Olomouc, Czech Republic

The Lonely Planet Guide tells that Olomouc (say Olomoats) is like a miniature Prague, without the crowds of tourists. This is another time that I took exception to the guidebook. Olomouc is a university town, which means that there are a lot of young people there. But to compare it to Prague, in terms of the beauty and grandeur of the architecture is ‘way off the mark, in my opinion. Clearly this small city does not have the infrastructure or budget to restore crumbling facades of once elegant buildings. There is an abundance of deteriorating old apartment and university buildings, many of which seem to have gone past to the point of no return. The centre of the old town is very pretty though, and there are a number of sculptures, classical and modern, gracing the spacious squares.

Once again the weather was cold, making it unpleasant being outside for any length of time, so I usually would head back to my hostel for lunch. There was a good grocery store nearby where I was able to find nice things to eat, rather than eating in restaurants. So, a nice hot bowl of soup with some local cheese and bread was a good way to break up the days of visiting various places of interest in Olomouc, which can easily be seen in a couple of days. It was a nice enough town, but nowhere near the same class as Prague, even though Prague is very crowded with tourists.

From Olomouc I took the train to Krakow, Poland.