Books of Prague for Xmas

Xmas is very close and it is time when you might want to suggest some stocking fillers which you would like to received, from family. There are some excellent books on Prague and a few I can personally recommend are:

Prague Top 10 Eyewitness Guide is an excellent guide and fits nicely into a backpack and provides very quick and easy to find information.

Another excellent guide is the Prague Lonely Planet City Guide. This book and the series for other cities also, is brilliant for things such as accommodation, restuarants and attractions.

What book scan you recommend for Prague. Send us your comments!
Qucik thank you to Jean from Swansea who wrote to us and yes, we'll consider your Barcelona airports idea. To the Healey's thank you for your Prague review which we'll add soon. Happy Xmas everyone!

Verdi Festival in Prague

The annual Verdi Festival in Prague is due to take place between August and September 2008 in the main Opera House. The Verdi is excellent and if you know or even if you are nnew to Verdi, this is certainy worth attending.

Everything Verdi is very much the nature of this annual festival and over the course of almost 4 weeks, several Verdi operas are performed to full audiences.

You can find out lots more information via the Opera website at http://www.opera.cz/.

Prague’s Golden Lane

Around 1597, the emperor Rudolph II ordered to built a street within his castle complex lined up on one side with small and colourful houses for the castles guards. Later when alchemists and goldsmiths moved into the houses, the street got its new name “Golden Lane”.

By living in the castles they didn’t have to pay guild dues and were protected by the high walls. Franz Kafka and his sister have been the most famous residents, occupying the blue house number 22. It was here where he started writing his famous work “The Castle” and when you walk through the narrow streets with its dead ends, you will understand why he got the inspiration for the book.

Today the little busy lane is probably the most crowded street in the entire city, packed with visitors from all over the world, and these tiny, brightly painted houses host gift shops selling paintings and other arts and crafts to attract the tourists. If you follow the eastern lane and climb up the stairs at the end, you’ll reach a spot from where you’ve a magnificent view of Prague.

Kutna Hora – A day trip from Prague

Kutna Hora- Parts of this small silver heart of Medieval Europe with its many historical Gothic buildings are part of the UNESCO heritage since 1995. The city was once one of the richest and most important royal towns in the world between the 13th and 16th century due to its silver mines and in the 14th century there have been as many people living in Kutna Hora as in London. Even the well-known Prague Groschen which was at that time the hard currency of Central Europe, was minted here using silver extracted from the local mines.

If you are in town you should make a visit to Church of St.Barbara which is dedicated to the patroness of miners, Hradek with the Medieval silver mine Osel, the Italian Court which first has been the central royal mint and later turned into the grand royal residence by King of Bohemia Wenceslas IV and, of course, you shouldn’t miss the Chapel of All Saints in a nearby cathedral.

The chapel is also called Bone Church because it is made from the bones of 40.000 people. The town is situated 65 km east from Prague and you can get there easily by bus (70 min) or by train (55 min).

Tram 91: Getting around Prague, Czech

There are many ways to do a sightseeing trip through the city where you are on holiday. In most cases there is a tourist bus or you can rent a bike to go through the city.

In Prague they have a different kind of sightseeing transport. It is called tram 91. The line operates on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from the 22nd March until 17th November.

It departures from termini from 12.00 to 17.35 hrs always on the hour. The tram makes a trip through Prague with a few stops and gives a nice impression of Prague. There is also a possibility to buy a drink or have a small snack on board of the tram.
For more information go to the Prague Tram site.