Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Karlovy Vary

#363079-6 worked my return train to Prague, and although this photo is a bit dark I decided to include it anyway. The quality of light varied on the way back, but it actually stayed light quite late.

I spotted this unit in one of the stub-end platforms, and noted that it's a Class 242 electric, a class that I liked when I first arrived in the Czech Republic, but rarely got to photograph since it's designed to run on 25,000v 50Hz current, and therefore rarely sees service near Prague. These units actually aren't as old as they look, as although they use a car body style introduced by Skoda in the 1950's, they were actually built in the period 1975-1981. They have 4187 horsepower (3080Kw), and can run at up to 120Km/h (75 m.p.h.), meaning they're not speed demons, but can work local passenger trains and freights.

Here's a shot of the banner they had up. The below food was accessible to everyone, as were the buskers.

This is the Hotel Thermal (a reference to the springs in Karlovy Vary which are hot), where the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival was held this year. I thought that I was going to miss it by a week, but ended up there by accident. I didn't have tickets, though, so I was only able to hang around and look at the promotional material. I assume that getting tickets is difficult and expensive anyway.

This hotel was called the Merkur, but I haven't been able to tell if it was or is open for business. It had some ads that it (or some nearby building) was for rent. I took a lot of photos like this while in Karlovy Vary, but this one came out better than most, especially with respect to the sky. The river in the foreground is the Ohre, if I'm not mistaken. I've been having trouble finding good maps, as Google and others only have the street names generally.

Here's a wider, more complete view of the Sadova Kolonada.

This is one end of the Sadova Kolonada, which I've had a lot of trouble getting information on. I'm assuming that it's a memorial to the victims (or heroes, as monarchists would have it) of the Battle of Sadova.... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sadova Note that the Austrian Empire, who controlled Karlovy Vary, or Carlsbad, at the time, lost this battle. According to the above article, the Austrians, supported by the Saxons, suffered 5,735 killed and 7,925 missing, to the Prussians' 1,900 killed and 275 missing. See the article for more figures, but the fact that there were more missing than dead on the Austrian side is the bit that sounds the most disturbing. All of this over which aristocrats would control Central Europe.

I have no idea what kind of flowers these are, other than that I've seen them many times before. If someone knows what they are, please let me know. They were in a park next to the Hotel Thermal, and actually what I was trying to do was photograph the bees on them. This is an ongoing project of mine, to get good bee shots.

The copper kettle in the foreground is, of course, for brewing, although I don't know which step in the brewing process it's used for. The barrel is for aging only, as Becherovka isn't naturally fermented, as far as I know. Both of these are in the Becherovka museum that's part of the original distillery in Karlovy Vary.

This is the famous Becherovka distillery where until recently Becherovka, the famous Karlovy Vary herbal liquor, was made. It's now a museum of sorts, although when I asked them if they intended to open the old production line to the public they just said "no." This response seemed really arrogant at the time, but on the other hand the process is supposed to be a trade secret, so maybe it made perfect sense. They do have some cooking vessels for people to see, though. I don't know if they were used for fermentation, though, since the process (to the extent that they let people know about it) involves the addition of pre-prepared grain alcohol (unless I misunderstood their explanation), rather than using the brewing process to ferment the ingredients, which sort of makes the term "distillery" misleading. Incidentally, this is also not the original building, as although this location is authentic, this building was constructed later, albeit still in the 19th Century.

Here's a more conventional shot of Dolni Nadrazi. I'm assuming this is a Communist-era building, but I don't know its precise history.

This is another shot that's far from a "file photo" type of shot, that I took because I saw the opportunity to get a "depth-of-field" type of shot through this tree. Karlovy Vary has two primary train stations, Hlavni Nadrazi and Dolni Nadrazi, but it is possible to travel straight through both of them on the same train, winding down the hill from Hlavni Nadrazi to Dolni Nadrazi, seen here, although the center track in the picture is a stub end ending in a bumper just below the camera.

This was another shot that I kept because I ended up liking how it looked. I would have probably preferred a color "file photo" sort of shot here, but I had black and white film in my camera still, and this ended up being good enough to post anyway.