Fr 19.júl.2019
Františkový Lazně, Czechia
Lame, easy listening pop music tonight in an upscale cafe in the lovely old town tourist
district in Bratislava. So why am I sitting here? Comfortable chairs! And the music
is low-volume enough that I can hide it with my phone and earbuds. Listening to a CD that
I acquired in France last May. Anyway, the cappuccino is adequate.
This is the third or fourth evening I've worked on this page. Why so slow? I dunno - senility?
Tonight's Pictures are from
Františkový Lazně, Bohemia, Czechia
The smallest of the three big-name spa resorts of the pre-WW1 era. Back then, Bohemia
was a German-speaking country, and the town was called Franzensbad. It is still so
near the German border to the West and North, that a tourist could function comfortably
without learning a word of Czech, or spending anything but Euros.
From my window, the town plays on it's Old Days image.
Lots of city parks, surrounded by woods with marked trails, sprinkled with mineral
springs. This ent statue stands in a park between my hotel and the little railway station.
Memorials and artworks scattered around are supposed to make you feel uplifted when
you come across them.
All of the mineral springs have names, and signs telling you about the water.
The springs along the trails have little more than that. The ones in town have buildings
that can look like laboratories, or even temples. Some even are part of full-blown spa resorts,
offering 19th-century "cures" for whatever ailment you might be willing to spend money on.
Beer hot tubs? Caking like a mummy in magic mud? You name it, it is here!
The extensive woods surrounding the town are well-curated, with many paths, plenty of
those monuments to famous people, and the occaisional lake and camping area.
My only nit-pick on the trail system is that I could have used some hills. Western Bohemia
has no lack of those, but
Františkový Lazně sits in a startlingly flat little valley bottom.
The deer were behind a fence. Their turf went off into the woods, further than I could see.
The local variant on crows. At first I took them for Hooded Crows, but the markings
are different. Friends who know better than I suggested jackdaws, whose pictures in Wikipedia match pretty well. So jackdaws it is, unless somebody knows better!
A pretty enough little town. Kind of a one-trick pony. Four days here was a treat. A week
might have risked stir-craziness.
In any case, We still have Prague to see,
and Bratislava pictures are piling up.
And I really should do a flashback to Spain and Portugal.
Na Svidenje!