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Church of Nativity of Virgin Mary in Strašín
There are places where you simply feel good and for me one of those places were premises of the Church of Nativity of Virgin Mary in Strašín. Strašín is a small town in Šumava mountains and the church, whose origins go back to 13th century, is situated on its edge. It is, or perhaps rather used to be, a pilgrimage church where Mother Mary was worshipped. There are several legends relating to the place including the one about revelation of Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus and appearance of a healing spring with an energy point. I don’t know if you believe in such things, I certainly have my reservations…
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Kašperské Hory
Kašperské Hory was the town assigned to June in my photo project for this year and here I am to present some of the photos I took there. 35 photos again, as in the previous months. By the way, I was quite surprised to see that many of the photos I took were in the portrait rather than landscape format, not quite typical for me. The town Kašperské Hory has about 1500 inhabitants. It is situated in a beautiful area of Šumava mountains and many tourists visit it throughout the whole year. In the 14th century it was an important town for its gold mines. To guard the boarder and protect the goldfields…
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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.…
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Springs of Vltava river
Vltava is the longest river of the Czech Republic, its length is 433 km. On its way it flows also through Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Bedřich Smetana, the Czech composer who lived from 1824 to 1884, was inspired by the river so much that he included it in his cycle of six symphonic poems “My Country”. I love the piece. It’s playful music and one can really hear the flow of a river in its tunes. Vltava rises in Šumava and we decided to visit its spring during our last stay there. In spite of a rainy morning we set off early, got on a bus and…
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Trip to Prášilské jezero
During our summer stay in Šumava we visited “Prášilské jezero”. It is a glacial lake situated in the Šumava National Park at the altitude of 1080 metres above sea level. First we needed to climb a hill but as it was a beautiful sunny day accompanied by blue sky covered with occasional white puffy clouds, we really enjoyed the hike. At one place along the path up, people had built these small stone piles which looked very cute but I have no idea whether there was any meaning behind them. There were a few wind storms which severely damaged the woods in the area and the forest surrounding the lake…
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Vydra river
It is said that those who didn’t see the beauty of the Vydra river, don’t know how beautiful Šumava really is. May I invite you to go for a walk with me and see how true these words are? The building you can see in the back of the first photo is “Antýgl”, which is a former homestead originated at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. There used to be glassworks for several hundred years. Nowadays there is a camp situated there, we were staying in it during our trip to the southern part of the Šumava National Park. About 200 metres from Antýgl a nature trail begins…
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Two more peatland sceneries
Apart from the peatland Chalupská slať I wrote about some time ago, we visited two more peatland areas in that part of Šumava – Jezerní slať (Lake peatland) and Tříjezerní slať (Triple lake peatland). Both of them are also part of the first zone of nature protection of the Šumava National Park. Jezerní slať (Lake peatland) was designated a nature reserve in 1933. Its name comes from a lake which has been overgrown with peat moss. When you arrive there and follow a nature trail, soon you come to an observation tower which enables you to see far behind tops of surrounding trees. The area of the peatland spreads over…
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Trip from Modrava
I’d like to get back to those few days we spent in Šumava this summer. We were staying in a camp, going on trips and for one day we planned a trip from Modrava to our camp. We had to go by bus just a few kilometres and then follow a marked track. When we were getting off the bus, it was already drizzling and we needed to take on our raincoats. Well, I don’t mind walking in rain, but our cameras had to stay in our bags and I regretted that so much. On the one hand I felt really annoyed and on the other I tried to persuade…
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Peatland Chalupská slať
In summer we spent a few days in Šumava (which you may know as the Bohemian Forest) where we wanted to visit and explore its southern part. One of our trips lead us to a remarkable place of peatland named Chalupská slať. The peatland area is represented by 137 hectares and altitude of 950 m. There are peat reserves amounting to 2 340 000 cubic metres. When you come to the area, there is a small parking lot where you’ll leave your car and continue on foot following a marked path. You’ll come to a raised boardwalk of a nature trail which will take you into quite a different environment.…
