Secret Garden, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. While the castle gardens are not exactly a secret, with a total area of 11 hectares we encountered so few souls wandering around that the place seemed almost abandoned.

The gardens are from 17th century, but as fashions and tastes shifted, their style was altered from Baroque to Rococo, to Classicist and finally to English park in the 19th century.

Versailles this certainly isn't, but there was something magical in the warm quiet afternoon there... the gardens had the manner of an aging, faded aristocrat who had known, and still remembered with fondness, the glory of better days.