Sep 23 – On the map, Plzen and Karlovy Vary are so close together that it was just unimaginable that there was no direct route from one to the other without having to go back to Prague. Yet online, not only could we not find a train or bus, but there did not seem to be any tickets at all, through Prague or otherwise. We spent an anxious evening exploring FlixBus, Omio, Rome to Rio, and every other site we could find online, then determined to walk to the train station in the morning and see what was what.

It turned out that there were plenty of buses and trains, even a direct train that would get us there in less than two hours! We purchased the tickets gladly, and it made us wonder if we could have made better choices in other cities if we had not relied on the internet. A word to the wise for our fellow travelers!

So now we are in Karlovy Vary, the northernmost and last stop on our tour. We are almost at the German border, and, in fact, this city used to be part of Germany, once called Carlsbad or Karlsbad. Karl for King Charles IV, and “bad” the German word for bath. In Czech, Karlovy for King Charles, and Vary meaning boiling. The hot springs here healed King Charles’ wounded leg in 1342. In the 1800s, it is where the wealthy came to relax and partake of the medicinal hot springs, purported to cure just about any disease and disability you can think of.