Karlovy Vary - Great Day

At the Becher Museum

We spent August 4 in Karlovy Vary--a town that doesn't get nearly as much attention in the United States as it should.  You would recognize its streets from scenes in Casino Royale, and its Grandhotel Pupp set the scene for Queen Latifah's masterpiece Last Holiday. (Yes, I'm a closet Queen Latifah fan)

For decades Karlovy Vary has been the destination of choice for Russian, Ukranian, and other soviet bloc countries.  We befriended a Karlovy Varian at the local pool/spa who makes furniture and said that 90% of the residents of the town work in the tourism industry, so it is very much a tourist hub.

King Charles IV founded Karlovy Vary by accident.  He was hunting when one of his dogs fell into a hole that happened to be one of Karlovy Vary's 15 natural springs.  It's these springs that bring the tourists to the town (In addition to fantastic skiing in the winter).  For centuries people have made the pilgrimage to Karlovy Vary in the hopes that their springs would heal their ailments.  The 15 springs all have different levels of iron, sulfer, etc., and each caters to healing certain types of ailments.  The springs vary from trickles from a faucet to a full-fledged geyser that spurts 2,000 liters per minute.

The town is quite picturesque, there are two main streets, one on each side of the river that splits the town in half.  Both banks are lined with idyllic hotels and colorful buildings.  Only Hotel Thermal, a hideous concrete monstrosity, tarnishes the otherwise perfect city.  We spent the day tasting spring water and relaxing at the local pool.  The pool, although lacking in a hot tub as we had hoped, actually had a very unique feature.  One of the pools, which I've dubbed a European Massage Pool, had several stations.  One employed a powerful waterfall on the wall to massage your upper back; the next had a strong central jet to get the lower back; the third was a smaller jet used for massaging your feet; and finally there were three "lounge chair" positions built into the pool that provided a full back and leg massage.  The jets would turn on for 10 minutes or so and then turn off for about 2 minutes, signaling that your turn at that position was over and you needed to move on.  If the pool was hot, it would have been perfect, but it was still incredibly relaxing.

After a relaxing day at the spa we grabbed some pizza and then walked around the town at night, admiring the lit streets--especially the Grandhotel Pupp.  The only [slight] disappointment about Pupp is that the ceiling in the reception area was not so beautiful that it made me cry, like Queen Latifah said it was in Last Holiday.  Regardless, Karlovy Vary is hands-down my favorite stop so far.