Krumlov nights are not quiet. Unlike in other towns, the official nighttime quiet hours start not at 10pm but at midnight. And the noise from the streets dies down only very slowly. Around eight in the evening, a woman is singing an aria across the street, and a young guitarist is strumming nearby. The tourists want to the see the town at dusk as well, and so the stream up and down Latrán.

Despite the later closing time, it’s surprising that most restaurants and gardens close much earlier. Some of them start to close at 6pm, most of them at 10, and very few businesses in the historic center stay open later (we tried to find something nearby after that time, and found only the Zdroj and Cikánská Jizba restaurants). And still the town is alive late at night. Often we hear some off-key Moravian folk songs beneath our windows, and at other times a fight or just some drunken shouting.

Nor does the town get any rest in the morning. The Asian tourists start their tours around six in the morning, sometimes even earlier, so they can enjoy the empty town at daybreak. Morning also sees the main wave of deliveries, so we hear the rumbling of delivery trucks as well.

It is possible to sleep with open street-facing windows, but the background noise has a noticeable impact on the quality of sleep.

Y.