Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: budejovicky

These ceramic stoves, usually fired by coal and used for heating more than cooking, aren't unique to Sumava and in fact can be found in various sizes all over the Czech Republic. They also aren't anything resembling new technology, as I've seen some from as far back as the Baroque period. Originally they were mainly for palaces and other very expensive buildings, sometimes reaching enormous sizes, but now the irony is that they're being made obsolete by central heating and/or the even more modern phenomenon of independent electric radiators in each room, so now they're as much associated with cottages in the countryside.

This is "downtown" Nova Pec, although the Czechs wouldn't refer to it as a downtown, of course. Actually, I'm not sure if anyone else would, either, unless they knew how small this village is.

This is the town square of Horni Plana, another town where we stopped.

This is Lipno, a major reservior in Sumavsky Narodni Pamatka, or Sumava National Park.

I originally though that this was a sunset, but now given where it is on the roll, I'm pretty sure that it was a sunrise.

I shot this on the road to Lipno, I think, which was to be the first stop on a trip that I took back in the Spring to Sumava with some of my friends. I really like the colors in this shot, although I don't know if those flowers were dandelions, buttercups, or something else. Sumava has several species of flower that are this shade of yellow.