czechmatediary.com

These are my (Michael’s) impressions of Ceska Republika, truly the heart (and possibly the soul) of Europe.

Fields of Yellow (Pole Zlutych) … and not just pale yellow but as my wife exclaimed “botanical sunshine”. We first see these as we land at Ruzyne airport and even the Czech woman sitting next to us does not know what flowers or crop this is. No one knows though we ask and ask. It takes my wife googling some odd set of words later to find out that these are likely fields of rapeseed to be grown as a sort of biofuel source. The site also suggested that this was not without its detractors within the country (perhaps a separate Czechmatediary expose). These fields stayed with us through rain or shine, brightening each day no matter the weather until near the end, the flowers were almost gone from the plants. (more…)

How is visiting Czech through eyes of an American? Well, Mike (a great supporter of this blog as well as the occasional guest writer for CMD) and his lovely wife (who has Czech roots by the way) just came back from a trip from the Czech Republic. I don’t know how about you, but after I read his post, I felt like they went just about everywhere! Some of these places I haven’t even visited yet!! (more…)

Do you like to visit Prague? And do you like to chew gum? Then you may be in trouble. Starting this July spitting out an old chewing gum or flicking off your cigarette butt may cost you 1,000 Czech crowns (which with today’s exchange rate means pretty much $1,000). And if you try to make it difficult for the police - like putting that gum back to your mouth claiming that it had accidentally just fallen out - then you may be charged up to 30,000 crowns!! What else is included (or rather excluded) under the new Clean Law? (more…)

Besides visiting the Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge can Prague tourists now visit yet another attraction: the “Under the Wing of Night” restaurant. It is a place where one eats in complete darkness to experience the art of food from yet another perspective (or sense).Find out more about it here.

CZ: Krome Prazskeho hradu a Karlova Mostu mohou Prazsti turiste zakusit take dalsi atrakci - restauraci zvanou “Pod Kridlem Noci”. Jmeno jemne naznacuje, ze navstevnici pozivaji jidlo v naproste tme. Vice o teto prazvlastni restauraci si prectete zde.

Kostnice (Bone church) is a small chapel located in the town of Kutna Hora. The name already uncovers the big secret: the church is a home to a lot of human bones. And when I say “a lot”, I mean A LOT: the sanctuary contains close to 70,000 human skeletons, artistically arranged to create decorations and furnishings for the church. There are only 2 questions I had when I saw all these bones in person:

1/ Why so many of them?

In 1278 the Czech king Otakar II sent one of his monks to the Holy Land in Jerusalem to bring back some of the “real” soil. The monk returned safe and sound and with a bag of Jerusalem soil over his back. Once he sprinkled it over the Bone church cemetery it became a hot burial site in the whole Europe and everyone wanted to be laid to rest pretty much there (result –>a lot of bones). (more…)

Do you like to bike? And would you like to learn how to bike from Prague to Paris and - if you are not dead by then - back? Click here.

I love good coffee. I love it so much that I worked (slaved) at Starbucks for 3 years. I love it so much that every time I go back to Prague I am willing to travel miles to taste a good cup. I am now going to tell you about the best coffee shop in Prague (or at least the outskirts) that I have found so far. The atmosphere is great, the service is very friendly and most of all, the cappuccino is out of this world. The place is called the Kavarna u Zlateho koralku (”Coffeehouse by the golden pearl“) and it is located in Jilove u Prahy. True, it is not in the center of the city, it takes about 30 - 45 minutes to get there via public transportation, but it is well worth the travel. The coffee shop itself stands in a former 16th century cellar and before that the same space belonged to a monastery. Now back to the coffee business: if you order a cappuccino the espresso shots are never burnt, they taste creamy and sweet, never overly acidic. The milk is steamed to perfection and the beverage is topped with a wonderfully thick foam. (more…)

Not very far from Prague lies the mining town of Kutna Hora. It is definitely one of the shiniest gems of the Czech Republic and that is why it became the UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Thanks to the abundance of silver mines, the town became economically even more important than Prague in the 13th century. What really makes the Kutna Hora, however, is the Gothic-style, five-naved St. Barbara Church (Chram sv. Barbory) - one of the most famous churches in Central Europe. Peter Parler, one of the most known Czech architects of all times, started the construction in 1388. The building went very fast at first but when the Hussite Wars started in 1420 everything was put on hold and the temple ended up half-finished. Since the “roof” of the building was nonexistent, the common rainfall combined with the winter snow storms began to destroy the structure. (more…)

What is currently the scariest part of Prague? Is it The Wenceslav Square? Or the outskirts of Prague? Or could it be the Old Town Square itself? Find out the answer right here!

Buchlov castle is not only one of the oldest but also one of the biggest castles in Moravia. Its construction began as early as in the year of 1250. As time went by the different owners kept adding on other parts to the already existing Gothic-style central building, which has created rather mixed, yet still endearing, architectural style of today. Buchlov was founded by one of the Czech kings to serve as a strategic defense fort. In the 15th century the king Vladislav II. Jagelonsky gave it away as a gift to one of his knights and since then it has never been owned by a royal family again. During the 17th century the castle was passed down to a fellow who decided the castle was not good enough for him (did it have only 300 rooms and he wanted 500 of them?? Or was the kitchen too small?? Who knows..) and built another residence of his, the Buchlov palace. (more…)