• Places in Czech Republic

    For the love of details

    A few weeks ago we visited my mom, who lives in Příbram, which is a town in Central Bohemia. I took my camera with me for the occasion of “what if… we went for a walk”. We did and I took a few miscellaneous details that I want to share with you. No. 1: Watch out for childrenThere are standard traffic signs we all are used to and need to know when driving but passing by the signs along the same routes repeatedly makes them often sort of invisible to our eyes. I loved this colourful sign drawing attention to its message. No. 2: Alfa RomeoAlfa Romeo is not a common car…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Country church

    Every time when we go to visit my mom, we drive by a church in Starý Rožmitál that always draws my attention. There is nothing extraordinary about the building itself, it’s a country church standing by a cemetery, but the view from the road looks very nice. I asked my husband to stop nearby last week so that I could take a photo. I was walking here and there for a while when looking for the best view and along the way I was passing by a beautiful lilac bush. Lilac blooms are gone for now so it’s a nice memory. I also saw an eye-catching leafy tree which I…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Loket castle

    Do you have memories which you are not sure that are real? I have one which is very persistent. I don’t remember much from my childhood but I seem to remember very strongly that we went on a school trip to a castle called Loket. No more details, just this piece of information and it carries quite a positive feeling. I keep this memory like some treasure though I absolutely don’t know why, it’s so strange. Now, you won’t be surprised when I tell you that the memory made me really curious about how the castle looks so last year my husband and I went to visit it. I loved…

  • Praha
    Places in Czech Republic

    A few hours in Prague

    About a week ago my husband and I spent several hours in Prague. We had tickets for a concert of “Rodrigo y Gabriela” there and we decided to visit a few places before the concert would start in the evening. The weather wasn’t nice, it was a dreary and rainy day, but eventually it was not as awful as it was forecast and we enjoyed the trip. I’ll show you a few photos that I took but first I’d like to tell you more about those Rodrigo and Gabriela in case you’ve never heard of them. They deserve it. “Rodrigo y Gabriela” are an acoustic guitar duo coming from Mexico…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Autumnal photo walk and its surprises

    With its changing colours and soft light, autumn is such a special season and so many photographers speak about how eager they are not to miss out on taking some autumnal photos. That made me realize that I wouldn’t want to miss out on taking them either and asked my dear husband to go on a photo walk with me. I even had an idea in my mind where I’d like to go as a few months ago I noticed that in a near town a new educational trail “Living memories of Lužany landscape” was opened and it seemed a good destination for a Sunday morning walk. The trail is…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    SOOS abstraction

    Do you wonder what I’m getting at with the title of this post? I hope so… Read on and you will see. Photos presented in this post were taken at and inspired by SOOS, a national nature reserve that is situated just a few kilometres from Františkovy Lázně, the spa I wrote about in my last post. SOOS is a peat bog and fenland area that was declared the reserve in 1964. You can get to know part of it by following a 1,2 kilometres long nature trail that takes you through the reserve and lets you see some of its marvels. The trail goes across a dry lake bed…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Františkovy Lázně

    About 15 years ago we spent our holiday in the spa Františkovy Lázně which is situated in Western Bohemia near the border with Germany. We were accommodated in a cabin in a camp called “Amerika”, which is situated at the outskirts of the town, and made trips in the town’s surroundings both in Bohemia and Germany. We liked that holiday and this year we decided to return to that camp for a few days and revisit some of the places, starting with the spa itself.  It’s a small town but it’s quite impressive. After our arrival and checking in, we spent the afternoon in the town, walking in its streets…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Technical and musical Vítkovice Ironworks

    My husband comes from Ostrava so from time to time we go there to visit his mom and the rest of his family and often we also choose a particular place to visit. Last autumn he suggested we could have a look at the reactivated area of former ironworks and as I work in a company producing steel and steel/cast iron products, it seemed interesting enough to me to agree to that plan. I didn’t regret at all as the area is enormously interesting, fascinating. We even took a guided tour that provided additional information and enabled us access to some parts that are not freely accessible. At the time…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Weekend of open gardens – Part 3 – Meditation garden

    The third garden which we visited in Pilsen within the Weekend of open gardens was the “Memorial to victims of evil” also known as a “Meditation garden” or the “Hruška’s garden”. There was a man, Mr. Hruška, who spent more than 10 years as a political prisoner in a communist prison. When he came home in 1960, he started to remodel his fruit garden and changed it into an ornamental park. Though he had a job, he was attending lectures on garden architecture in a far city. He chopped down fruit trees and planted ornamental trees and bushes, created water and grassy areas. He wanted to commemorate suffering of those…

  • Places in Czech Republic

    Weekend of open gardens – Part 2 – Arboretum Sofronka

    Within the Weekend of open gardens which I mentioned in my previous post we also visited Arboretum Sofronka and I would like to introduce it to you now. All the following photos were taken in the arboretum. Arboretum Sofronka which is situated in Pilsen (Plzeň) was established in 1956 as a workplace of Research institute of forest management and hunting with the intention of doing research into pine tree breeding. In 2009 the workplace was cancelled and the arboretum was taken over by the city Pilsen. The place itself doesn’t look extraordinary, it feels like just a forest. But when you start to focus on what’s around you, you’ll find…