2009

Lhota, like Slapy, is a fair-sized man-made lake, although to the best of my knowledge it's a reused quarry rather than a reservoir. Does anybody know if it's used as a reservoir???? I don't know. It is used as a swimming area, I know that much.

Here's an alternate shot of Lhota, from an area without a sand beach.

On the way back from Lhota, the friend who I was riding with parked his car in Stara Boleslav so that we could have lunch, and this happened to be the radnice there.

Next to the town hall was this church, or rather basilica, where it is alleged St. Vaclav (a.k.a. St. Wenceslas, a.k.a. St. Wenceslaus, a.k.a. Wenceslas or Wenceslaus I) was murdered by his brother Boleslav (a.k.a. Boleslaus I, a.k.a. Boleslaus the Cruel)in 935 C.E. This basilica is in a baroque style, not yet used at the time of construction (1039-1046), so I have to assume, although I don't know the history, that it was renovated at sometime in the 17th or 18th Century. At the time of the murder, however, an older church, the St. Kosma and Damian church stood here, and it is said that indeed Vaclav was murdered at the door of the older church, just not this one.

This was my second shot of the basilica.

This was my third shot of the basilica.

This is a closeup side view of the basilica, showing some odd color patches on the wall, with what looks like an electrical conduit through them. I have no idea what the reason is or was for these colors, and to say the least I'm curious.

Here's another of the new Skoda 14t trams, at Palackeho Namesti.

Every month, usually the third Thursday of the month, an organization called Auto*Mat organises a mass bike ride called Cyklojizda. This is considered by many to be Prague's Critical Mass ride, although there are a number of differences from a conventional Critical Mass ride, most notably that it is organised more deliberately, and the relations between the riders and the police are invariably better, usually with the police providing some traffic control for the riders. Typically, the ride starts here, in Namesti Jiriho z Podebrad, but in the past it has also been started from other locations, most notably Staromestske Namesti.

I've photographed Masarykovo Nadrazi many times before, but with my new cameraphone I decided to experiment a bit. This is the side entrance by the parking lot and Namesti Republiky Metro entrance.

This is slightly in the previously shown entrance. Although I've very carefully attempted this shot with the Pentax and the Nikon N80 before, I've never been able to get an exposure this good because I've never had fast enough film installed at the right time.

Here's some of the signage. Note that the sign on the left is still marked for Ceskoslovenske Drahy.

Although Masarykovo Nadrazi hasn't been given as much corridor upgrade work as many other stations, it is nevertheless getting a little bit of attention in the form of the new trainboard and whatever that scaffolding on the canopy is for. I expect that there will be more work soon, but what it will entail I don't know.

In April, Cercany's upgrade project continued apace. This Praga mobile crane has been there for a few months, although I don't know what it's being used for. It's interesting to me just because of its advanced age.

With the old coal bunkers and other structures to the north of the station knocked down, the Class 810 railbuses running services to Sazava and other outlying towns now sit in the open as they wait, and are easier to photography from the street.

I have also seen this heavy crane at Cercany at least once. I'm assuming it's not for wreck cleanup, since the boom doesn't look long or curved enough, but judging from the other cars in this consist I'm assuming it was used for rails or prefabricated track.

As always, there are still a number of old diesel locomotives sitting around the Cercany yard. 742086-2 is still in CD colors, but the logos have been removed from 751004-3, so I don't know who its current operator is.

In spite of the diesel locomotives rumbling around the yard on this particular day, the regular local trains from Prague were mostly being terminated in Senohraby, with replacement buses connecting passengers to points south. Most of the buses were old Karosas like this one, borrowed from DPP. Technically, Cercany isn't in DPP's territory, although it is in Zone 2 of PID. I don't really understand DPP's numbering system for buses. I have to assume it's seperate from the trams when it comes to vehicle numbers and not service numbers, as technially 7226 should be a Tatra T3SU tram if the system were universal.