Travels with Grace: The Spas of Bohemia
Welcome to this week’s segment of our 2019 #TravelTuesday series: Traveling with Grace. Today we follow along as Grace visits Marienbad and Karlsbad during the summer of 1929.
August 25, 1929
Sunday. This morning we rode out to the Kettner’s pretty little cottage in Vorechovka. They have a lovely flower garden. This afternoon we took an auto to Skalka where we had tea. The ride is very enjoyable following the course of the river Moldau on which are numerous pleasure craft and there are many people bathing, it being a warm day. Some of the bathing suits are bold to say the least and they are donned in automobiles or in woods along the route. Sir Herbert Samuel and wife are staying at this hotel.
August 26, 1929
Monday. Leave Prague at 11:15 a.m. and after a very interesting ride reach Marienbad at 3 p.m. Here at the Hotel Esplanade we have beautiful rooms and balcony facing the mountains. At night there is music and dancing and the grounds are illuminated with colored lights.
August 27, 1929
Tuesday, Marienbad. We take a delightful car ride around the village where there are many attractive shops (signs are mostly in German and there is less of the Czech language in evidence than in Prague nor is it heard often) and then out through the pine forests so thick that in their depths it is as dark as midnight. There are tannenbaums, mountain-ash, and other varieties of evergreens. Many people are hiking as usual. We go to a place called Glatzen owned by some prince. Here is a restaurant and his private villa both in Swiss chalet style with much wood carving. There are some little lakes in the vicinity. Tonight, they have fireworks at the hotel.
August 28, 1929
Wednesday. Took a carriage this afternoon and rode to Nimrod, Alm, Podhorn, Rubezahl, Hochwald, Egerlander. All these are neighboring resorts, and each boasts a large café. At a few there is an orchestra and dancing. All are well patronized. Never have I seen so many eating places or so many fat people who tramp for hours along the roads and through the forest paths – apparently with the object of reducing the superfluous avoirdupois – only to stop at intervals to rest in one of these omnipresent cafes and refuel liberally with beer, eis-café with a rich topping of whipped cream, bread and cakes. Then on the hike to the next one and to repeat. The ride affords us a nice variety of scenery: forests, fields, distant mountains, broad rolling panoramas, encircled by the Bohemian forests far off on the Bavarian boundary. We ride through another section of Marienbad, where there is a large Jewish population, synagogue, kosher restaurants, etc.
August 29, 1920
Thursday. A private auto takes us to Franzensbad today passing through the old city of Eger en route. Roads very good except in the city. Franzensbad is similar to Marienbad but on a smaller scale. We sit in the park and listen to the band concert, 1st number of which is Stars and Stripes Forever.
August 31, 1929
Saturday, Marienbad. A big ball is held at the hotel tonight attended by many beside the guests. The master of ceremonies introduces some novel contests and prizes are distributed.
September 1, 1929
Sunday. We spend this, our last afternoon in Marienbad, sitting in the Wald Park. The air is cooled by a little stream and fragrant with the odor of pines. They serve lemonade and lebkuchen at the Quelle.
September 2, 1929
Monday. We leave Marienbad after a very pleasant week of glorious weather, rest and beautiful scenery. Take a private auto at 11:30 a.m. and ride over excellent roads to Carlsbad enjoying the fine views en route. Arrive at Hotel Imperial at 12:30. It is well situated on a high eminence surrounded by the mountains, but they are enlivened by many farm houses, gardens and cottages. Music and dancing on the hotel terrace in the afternoon.
September 3, 1929
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Tuesday, Karlsbad. In the morning from 9 until 11 o’clock there is a “frulisticle tanz” on the lawn. This hotel is very large and luxurious and everyone most courteous. We visit the town this afternoon. There is a large Jewish hospital here – for poor Jews – and they are now building a Jewish home for the Aged. There is a fine technical art school called the Handelsakademie. The Jewish Synagogue and Russian Orthodox Church are both very pretty. A large villa and hotel section take up the west end of the town which rises on high ground. Opposite our hotel in the distance a bronze deer stands on a rocky mount. This is called the “Hirshensprung.” Legend records that a deer pursued by the king’s hounds sprang from the rocks at this point and was scalded to death in the hot spring below which led to its discovery. The town of Karlsbad is picturesque. The river Eger winds beneath its many bridges.
September 4, 1929
Wednesday. We sit in the Colonnade a while this afternoon. Here are various breunners (breunnerite) with different medicinal contents and the people come from all around bringing their little glass or china cups and promenade up and down the while sipping their water slowly through tubes. I sample some of the water, which is radioactive, warm and salty. We have dinner at Pupps where there is a great crowd and listen to the band concert. Weather is fine.
September 5, 1929
Thursday. Take a beautiful drive in Landau up the mountains to Arlberg passing en route the café St. Leonhard made popular by the late Empress Elizabeth who used to breakfast here. The forests are very beautiful, the trees straight and slender, the ground beneath them carpeted with thick velvety green moss, the lacy fronds of young ferns filling in the open spaces, the golden radiance of the setting sun piercing to the darkest depths of woodlands which clothe the mountainside completely opening leafy aisles to the valley floor below. The air is cool and filled with woodsy fragrances and we enjoy a drink from the clear, cold mountain spring.
September 6, 1929
Friday. The shops in Karlsbad are quite fascinating, especially linens, embroideries, porcelains, and glassware. Also, fine fur shops, millinery and all the latest modes. We have lunch at the pavilion in Stadtpark. The display of dahlias here is very fine.
