Autumn Beauty

Forget about the Chinese virus, incompetent politicians or that bad day of your boss.

Life is good.

Even a simple trip like LKKL – LKKL can create long standing memories, if flown at the right time and you take a good photographer aboard. Here are some of his shots.

This place has been inhabited for last four thousand years, with this castle of Potštejn being here since 13th century. It has pretty wild history, being resold, besieged, conquerred, destroyed and rebuilt every now and then. Apparently one of the more significant damages happened in 20th century due to the legend about the hidden Potštejn treasure trove. But even the most colorful history pales in comparison to reality:

If you start turning 180 above Potštejn, you end up at another castle, the Velešov. When the family of original owner started feeling uncomfortable at Potštejn, they built a new house and moved here. It may look like from a rock to a hard place, but that discomfort was rather political.

The Žamberk LKZM could serve as an entry gate to this nice part of the country. Brompton helps, a mountain bike is ideal to discover the area.

Some 50nm NW from there is the mountain range Krkonoše, with its crown, the tallest mountain of Czech Republic, Sněžka, with 5260ft of elevation. In the background there is Poland:

In winters Krkonoše is the most serious skiing area we have. Thus, it is rather crowded, and with Alps within a reasonable reach we have a choice. Yet it is a great place for backcountry skiing as you can climb through lonesome places and glide down in a virgin snow.

At the plateau west of Sněžka there is the Luční bouda, originally a shelter on the trade trail to Poland in 17th century, it has grown into a large mountain hotel for tourists in summers and cross country skiers in winters:

When leaving Krkonoše we see in the haze the ridge of Ještěd above the city of Liberec. In the background there are the extinct volcanoes in the area of České středohoří:

We descended to take a closer look at the Ještěd Tower, a futuristic looking edifice on top of the eponymous hill. This actually proves that breaking rules may bring outstanding results. The tender required two buildings, a hotel and a TV tower. Most of the works presented a box and a pole. Architect Hubáček merged both roles into a single structure, that became a beautiful dominant of this area:

From futuristic back to ancient. Házmburk, a gothic castle on a sole hill in the surrounding flatlands, serving as a good navigation point. Built in 14th century, abandoned in 16th century, it is standing here until now. Pretty solid way how to build a house.
From here the bearing 180 will bring us to Whiskey, the entry point to LKKL.

Fish eye of the photographer looks at a dreamer who contemplates how privileged he is to live through these moments. The word PILOT depicted at the forefront of his snapback cap shall remind him of his role whenever he surfaces from his meditation.