Třeboň: Land o' Lakes

The year has begun and we have been on the road again. We spent last Saturday and Sunday driving around Southern Bohemia. We knew that we needed a bit of open road and we'd been toying with different ideas of places to go, but as the weekend got close and the weather was forecasted to be drizzly then we decided to go someplace small and quiet.

Třeboň is a small town with a big reputation for carp. The traditional Czech Christmas dinner is fried carp and potato salad. That was about the extent of my carp knowledge up until last weekend. It turns out it is a huge industry that spans hundreds of years. The modern fisheries are basically mass fish farms. The lakes that make the geography of Southern Bohemia are actually artificial. The nobility and the priests, for hundreds of years, carved out lakes in the landscape and filled them with carp. Why? For the nobility, it was extra cash and it created jobs for the people. For the monasteries it was a to stave off hunger. In the middle ages these fish farms kept the church and the state and the people from starvation.

But what I was really interested in was tasting. And that we did...and well! We went to the restaurant Šupina a Šupinka (www.supina.cz), which translates Scale and Little Scale. To say they specialize in fish is putting it mildly. Restaurace Šupina a Šupinka created a dance of beautiful flavors in my mouth. I'm not even a huge fan of fish, but every bit of the starter and main course (mine and H's) was perfect. Go see for yourself, it is worth the trip! And if you book online before March, you also get a 10% discount.

My second reason for thinking Třeboň was just wonderful was that it is also a spa town. We stayed in Hotel Zlata Hveda, right on the main square. Again, because it was out of season, we got a good deal on the room. They have a wellness center in the hotel so I booked myself a warm peat treatment with massage.

After our little adventure out of Prague, my stomach was happy and my muscles were happy and my head was full of happy Třeboň memories. Třeboň is an excellent place to slow down and enjoy the good things of life.