Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Only the Best :-))

I spotted these in a garden in Cercany, Bohemia. The red ones are obviously tulips (right?), but I know almost nothing about flowers so I don't know what the yellow ones are. Does anybody know? Thanks.

Recently, Ceske Drahy rebranded many of their local services out of Prague, using their new 471 and 971 EMUs, as "City Elephant" services. The old 451 and 452 pantographs have never been repainted, though, so some joker, either a vandal or an actual Ceske Drahy employee, has dubbed #451 076-4 "City Frog," I'm sure as a joke about how ridiculous the name is. If you can name a 471 an elephant when it doesn't have elephant ears or any other feature resembling an elephant, then why not call a 451 a frog? The "face" of it might actually look more like a frog than a 471 resembles an elephant, actually.

There isn't anything special about this shot, other than that I find it addictively attractive in many ways. It's subjective, I guess. A Czech might think it looks horrible, but I like all the details in it.

On the same day that I caught 740 561-6 and 740 619-2 in Cercany, I also noticed 742 369-2, still in CD colors, working what looked like a freight, although it stopped in the station for a signal, and I didn't shoot the departure.

Ex-CD #740 619-2 now works, if I'm not mistaken, for a construction contractor whose name is usually shortened to "Doprava," which means "transport" in Czech. At least, with the yellow and blue paint I'm assuming that, unless I'm missing something. That's Ex-CD #740 561-6 over on the left in the background.

Ex-CD #740 561-6 now works for a private contractor, probably one working on the Prague-Ceske Budejovice corridor upgrade project, although I can't verify this. I don't recognize the logo.

Ceske Drahy have been handling an unusually large amount (at least to me) of log traffic through Cercany lately. The yard seems to be used as a loading or possibly marshalling facility, as most of the traffic seems to sit here for awhile without any locomotives on.

Those local diesel services in and out of Cercany which are not handled by 810 railbuses are usually operated by Russian double-decker coaches pulled by Class 742 and 749 diesels, which are getting quite old at this point, along with the cars. Here #749 162-4 sits in Cercany, ready to depart for Praha Hlavni Nadrazi via Vrane nad Vltavou.

These 810 Class railbuses handle most, although not all, of the local services in and out of Cercany.

At least....I'm pretty sure this was Petrinsky Sady. Most of my cityscapes from above are taken from there, as there aren't many other vantage points you can shoot from, other than maybe Letenske Sady, which I've rarely used, if ever, Vysehrad, which this is almost certainly not, and the Hrad, which I'm fairly certain this isn't.

The radnice, or city hall, in Liberec is one of the city's most notable landmarks, and frequently appears in encyclopedia entries and travel guides. Built in 1893, it looks a lot older, of course, as it isn't common to find something so recent that features so much detail. :-)

Tesco's, or Tesco in the Czech Republic, is actually a British chain of department stores, although in Britain it's more of a supermarket than in the Czech Republic. The chain isn't entirely popular, perhaps simply due to its monopolizing the market in some peoples' opinion, but in spite of their being almost everywhere in the Czech Republic, the ones on Spalena in Prague, and here, in Liberec, are both well-known. This one was immortalized in the movie "Grand Hotel," although not of course as the hotel in question. The hotel used was actually the Hotel Jested, which is on Jested, a mountain overlooking Liberec.

Like a number of Czech cities, Liberec has a tram system, and as on all of the systems, Tatras make up most of the fleet. #63 is a T3.

This building on the right reminded me, of course, of the ornate Palac Adria in Prague, although this one is of course far less glamourous.

I'm fairly sure that this is either a castle, school, barracks, or monastery in Liberec, but I have to do some more research. If anyone can help me, I would be grateful.

This is the North Bohemia Museum in Liberec, officially known as the Severočeské Muzeum, which is a history and sometimes art museum. I found one guide who spoke English, although I did have to communicate in Czech with everyone else, which was easier than I expected.