Hiking

In this picture, shot a little bit further down the trail, you can see Jablonec (or at least that's what my Czech travelling companions said), and further away, Liberec. That antenna up on the mountain isn't actually an antenna at all, but the famous Hotel Jested, perhaps the most unique hotel design ever. Here's their website if you want a closer look, as this was the closest I got: www.jested.cz/hotel/en/index_n.php I do have the goal of getting there to take a closer photo sometime, but on my most recent, and so far only, Liberec trip I never got to it.

I took this shot as I was exiting the curve near the bunker, I think.

Finally one more from the series before the part where I get to....Plecne Jezero (coming soon)!

The Romanske Rotunda sv. Jiri, or the Romanesque Rotunda Of St. George, is the oldest Romanesque church in Bohemia, and one of the oldest in Europe, dating to the 10th Century. The location is significant, also, as legend has it that this was where Praotec Cech, the original Czech, decided to found Bohemia while surveying the land around him, as indeed this is the summit of Rip at 455 meters.

This was a color shot that I took with my MZ-10, loaded with Ektachrome Elite 200, right before I shot my black and white of this same scene.

This, like the "View From Rip" shot, was taken with both my Ikoflex and my MZ-10, the Ikoflex having Fomapan in it, and the MZ-10 having Ektachrome Elite 200.

Here's another view from Rip, giving a better idea of the expansive view that you can get from it. In honesty, though, the summit isn't the best place. This is actually the side of the mountain, where there are fewer trees in the way, as even in the Fall, when I went, the summit's view is obscured by the trees that cover it.

Krapcice is a small village not far from Rip, which is a mountain, in Central Bohemia. I took this from Rip with my Ikoflex.

Okor is a ruined castle near Rip that is at least moderately well known. Hrad Okor was built by Frantisek Rokycansky, a wealthy burgher from Prague, and was later expanded in 1494 and 1590 by subsequent families, before coming under the control of the Jesuits in the 17th Century. They only maintained the castle until the late 18th Century, however, and the castle has since fallen into ruins. This doesn't stop tourists from visiting, however, and the castle is listed on a number of tourist websites.

After hiking part of the way up Grosser Priel in the dark and the rain the first day (or night, rather), and in the daylight the second day (not the original plan but...), we slept in Welser Hutte, waking up to this spectacular scene of clouds lying low on what are by no means low mountains. My friends climbed to the summit on this day, although I had to give up rather quickly for safety reasons, as I'm no expert, so Welser Hutte was again a refuge for me. We climbed down immediately afterwards, in better weather and in daylight.

took this on my way up Grosser Priel, approaching Welser Hutte, just visible to the left at the top. This was already high enough so that we were above the treeline and in the snow.

I've uploaded this because I like the Fall colors, although note that it was last Fall (2005) and not this Fall (2006).

I took this shot as a thunderhead (cumulonimbus cloud) was moving in on my hiking party rapidly. I was concerned, but our team leader considered it "quite exciting," telling us the story of when he was hit by lightening. I love the light in this picture, and the colors, particularly the yellowness of the sun behind us shining brightly on the green grass, contrasting with the dark background.

Nova Pec is surrounded by trails for hiking, and these are reasonably well marked. I went on several hikes while there.

This was a pub at the trailhead of Ulrichsberg Schoneben, where I unexpectedly found myself on an unplanned third trip to Austria. The reason was that me and one of my friends were driving around looking for a place to walk her dog, and found ourselves at the border crossing with our passports in the car, so we figured we'd walk the dog in Austria.

Austria, famously, has ample tourist facilities, especially for hiking, so obviously there was a map at the trailhead.

I'm guessing this travel centre was a hotel and such, but I didn't investigate. The most important thing was that I got the name of the town on it! I never planned to go to Austria on this trip, so I wanted to note the place names.

Here's the first photo I took at the start of our hike, which was originally supposed to be a dog walking trip!