olomouc was to have known perhaps a little the idiosyncrasy of a small Czech city, in its real version, not for tourists. There are no tourists. Obviously it is not prepared for tourism as the grandiose capital Prague is.

In fact, the choice was also influenced by the existence of curious beer spas. Beer baths have been made for a thousand years in the region. As a spa lover, when @tripticity_ heard about this possibility, we wanted to try it, but even arriving to Olomouc we couldn't do it... and we had to get to Olomouc.

We chose the hotel not only because of its strategic location in front of the train station but also because it had a spa. It happened that having to use google translator the unfriendly lady in charge of the outsourced service told us that there were no appointments for that day. Without further explanation, she sent us away. We decided to look for the alternative on the way to the old town, right next to a historic beer bar, the Svatováclavský Pivovar, but when we arrived we found a sign in Czech and when we consulted neither the waitress nor a couple of locals could not tell us, we only knew one thing: it was closed. And to hell with it!

The visit to the tourist office of the city was in vain: a paper map was the only answer to our questions.

It was a great disappointment. But well, in travel, as in life, you have to know how to overcome the bad moments. So we decided to go back to the station, with its post-war architecture, to eat some very regular panchos with beer and sleep early to get ready for the next days of visits to the imperial cities of Prague and Vienna. Nothing of the gastronomic offer convinced us more than this street food.

But first we completed the planned tour of the historical center.

We took the streetcar to the center. It was a gray day and the city looked gloomy, even its monumental St. Wenceslas Cathedral. On the esplanade of the main square stands the Holy Trinity Column, now a Unesco World Heritage Site, erected after the Second Black Death (a bacterial infection that killed almost half of Europe). It was built in 1754 and inaugurated by Emperor Francis I. Above is God the Father, a young Christ carrying the cross and flying the dove of the Holy Spirit with the sun. Also the Archangel Michael with his sword, the Assumption, along with several saints.