Fri 21.Jul.2023
Plauen, DE & Františkovy Lázně, CZ
Imagery May 2023
Getting into the second half of May ...
The roof of clouds is still with us in Plauen, Saxony in eastern Germany.
Jackets are still called for, or at least long sleeves.
That said, it is easy exercise to hike up to the city park, where I found this
critter I don't remember seeing before.
out of the river all ugly and green
the biggest old alligator that I've ever seen
- R. McKernan
From the shelves of a chain Supermarket.
If they say so; I can't prove otherwise.
This foofaraw was going on in the Altmarkt the same weekend that we Grateful Deadheads
were gathering the historic old Malzhaus.
The name Good Food Festival seems to be pretty broad.
Leastwise The Insect Cook had his booth just like everybody else.
Grasshoppers worms or grill what you will?
Delicious Far Eastern
In German it rhymes... even scans!
Over the hills and through the woods on a (mostly) single-track indy train.
Waddya know - they have supermarkets here too!
The little Bohemian spa town of Františkovy Lázně was a big name resort for the elite
before the First World War, when it was called Franzensbad. Today it is effectively
bilingual. German visitors function smoothly without needing to know a word of Czech.
That said it is still good manners to try, and generates good will.
Shameless plug: a fine apartment with a friendly owner in the heart of town. I'd stay there
again gladly. (I found them on one of the usual booking sites)
The central "showcase". Real life happens a couple of steets away.
Františkovy Lázně's schtick is a dozen or more natural mineral springs. They all have names
and signs with chemical info about the water (cf below). Some have big resort complexes
around them, where you can pay big eurobucks for 19th-century "cures".
All of the springs offer their mineral water to drink gratis. Can conoisseurs tell one from
another? To me they all taste like sulphurous gunk.
Many springs have little
temple-like domes over them in the parks and woods that surround the town. A few are out in the
woods with no real hype at all.
There may be conditions that one spring
or another is helpful for, but a hepatitis-damaged liver is not among them. Those mineral lists
look like death on livers.
Football Staduim
Tennis Courts
Who says you can't read Czech?!
Europe has an extensive network of well-maintained bicycle trails. Some of them pass through
here.