Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for czech republic
A Taste of Prague
By Linda Tancs
The Prague Foodie Tour promises real food with real people. That means you get to sample local fare with a local foodie. The four-hour tour takes in five stops along a mile-and-a-half walk. So not only will you get a taste of the best fare that the Czech Republic has to offer but you’ll also soak in the culture of its capital city with a guided walk. If you’d rather go it alone, you can download a foodie map with advice and recommendations.
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Guardian of the Flooded Village
By Linda Tancs
A 350-year-old Scots pine grows on the rocky headland of a reservoir called Vír in the Czech Republic. It’s known as “Guardian of the Flooded Village,” referring to the village of Chudobín, which was submerged after construction of the dam. The striking pose of this memento of the lost village earned it first place in Europe’s “Tree of the Year” contest. The contest is organized annually by a consortium of European environmental groups looking for trees with the most interesting stories.
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To limit the spread of COVID-19, attractions may be closed or have partial closures. Please keep those affected by the virus in your thoughts and be sure to follow the safety practices advocated by the Centers for Disease Control. Stay safe, and be well.
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Bathed in Lager
By Linda Tancs
The Czech Republic reigns year after year as the world’s top in per-capita beer consumption. But perhaps it’s surprising to know that beer spas are popular retreats. The beer isn’t fit for consumption—but it’s great for toning and relaxation, they say. One popular spa is in the town of Harrachov, where a local brewery offers a spa experience. The treatment entails sitting in a tub filled with light and dark unpasteurized beer in equal measure along with hop pellets and pure mountain water. And yes, you can drink beer (the potable variety) while you soak.
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To limit the spread of COVID-19, attractions may be closed or have partial closures. Please keep those affected by the virus in your thoughts and be sure to follow the safety practices advocated by the Centers for Disease Control. Stay safe, and be well.
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Prague’s Kafka
By Linda Tancs
Born in Prague, Franz Kafka was a novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. It’s fair to say that the Czech city shaped his writing life even though he often did not explicitly identify those locales in his works. For example, St. Vitus Cathedral is generally understood to be the church featured in The Trial, and the path taken by Joseph K. in the last chapter of that book goes from the Old Town, across Charles Bridge to the outer limits of the Lesser Town. Literary sleuths also maintain that the view from Bendemann’s window in The Judgment is that seen from Mikulášská Street (today’s Pařížská Street), where Kafka’s family lived in 1912. These and other details of the writer’s life are illuminated at the Franz Kafka Museum. Located just minutes from Charles Bridge, the facility features a number of first-edition Kafka books as well as original letters, diaries and drawings.
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To limit the spread of COVID-19, attractions may be closed or have partial closures. Please keep those affected by the virus in your thoughts and be sure to follow the safety practices advocated by the Centers for Disease Control. Stay safe, and be well.
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Birthplace of the Dollar
By Linda Tancs
The U.S. dollar is the most widely used currency in the world. Do you know where it originated? The U.S. is obviously far too easy an answer. And wrong. To find its origin you’ll need to go to the unassuming Czech town of Jáchymov near the German border. Over 500 years ago the town minted the first Joachimsthaler coins, the predecessor of the U.S. dollar. Its high-purity silver content (derived from the mines in the region, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) made it a popular currency that spread across Europe and was renamed locally. The word “dollar” closely resembles the German thaler and the Dutch leeuwendaler. In fact, the Dutch colonists brought their coin to New Amsterdam (the colony at the southern tip of New York City), where it eventually became the nation’s official currency.
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To limit the spread of COVID-19, attractions may be closed or have partial closures. Please keep those affected by the virus in your thoughts and be sure to follow the safety practices advocated by the Centers for Disease Control. Stay safe, and be well.
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A Czech Icon
By Linda Tancs
Founded in the 9th century, Prague Castle is one of the most important cultural symbols in the Czech Republic. Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ancient castle in the world, it comprises palaces and ecclesiastical buildings of various architectural styles as well as knockout views of the city from the Great South Tower of St. Vitus Cathedral. The castle’s season opening is on May 11, when you can visit for free. Be sure to see the falconry show in the castle gardens throughout the day.
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Czech Functionalism
By Linda Tancs
In the functionalism tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright stands Villa Tugendhat in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second-largest city. It’s the only UNESCO-designated example of modern architecture in the country, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1930 for Greta and Fritz Tugendhat. Due to heavy interest in tours, you’d best book several months in advance. Brno is a two-hour, high-speed train ride from Prague.
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The Church of Bones
By Linda Tancs
It’s certainly not unusual for a church to have an accompanying graveyard. What is unusual is an unearthing of tens of thousands of bones—bleached, carved and arranged into decorations in the form of a chandelier, a pyramid, crosses and a coat of arms. That’s what you’ll find in an ossuary in Sedlec near Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. It contains the remains of over 40,000 skeletons, a popular resting place owing to the sprinkling of dirt from Golgotha in the Holy Land and a subsequent expansion resulting from victims of the plagues. One of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, it’s about an hour away from Prague.
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City of a Hundred Spires
By Linda Tancs
Prague is known as the City of a Hundred Spires, its UNESCO-designated landscape in the Czech Republic dotted with spired churches. Its historic heart is in Old Town, bursting with Baroque buildings, Gothic churches and an astronomical clock. Drawing wonder for over 600 years, the clock adorns the southern wall of Old Town City Hall and gives an hourly performance featuring 12 apostles passing by the window above the astronomical dial and the movement of symbolic sculptures.
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Under the Microscope in Prague
By Linda Tancs
At the Museum of Miniatures in Prague, Czech Republic, the exhibits are meant to be viewed microscopically. How else would you see a flea with golden horseshoes or the Lord’s Prayer written on a strand of human hair? Microminiature is an art form featuring works that typically range from a couple of millimeters to just a couple of tenths of a millimeter. Boasting one of the largest collections of microminiatures in the world, the museum can be reached by taking tram 22 to Pohořelec station.
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