July, Let The Holidays Begin

Hot and Wet, as Robin Williams said in "Good Morning Vietnam" is great if you are with a lady but no good if you are in the jungle. So consider the centre of Prague as the jungle and expect strong sun in excess of 30 degrees C and occasional flash storms which make the city steam. Bring an umbrella as it'll cope with most of the rain and provides shade if you need it. Carry a bottle of water with you and keep hydrated. Add a bit of extra salt to food on hot days.

Schools are now on holiday. You'll notice this if driving in Prague as traffic will be reduced and visiting museums as there are no school groups (at least not Czech).

With the kids going on holiday, July is notorious for Public Transport maintenance. If a metro line is closed then take the signs for "XC" which will be a replacement bus service which stops at the metro stations.

Bank Holidays

Remember that both July 5th (ST Cyrilus and ST Methodius) and July 6th (Jan Hus) are state holidays. State institutions are closed, banks have limited opening times, large supermarkets are closed but in the tourist areas you won't notice. Anybody who has done my City Overview walking tour will know the significance of July 6th and where to be to see "ZA PRAVDU".

Old Town Hall Renovation

The Calendarium has now been removed for renovation. The tower is now closed for renovation. At the time of writing the "Apostle march" was still working and the Astronomical Clock was still in place and working for the hourly procession. One day I was standing on the square a couple of days after the clocks had been removed and saw, for the first time, that behind the clocks were windows. So my next research challenge is to find what year the clocks were installed.

Prague Proms Festival

This started in June and will continue to about the second week of July. We went to see Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band at the Smetana Hall as part of the Festival. Buy tickets online and collect at the venue. More details on the Prague Proms page.

Bohemia Jazzfest

On July 10th and 11th make sure you get to the Old Town Square for free jazz performances scheduled at 5-30pm, 7pm and 8-30pm on both days. More details on the Bohemia Jazzfest page.

Mystic Sk8 Cup

This is a short event, usually only 3 days but it draws a lot of youngsters from both Czech and internationally to compete in skateboard competitions on the Stvanice Island close to the Hilton Hotel. Online streaming but even if the event has finished there'll still be lots of videos to browse. More on the Mystic Skate Cup site.

Walking Tours
As the school holiday season has begun I don't have to get up so early. Plus with the temperatures going up I change to Summer times which means scheduled tours are at 10am and 1pm. But of course private tours can be arranged at any time. My favourite pic from the last month, pouring with rain, soaking wet but still smiling.



What's Been Happening on the Site

Last month was really for research and clean up as some of the resources that I link to made changes i.e. DPP stopped the child under 15 free if you have a 3-Day pass (they now include this if you have a Litacka Prague Travel Card with at least a one month voucher), so I was largely updating pages to keep them current. One new page I added was tips about the Jazz Boat Cruise and how to book tickets.There will definitely be more new content for July as I complete my research into local activities, inspirational topics and giving tourists a quick overview of what to expect in any given month.
So the page picks for this month goes back into the archives.

Wishing you all a great July. Feel free to follow, share and leave comments about my content. My 3 page picks from this month are below.

Jason