Medieval city in Southern Bohemia (in Czech Republik), about 30 miles South of Ceske Budejovice, home of the real Budweiser beer.
Naturally, Cesky Krumlov has its own beer. I know that because I spent a year in Cesky Krumlov during my service in Czechoslovak Army. I hated the Army food, so I used to go to a popular restaurant twice a day.
The waiters don't even ask you what you want to drink, they just serve you a huge glass of the local beer, and promptly replace it when it is empty.
It so happens I never acquired a taste for beer, so I had to explicitly stop the waiters from giving me a beer. After several days they got used to the oddity, and would start serving me a Coke just as automatically as they served beer to everyone else.
The city has a beautiful castle whose architecture spans from 14th to 19th centuries.
But to me, the most wonderful thing was the castle theatre. It is located in one of the castle's gardens. To get there, you have to walk quite a distance on your feet.
The theatre does not have a stage, at least not a traditional stage: The actors perform in the garden. There is a smaller castle (a summer castle named Bellarie) inside the garden--it is usually made part of the scenery. For example, in the performance of Beauty and the Beast I saw there, Bellarie was the Beast's castle.
The only permanent theatrical piece is a turntable. This is not part of the stage, it is where the audience sits. To change scenery, they simply turn the audience to face in a different direction, and the play continues.
The turntable made its first turn in 1958, seating an audience of 60. It had to be turned by hand.
Nowadays, the turntable seats more than 650, and is controlled by electric motors.
In the summer of 1976, when I served, they performed for three months, staging a different production each month. The tickets were very hard to get, expensive too. But the theatre donated some 20 tickets or so, every month, to the local military. Somehow, I managed to get one on all three occasions! It was magic! Especially Beauty and the Beast!
If you ever find yourself in Cesky Krumlov, or anywhere in Southern Bohemia, during summer, don't miss the Castle Theatre! It will be an experience you will cherish for the rest of your life. | 
