The long ridge of Ještěd rises to the east, and on its summit stands one of the most unusual buildings in Central Europe: a hyperboloid tower that combines a television transmitter and a hotel, designed by the architect Karel Hubáček and completed in 1973, its silver cone visible for miles around. This stop is on the western side of the ridge, near the small town of Jablonné v Podještědí, in a landscape of hills, forests, ponds and villages on the way back from the Krkonoše.
Jablonné is a quiet town, but it has a large Baroque basilica dedicated to St. Lawrence and St. Zdislava, a thirteenth-century noblewoman known for her charity, who was canonised in 1995. Just outside the town stands Lemberk Castle, where Zdislava lived, a Renaissance château on a rocky outcrop above the valley. To the north rise the Lusatian Mountains, a range of volcanic hills and sandstone rocks along the German border, with forests and good roads.
For a swim, the area south-west of the point, around Stráž pod Ralskem and Hamr na Jezeře, has lakes and reservoirs with bathing spots, popular in summer. The landscape there has an unusual history: for decades, uranium was extracted underground by chemical leaching, and the clean-up is still going on, while the large military area of Ralsko, used by the Soviet army until 1991, has slowly been returned to nature. Swim only at official bathing spots, where the water quality is monitored.
The roads around Jablonné are quiet and winding, passing through forests, over hills and through villages with old timber houses, typical of the region. The surface can be patchy on the minor roads, with potholes and gravel. Jablonné has a few shops and pubs, but for fuel, the larger towns of Česká Lípa, Liberec or Hrádek nad Nisou are more reliable. Remember the Czech rule of dipped headlights at all times.