It would be a shame not to take full advantage of an extended weekend with a beautiful weather. So I bought a ticket for the night train to Liptovský Mikuláš. The start was not quite hard-core outdoor – last-minute purchase of the ticket meant that only a “de luxe” compartment was available, so I traveled with my own shower and breakfast into the bed – and in the morning I got off the train in Mikuláš and set off from the town to the mountains on the north. On the first day the hike led through Žiarská dolina valley, across the Jalovecké sedlo pass, over the peaks of Príslop and Baníkov (2178 m) to the lakes Roháčská plesa, the second day around Ťatliakovo lake through the pass of Zábrať, over…

I have already been on a bike trip this year, travelling abroad is still prohibited, so where to go for a few days of July holidays, so that it is a trip to the nature and at the same time again something new? How about to Orlické hory, or Eagle Mountains, but cowboy-style on horseback? The route led for the first two days through forests and meadows from the ranch in Hrádek near Ústí nad Orlicí, around the river Tichá Orlice, through Brandýs to the Potštejn castle, from there around the river Divoká Orlice through Litice castle and Žamberk to pastures above the dam of Pastviny. And another two days back, through a bit different path but roughly the same route around the river. Based on this trip, I can…

The holiday and the following weekend around May 8 saw the very best weather that one can imagine for a bike ride – warm, sunny, but not yet too hot. I could not miss that, so I went for a three-day trip crossing the river Elbe behind Poděbrady, through the rolling plains following the river Cidlina through Nový Bydžov and Jičín to the sandstone rocks of the so called Bohemian Paradise and back through the groves near Mcely and around the dead arms and wetlands of the Elbe river in the Káraný area. The nature this week decided to show some of its best – so in addition to the usual roe deers, hares, buzzards or lizards, a fox also showed up in the evening, I saw beavers for the…

The Coronavirus epidemic swiftly cut off any possibilities of travel to so far unknown places. However, then it turned out that this is not true exactly – for example, the below kinds of views of quiet Prague during a workday, including, for example, a clean and empty Charles Bridge, were completely unknown to me up until now.

During the beautifully sunlit but pandemic Easter I went for a small two-day trip, following the river Sázava upstream to the hilly area around the Želivka dam.