Castles and Spa Towns

Today we made our daytrip to the Loket Castle (aka Hrad Loket) and took a tour of the whole thing.  Probably the most interesting (and creepy) part was the torture chamber/prison in the basement.  At one point, we were all exploring on our own, and I lost sight of everyone else, so I decided to look in the prison (where everyone was supposedly headed) and ended up in what I swore was a haunted house.  As I went down the stairs, I expected to hear voices of the people in our group, but instead I heard the sounds of torture and pain.  The castle was pretty cool as far as castles go, and I really loved this view of the castle on the mountain.
The town, which was built around the castle, was so fun and cheery.  I just loved all the bright yellow, green, and orange buildings.  They can't help but make you happy.  We ate in this restaurant (the tall yellow building) for lunch.  The food was actually really good, but I'm pretty sure we got taken advantage of (we had to pay a lot more for a lot less food) because we were such a big tourist group.    

After the castle we headed to Karlovy Vary, the spa town.  There, we toured the Becherovka factory and then went to find the mineral waters.  We found them dispersed throughout a colonnade in the center of the city.  After sipping one, we determined they tasted like salty blood and we could probably do without their healing powers.  But the town was picturesque nonetheless and a good way to spend the end of our day trip. 

Tomorrow it's off to Budapest, Hungary until Monday.  Have a good weekend!