Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Kralovarske kraj

This was the radnice, or city hall, in Trutnov. A number of the historic buildings in the city centre had odd modernistic sculptures on them. I took this with my cameraphone, as with all of my photos in Trutnov. If I had known I would be photographing the city, I would have brought a real camera, but this is the advantage of having a cameraphone. If you don't have a real camera, you can still get some crude snapshots anyway.

This is Trutnov Hlavni Nadrazi in Trutnov, where I had gone in an attempt to attend the Trutnov Open Air Music Festival. The Trutnov festival is an annual mainstream rock festival with hippie roots that was one of the first to start up after the Velvet Revolution. I ended up skipping it in the end in spite of having bought the train ticket, as it was overcrowded, secured like a prison (meaning that if there wasn't any place to camp, I would be stuck there with no place to sleep), and the security looked intrusive and hostile. By managing it like Woodstock '99, they lost the large ticket price that I could have paid them, and I ended up spending the day photographing the city of Trutnov. Trutnov isn't a bad place to sightsee, after all, as it dates to the 12th Century, and features many preserved buildings from the Baroque period and earlier.

This is a taxiway, but looks like a runway. In actuality, the runway is off in the distance, at the end of the taxiway. The only runway at Hradec Kralove Airport is 7874X197 feet, the length in meters being 2400 (the 197-foot width converts to 60.05m), meaning that it can service small jets and lightly loaded jet airliners and cargo planes. At least one website says that there is jet fuel on hand for those who need it. Strangely, I never found where the planes are parked, as so many other things go on at the airport (mentioned earlier) that the fencing is really confusing. What's secure, and what isn't??? After all, I was standing in the middle of the taxiway, and that apparently was alright, although I shot this photo through a fence they had set up near one end. Looking down the runway at that gantry, I assumed it was for drag racing, meaning that on this day the airport must have been closed to flights (the racers would have crossed the runway on a pass, but of course this is all speculation on my part). Not much information is available online. Google Earth seems to show parking that would be to the right in this photo quite far behind those trees.

Hradec Kralove Airport used to be an air base, as evidenced by the many old military hangars there. Today it is overshadowed by the nearby Pardubice Airport, but remains open not only as a general aviation airport but also as an exhibition ground, hosting motorsports events, concerts, skateboarding events, and extreme sports.