After so many photos of this beautiful castle, I think it would be good to introduce it briefly to my non-Czech readers as the official website, it seems, lacks an English version. The castle of Libochovice is a Baroque building situated some 66 km away from Prague. Its current version by an Italian architect Antonio della Porta comes from the end of the 17th Century, neither the original Gothic fortress nor the Renaissance castle having survived the devastating fires they had suffered - in the first instance, thanks to the Hussites, who had a feud with the then owners of the estate, the Zajíc family, who were confirmed Catholics.
   It is a very romantic place, with the park running alongside the river Ohře opened to the general public free of charge daily from 8 am till 18 pm (19 during summer). The castle itself can be visited from April till October, and is full of nostalgic charms; amongst them a carpet which was weaved with one intentional imperfection in the pattern, as the only perfection in the world is Allah.
   (Information courtesy of http://www.libochovice.info/ and, as always in this section of my blog, photos are by my sister.)

One of the chief attractions - but careful; they are very shy.

   Plus a small piece of a tip and a bit of a reflection:
    If you ever plan to visit this castle,there is a funfair plus an exhibition of exotic birds annualy around this time of a year. I bought a pretty picture there, coming packaged with a bit of a story which struck me as rather sad: the lady who painted it is a former teacher of drawing and she paints pictures for sale now to supplement her pension. There seemed to be hardly any pleasure in her upon receiving compliments about her work - perhaps it was shyness, perhaps she thought the ability of the onlookers to evaluate her pictures dubious. Who shall ever know. Still, fragile and ladylike as she seemed there in the mercilessly blazing Sun, there was indeed something sad about her - as if she was truly doing it only for money. Once again, who shall ever know. Perhaps I'll ask her next year?