After New Year’s eve in Wrocław we spent the first few days of the New Year in Janské Lázně in the Czech Republic.


It was one hell of a party with 10,000 people in the beautiful square to see the best in Polish pop before Ace Of Base finished things off (apparently. We’d already found sanctuary from the remorseless drivel a bar in a side street).
What no-one could complain about were the fireworks. Without doubt, the best I ever saw…


And so to Janské Lázně in the Krkonoše Mountains. It is a beautiful region. Nothing too steep or high, just rolling wooded hill-sides with pretty villages dotted around the valleys. It has cycle routes for both tourers and MTBs everywhere. I’d love to go back in the summer and explore.


The skiing on Černá Hora is nothing too difficult, even for an Englishman (as I can stand up on skis, I may be close to the British olympic team), but enough to keep us entertained for a couple of days.


The food is great. I could live (in fact I did) on two of the specialities, garlic soup with fried bread followed by Smažený sýr washed down with Gambrinus, all for a couple of quid. You’ve got to love countries who still don’t have the Euro…


My favourite photograph of the trip was this one. It was taken next to the TV mast on top of Černá Hora. All civil works built in the Czech, such as this or an new motorway junction must have a portion of their budget set aside for a piece of art. This one is a mother and child shivering in the elements…