The beauty and healing baths of Karlovy Vary have attracted travelling kings and emperors for hundreds of years. This stunning Czech spa town, just over the German border and about 130km due east of Prague, now attracts contemporary celebrities: Jude Law, Antonio Banderas, John Malkovich, Robert De Niro and Renee Zellweger are regulars. And it attracted me, purely by chance. I was on my way to do some snowboarding at the nearby Fichtelberg mountain and stumbled across what I quickly realised was a highlight of all my travels. Innumerable unusual buildings were made dreamlike by the first real sunshine to break through after many cold, frosty winter days, and I decided to stay and take a tour, booking into a central hotel.