Five fave photos

Winter is upon us in Prague. This morning there was frost glistening on the rooftop outside my flat. A smattering of snow is forecast for the weekend. I’m planning to keep cycling as much as I can in and around Prague throughout the winter. However, I won’t be able to resume my ride around the Czech border until next spring, and that seems an awfully long way off at the moment. To console myself, I’ve been looking back at the photos of my travels earlier in the year. It occurred to me to put together some of my favourite snaps that hadn’t made into any previous posts. So here they are.

Trees cowering from the wind

The first three, as it happens, were all taken on Děčínský Sněžník mountain. This photo was taken at the Dresden Viewpoint. Here, the cruel north wind blows straight up a vertical rock wall and into the vanguard of trees at its top, bending them back and stripping them bare. Life on the front line.

Spiral staircase inside Děčínský Sněžník tower

I’ve taken numerous pictures of viewing towers and views from viewing towers this year. But this is the first view of the innards of a tower I’ve posted so far. My friend Ryan, who joined me for the first two days of my ride through the Ore Mountains, managed to quell his fear of heights and steady his hands long enough to get this shot of me.

Trance-inducing trees

I love the texture of these trees photographed from the top of the tower. I have this set as the desktop background on my computer. It sends me into a trance if I stare at it too long.

Border sign (17 May 2010)

An unexceptional photo this one, but emblematic of my borderland wanderings. I’ve seen lots of signs like this, and I’ll no doubt see many more. Usually they just say “CAUTION! National frontier”, but this one adds “running along stream”. The river in question is the Divoká (“Wild”) Orlice in the Eagle Mountains.

Ještěd from Poland (26 July 2010)

Ještěd is my favourite Czech mountain and I like to climb it every spring to mark the official start of my cycling year. I’ve tackled it from all sorts of angles, but this was the first time I’d seen it from the Polish side of the border.