Our third morning in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, my husband Will and I explored the south end of the spa zone. Two buildings in this location feature prominently in my novel-in-progress: the Grandhotel Pupp and my fictional Café Goethe.
Before checking out these buildings, we visited the Kaiser Bad (aka former Imperial Spa or Spa I) and the Karlovy Vary Museum. We learned a lot about the city's history and balneotherapy (the use of mineral-rich waters, mud, or other natural elements for health benefits).
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| Kaiser Bad |
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| Emperor's bath in the Kaiser Bad |
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| Display in Karlovy Vary Museum |
From the Kaiser Bad, we continued two minutes south and found the perfect model for my fictional riverside café. The restaurant has a patio, where my novel's protagonist Marie shares secrets and plots with her friends and sometimes exchanges ideas with Sigmund Freud. He is "taking the cure" in Karlovy Vary and loves the café's pastries and cakes as much as the serenity it provides for his thinking and writing. The building and patio aren't exactly as I had imagined them, but I like them better than the ones I'd conjured in my first draft. Today, the place is a Michelin restaurant. It's come up in the world since Marie's boyfriend Rado worked there as a waiter.
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| Model for my fictional Cafe Goethe |
Next we circled back to the Grandhotel Pupp café and sampled their famous cake.
Then we checked out the hotel's reception area and lobby, where key scenes in my novel-in-progress take place. I had pictured an enormous hotel entrance; instead the lobby is divided into separate areas. In my next draft, I'll keep this structure but dress the rooms in period décor.
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| Grandhotel Pupp Reception |
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| Lobby Bar |
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| Lobby entrance |
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| Staircase to hotel rooms |
From Pupp Alley, we rode the cable car to the Diana Lookout, as Marie and Rado do in my story. The funicular opened in 1912, two years before my novel's time frame, and the observation tower opened the year Marie arrived. From the top of the tower, Marie, Rado, Will, and I enjoyed views of the town.
Will and I climbed down the tower stairs and got lost on the forest trails trying to find Karlovy Vary's iconic Leaping Stag Statue. In the story, Marie and Rado will similarly lose their way up there, while the novel's villain lurks in the trees. 
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| At last, we found the Leaping Stag Statue |
In the evening, Will and I returned to the Kaiser Bad for a string quartet concert of music by Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák. 
Afterward, we stopped for drinks at the Grandhotel Pupp lobby bar to soak in more atmosphere for my novel setting.
Research has its rewards. Cheers!
