A Walk Around Usovice

I took a walk a couple of days ago, and ended up with so many great pictures that I have decided to break it into several posts rather than throwing them all out in one go. We'll start right here, basically in my back yard, in the area of Usovice. I'm not sure how all the exact distinction lines run. Our address is Marianske Lazne, but this area is called Usovice (pronounced Ush-o-vits-eh, sorry I don't have any haceks on my computer to make it diacritically correct). Perhaps at some stage, in an era long gone, this was a separate town, but it all just blends together at this point. Anyhow, I wanted to get more exercise, and enjoy a day when the snow was fresh and fluffy, rather than nasty slushy soupy muck, so I hiked all over the place. My first area of observation was the Usovice church. As you can see by the date over the door, it's been around a while.

I've never actually been inside this church, but the views from the outside are lovely, especially in the snow.

How cool to have a little church like this just a short walk away. If there hadn't been quite so much snow I would have sat on this bench to just enjoy the solitude for a while.

Instead, I continued my walk down by the fence.

I made my way up a little hill and passed under this old bridge.

Then turned back to check the trail signs. The trails in Czech are well marked with these colorful painted squares. I heard once that there was a special society that goes around and keeps them fresh, but that most of the people in it are getting older and they're having trouble getting enough young people to keep things going. How true this is, I have no real way of knowing, but it's a sad thought to me.

I headed briefly back in the direction of home, and stopped to check out the fountain. I was really surprised to find it running, because all the other outdoor fountains I know of have been sealed up for the winter.

I didn't record the wet side quite as well as I would have liked because it was just a bit too wet, not to mention cold. This is where I'll end this part of the tour. Stay tuned as I head up into the mountains where the snow got really deep...