November, Time for Revolution
Photo: Velvet Revolution Memorial Plaque in Národni
Mention November to anybody from Prague and three things will come to mind, St Martin's Goose, Velvet Revolution, and snow. For the more historically aware you can add to that the Battle of White Mountain. I explain further below. We have November 17th as a state holiday now but tourists in the centre of Prague won't notice any changes. Keep an eye on the weather as temperatures can fall rapidly and anything below 5 degrees celsius combined with a wet front can produce snow. Don't worry though as it usually blows around and covers the rooftops but not enough for ground cover. Still, pack thermal socks in your bag and a cap that covers your ears.
November marks the start of the winter season so many parks and gardens will now close until April. The south gardens at Prague Castle will close at 5pm.
Remember that the clocks have gone back by now so vehicles are required to have winter tyres.
In Prague
We had elections in late October so November will see a lot of political horse-trading. I found it amazing that more than 50% of the vote went to political parties that did not exist only 7 years ago. I also noted that the Communist vote more than halved from 16% to 7.5%.
November 2nd marks our "All Souls" day or better known as the "day of the dead". During the day you'll find the cemeteries fairly busy with cleaning and tidying up the graves and after dark you'll find many will have lit candles. It's a popular day to visit the cemetery at Vyšehrad.
November 8th sees the 398th anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain fought in 1620 which saw Catholic control asserted over Bohemia for almost the following 300 years. It's not a celebrated date but I tell people about it on the Old Town and Jewish Quarter walking tour plus how they dealt with the leaders of the losing side (not for the squeamish).
On November 11th we celebrate the festival of St Martin so of course most restaurants in the city will be offering a special St Martin's Goose menu and try to sell you St Martin's wine. I like the goose but, I skip the wine.
On November 17th (state holiday) there will be an event around 10am at the 17-11-1989 Velvet Revolution Memorial Plaque in Národni where you'll get a chance to see many of Prague's "A" list politicians (and the President). Normally you spot the Plaque on the wall but at this time of year you can't miss the hundreds of candles, ribbons and flowers on the pavement in front. I explain how the Velvet Revolution is triggered on the Old Town and Jewish Quarter walking tour.
Hot alcoholic drinks will be making an appearance again like Hot Mulled Mine (Svarák), Hot Honey Wine (Medovina), Hot Cider (Mošt) and Hot water mixed with rum and lemon (Grog) so take advantage of not having to drive and treat yourself.
Old Town Hall Renovation
The Calendarium has been removed for renovation. The tower is now closed for renovation and the whole tower is now covered by scaffolding. 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. In a nice touch they are now covering the scaffold with graphics showing what the tower looks like. If you are familiar with what the Old Town Hall looks like then you might be shocked to see the Four Alternative Designs that were never built.
App-wars
In the last newsletter I mentioned that UBER is getting popular here and that is causing friction with licenced taxi drivers. UBER drivers were being prosecuted for not using a meter (never mind that the system works by offering a fixed price hence no need for a meter). Other Apps are now being closely looked at including Air BnB. It looks like people using Air BnB continuously to sell accommodation will shortly have to pay a business tax as well as an income tax to bring them into line with existing businesses. Still a conversation in the city about whether Air BnB is damaging the availability of "long term" rentable property. I'm looking for statistics on Air BnB occupancy rates but not found any so far.
Trivia
There was an interesting article published on radio.cz about people who actively resisted communist oppression after 1948 who have now received commendations, payments (some posthumously) and an increase in their pension. It's wise to point out that it does not apply to people who may have been persecuted but who did not actively resist. Read about it at http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/resisters-of-communist-regime-honoured-in-prague.
Car sales figures released for August 2017 show that the Skoda Octavia became the third most popular new car sold in Europe. So I guess the jokes like "why do Skodas have heated rear windscreens?.......so your hands are warm while you're pushing it!!.........will be consigned to history.
Of the 2700 asylum seekers allocated to Czech for resettlement, the country has settled 12. The argument over forced EU settlement quotas rages on with the EU now threatening the Czech Republic (can't quite bring myself to say Czechia) with a fine of more than 33,000 Euros PER DAY until laws are passed to allow fixed quotas implementation.
Walking Tours
LivingPragueTours.com is here!!
Welcome to Livingpraguetours.com. The project that I've been working on for a few months now has launched for people searching for small group and private tours of the city to find fun, entertaining and informative tours. A new domain but, it's exactly the same tours offer as before in a much cleaner format, very easy to navigate, get answers to questions and book tickets. It's got it's own Livingpraguetours Facebook page so feel free to visit and like/share with your friends. For the first time I'll now look at advertising options.
Quick Links:
Old Town and Jewish Quarter Walking Tour
Prague City Walking Tour
Christmas Markets Walking Tour
Private Tours
Tour Gift Certificates (buy whole or part of the price of a tour for friends and family)
Video Promo
Just to note that I had a mini-spike of bookings from the Swiss city of Zug and the US city of Chicago so hello to you guys.
What's Been Happening on the Site
The "going live" of the walking tours project took up some time in October but I've been adding new content again. By far the most popular post was Langweils Model, a 1:480 scale model of Prague how it looked in 1834 and why it's important. There's a post about the largest Flea Market in Europe which runs in Prague every weekend. There's a description of the "other Naplavka" this is Smichovska Naplavka on the opposite side of the river to the better known market. Smichovska has a reputation for Saturday Food Festivals. The Wallenstein Garden/Palace post was added basically to remind people that October was the last chance this year to visit before it closed for the winter season. Finally as a bit of light relief I added "We don't eat Zebra" which will be explained if you look at the post.
Check the BLOG to see the latest 100 posts on the site.
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