A colleague visited during summer at work. He came to Berlin to promote his golf course – Y-Golf in Liberec – to us and maybe get some Berliners to visit. As his venue is just a four hours drive from Berlin. He figuered, the best way to get golfers going, is to speak face to face to golf course managers, who maybe would pass the information on.

What he did not know, was the general ignorance, our kind usually has for other venues. There a many good reasons for that: lack of time, enough problems on the home front, incomparable concepts and/or locations, overall status of the sport and so forth. However, I saw him (actually the only one of the about twenty golf course managers in town) and listended to his story. And I really liked it. Not only for the golf and his excellent club house, but for the house boat story.

I have always wanted to go onto a house boat. And his golfing venue offers just that. They actually intended to build a hotel but were denied a permit, as their land is limited by site preservation. So they went and put ten house boats into on of the water hazards right in the middle of the golf course, surrounded by nothing but fairways and forest. He had me hooked.

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So, this year’s Christmas present came early to sweetheart – off we went to Liberec in the Czech Republic for a short break. The town near the Y-Golf course is also well worth a visit – a surprising mixture of  old Austrian Empire pomposity and Eastern Bloc Plattenbau, nicely interwoven by the charming hospitality of excellent beer brewers.

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I also found expressions of a new and striving youth culture in Liberec. Not only by the presence of many an American Diner style venue and some Star Bucks copies, but also by finding some small, modern, mosaic tile patterns on houses and in corners all over town. I really liked them.

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And, by chance, also some Hollywood excitement went on during our visit: the town center was occupied by a film production. Their circus preps and technical equipment strewn all over town square. Found this interesting, to say the least.

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Overall, It was a refreshing break from my routine. And really nice to enjoy the services of another golf venue for a change. Did I mention, the golf course is also very nice and well worth a round or two? Just make sure to get a buggy, otherwise the really hilly fairways are going to kill off your sporting edge, I’m sure.