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Winter trip to Karlovy Vary
In the Czech Republic, we have a tradition of so called “spring holidays” for schoolchildren. The holidays last one week but they are planned within several weeks so that all districts don’t have them at the same time, this year the span is from February 5 to March 18. My younger son Zbyněk has had the holidays this week and because we don’t go skiing, we were thinking about a trip to make. Finally we decided to visit the spa Karlovy Vary where Zbyněk was on a school trip last June and it seemed interesting to visit the spa in winter under quite different conditions. Also, I had never been…
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Stachelberg fort
I have never been much interested in military history and don’t know much about it but I was quite impressed by the Stachelberg fort my family and I visited in northern Bohemia. The Stachelberg fort was built as part of border defences against Nazi Germany growing in power, it was supposed to become the largest Czechoslovak artillery fort. The fort consists of 12 objects connected by means of extensive underground, the total length of tunnels and rooms situated 25 to 60 metres underground is approximately 3.5 kilometres. Construction of the fort started in October 1937 and should have been finished in 2 years but it was stopped prematurely in October…
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Observation tower Slovanka
Slovanka, the oldest iron observation tower in Bohemia, is situated at the top of the hill Slovanka in the Jizera Mountains, at an altitude of 820 metres, not far from the town Janov nad Nisou. The tower is 11 metres high, 14 metres including the base. It is permanently accessible and the access is free of charge. We spent our family holiday in the vicinity and visited the observation tower twice. I would say that there is nothing spectacular about the tower, yet it looks good, there is a nice view from its top and also, it represents an interesting piece of history. The tower was constructed according to a…
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Out there
When I created the image above, I thought that it wouldn’t need any accompanying words, that it tells a story of its own. Perhaps a different story for each of us… Can you hear it?
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Javorník
When we were leaving the camp we were staying at in Šumava last summer, our clothes as well as boots were cold and wet and we were looking forward to returning home. We even weren’t quite sure whether to make one last trip on our way back. Then we found a location on a map which was situated along the way home and looked interesting. It was Javorník, both a town and hill with an observation tower, and eventually we decided to stop there. We parked our car in the town and followed a marked trail. After climbing a part of the hill, we came to a chapel of St.…
