Polička, Czechia

I recently had an hour between my train and bus in Polička, so I went exploring, having no idea how cool the historical center of this little town was.  So, yeah.  Europe's not awesome or anything.  And it's not like I'm a fan of old town walls.

Žaba (Frog) Rock

 An aptly named rock formation near Vsetín, Czech Republic:

And the formation from the other, mossier side:  

Rogue bits of snow, still hiding out in the shade (picture taken Feb 28, after a big warm-up):

River High, River Low

Two things I love about a temperate, four-seasons climate:

-Change

-Rivers

And here you see both together.  Sorry that I didn't get the perspective consistent, but that white graffiti under the bridge is the same graffiti in each picture.

During snowmelt:

Two days later:

Now:

The river was amazing this winter.  First it froze. People scraped snow off perfect rectangles and played hockey on it.  Then it started melting in interesting and sometimes hard-to-explain patterns.  Then sudden warmth turned it into a raging brown torrent full of floating pieces of ice.  As it receded it turned an opaque blue-green, like some glacier-fed rivers I've seen in Alaska and the Alps.  Now it's back to its gentle, crystal-clear state.  So cool.

Another view of a different spot on the same three days.  The path leading down to the river is the same road leading down to the same river.

Snow Friends

I saw this snowbear (snowdog?) on the way home from work a few weeks ago and made him a snowturtle friend.

Editors Needed

So yes, there's a grammar mistake on this expensive-looking, official sign.  Some capitalization and punctuation problems.  But I'm not sure you can blame the altitude problem on language issues.  

I was still very happy they tried English...and it gave me a smile (and delusional bragging rights).  Plus, I suppose that if they'd added mm to the altitude, it might technically be correct.       

   

Frosty Fairy-Tale Walk

 This was the last week in January.  I don't think I need any more words.

Cross-Country Skiing in Velké Karlovice, Czech Republic

Here I am a few weeks ago, cross-country skiing for the first time in many years.  Well, I guess I'm not actually skiing here.  This is one of the steep parts where I would have needed a lot more skill, experience, and confidence to actually ski.  So I walked.  

And here I am actually on the skis:

Some of the scenery I got to see (bits of blue sky!!!):

And the snowbear I helped make afterwards:

The pile of skis in the bus home.  I wasn't the only one who thought cross-country skiing would be good that day.  This was just a regular bus that goes between towns, but you would have thought it was a shuttle in a ski resort.  People were happy, laughing together.  What a great day.

I went about 13 km, however, which was too much for my first time in years.  It uses very different muscles than hiking.  I think my technique is very bad, because at the end, I was like, "Hiking that far would have been far easier."

I hope I get another chance this season.