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Litomerice in the Czech Republic - castles, football and camping with Swedes

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In co-operation with Czech Tourism

After our visit to Bohemian Switzerland, we travelled on to Litomerice in the Czech Republic, northwest of Prague. Here we wanted to look at Ploskovice Castle, but first we wanted to see the football match Sweden - England. We rolled into town half an hour before the match was due to start, and judge our surprise when we found a campsite full of Swedes ...

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From Pravcicka Brana to Litomerice

We drove from Bohemian Switzerland in the afternoon, after the nice the hiking tour to Pravcicka Brana. The drive took about an hour, and we arrived just in time for the football match to start. So where would we watch it? We gambled that the town's campsite would have a restaurant with a TV. They did, and besides, the campsite was full of Swedes ...

Nice campsite on the river Elbe

Autokemp Slavoj is nicely situated on the river Elbe (Labe in Czech), and it's a short walk up to the lovely town. This is a small family-run campsite, with a cosy little restaurant and fresh service buildings. There are also cottages, and a lot of cyclists stop by on the way as they cycle "The Labe cycling trail".

camping Litomerice
Freedom parked at the campsite, with the Elbe in the background

Swedish and Danish campers

We came just just in time to sit in front of the TV in the restaurant. And here we were not alone as Swedes, on the contrary! Most people in the restaurant were Swedes, or Danes. When we ordered food, we even got a menu in Swedish.

We asked the girl who worked at the campsite (who, by the way, understood a bit of Norwegian because she studied in Norway for six months) and she said that it has "always been like that". The Swedish and Danish guests come year after year. Some weeks have extra numbers, such as when there is a Nordic motorbike meeting or the recurring week when a Danish camping association books the entire campsite.

Fotboll på camping i Tjeckien
Swedes and Danes lined up to watch the match between Sweden and England.

We watched the match together with Maritta and Bengt Johansson from Skåne. They have been coming to this campsite for many years, on their way to a spa in Hungary. After the match we were invited to their caravan for beer and snacks. Thanks to Maritta and Bengt for a nice evening, and wish you a continued nice trip!

Svenskar i Tjeckien
Peter, Maritta and Bengt

The beautiful city of Litomerice

The town of Litomerice, or Litoměřice as it is spelled in Czech, is located just over 20 miles north-west of Prague and has around 25,000 inhabitants. Founded in the 10th century, it was a major trading centre of the German-Roman Empire in the 17th century. Not surprisingly, this is a pretty town, with many beautiful houses and churches.

Litomerice
View of the city

There is a whole bunch of churches in Litomerice and we went into one of them, Kostel Zvestovani Panny Marie. The church was unfortunately not maintained but rather dilapidated, but instead they showed art in the church, which I liked.

Tjeckien Litomerice
Church Kostel Zvestovani Panny Marie
Kyrka Litomerice
Peter has found his place in the church ...

Ploskovice Castle

Just outside Litomerice is Ploskovice Castle, and we wanted to see it! The site was already used by knights in the 12th century, and the castle you can see today looks like it did in the 19th century, when the abdicated Austrian king lived here.

Slottet Ploskovice utanför Litomerice
Ploskovice Castle near Litomerice in the Czech Republic

To see the inside of the castle, you have to take a guided tour, which we did. The tour was in Czech, but at least we got a small booklet in English that we could read ...

Litomerice slott
Peter reads his booklet, while the others listen to the guide.
Slott Litomerice
Imaginative decoration in the main hall

Under the south side of the castle are caves, with paintings, sculptures and fountains. A bit different! All in all, we are very pleased with a varied and pleasant visit to Litomerice. We actually made another visit nearby but it is of a slightly different nature, simply a little heavier, so we will tell you about it tomorrow.

Litomerice slott
Caves under the castle
All our top tips for the Czech Republic. Click on the image!

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