June, Outdoor Fun
Photo: Zátopek's Legs
I guess I need to explain this picture. It's from June two years ago at the time of the Rio Olympics. In the 2012 Olympics David Cerný had created the "Booster Bus" and for Rio he created "Zátopek's Legs". Emil Zátopek was a middle distance runner, Czech, Olympic and world champion. In the Quadrio shopping centre there was a Czech Team merchandise shop and David Cerný put part of an athletics track around the ceiling and embedded moving copies of Emil Zátopek's legs. At the time you could also find them at Lipno and in the Olympic Village in Rio De Janeiro.
June is almost guaranteed to be warm and wet but it will be stormy so forget the umbrella and put a couple of ponchos in the bag. If you get Grass pollen hayfever then bring your anti-histamine. Check the islands and parks in Prague and you'll find a lot of free open-air entertainment.
What's Been Happening on the Site
I broke my visitor record again with the May total of 46,024 unique visitors being not only the highest total for any May, this was the highest ever monthly visit total since I began livingprague.com in 2005.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) raised it's head. Many think its more NET Rules but I think it's a good thing. Finally all websites have to make it clear what interaction they have with users and hence what data is obtained, used, stored and more importantly how you get it deleted if you want. So my Privacy Policy is now updated so you can see all about how you interact with Livingprague.com. https://livingprague.com/privacy-policy/
Check the BLOG to see the latest 150 posts on the site.
Walking Tours - https://www.livingpraguetours.com
Woohoo!! Finally I've managed to get the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence. The reviews have always been consistently Excellent or Very Good over the last two years but I'd lacked the number of them. So it's just one more step but an important one for me. I'm holding at number 18 out of a total 562 walking tour options in the Trip Advisor rankings. Of the top 10 private tours in Prague ranked by Trip Advisor, I'm currently 5th.
May was a blast from the past with several people from previous years returning with family and/or colleagues to do more tours with me. Others started with one regular tour and then went on to book another (another two private tours in one case). One recommendation went from daughter - to her mum - to her mum's best friend - to her mum's best friend's daughters.
If you've done a walking tour then you are welcome to leave a quick review on the LivingPragueTours Facebook page.
New tour ticket system seems to be working out ok. Much of the last month was spent learning how the system works. Now it looks like I'll have a lot of "web-work" coming up to give myself a new look and booking options in the future.
Currently the Old Town and Jewish Quarter Tour and the Prague City Walking Tour have the cheaper booking option via livingprague.com. All tours are still bookable via livingpraguetours.com.
Ticket Insurance
During a tour booking via livingpraguetours.com when you get to Review and Checkout you'll find the Ticket Guardian cancellation insurance option. If you don't want it then make sure that you untick that box.
Quick Links:
In Prague
United Islands Festival
The Free-to-air music festival starts June 21st and ends June 24th. Read more on the United Islands page.
Metronome Festival
This is a paid entry 2 day event on June 22nd/23rd. Read more on the Metronomefest page.
Old Town Hall Renovation
From January 8th until August 31st 2018 the entire Astronomical clock has been removed for renovation. The city has gone to some expense to put in a video screen on the Old Town Hall where you can see the procession on that. Otherwise, if you want to see what you missed then check the Prague Astronomical Clock Striking 9am video. Remember that the tower viewing gallery is open.
Prague Spring International Music Festival
The festival runs until June 6th. Read the Prague Spring International Music Festival Post.
Operation Anthropoid
Various dates in June mark events connected with this. June 4th marks the detah of Reinhard Heydrich (Nazi Reichsprotektor in WW2). June 10th marks the anniversary of the destruction of the village of Lidice as part of the retribution following the assassination of Heydrich. All day commemorations at Lidice. Read the Lidice page. June 18th marks the final moments of the paratroopers as they fought for their lives. See the ST Cyril and Methodius Church post and the Operation Anthropoid post.
Prague Proms
A series of concerts covering classical music, jazz and other contemporary music options starts on June 19th and runs for a month. Read more on the Prague Proms page.
Trivia
Look Both Ways
On any walking tour I include the warning about trams not giving way to pedestrians. Just to reinforce that, in the last week four people were hit by trams in the city. Three died.
First Birthday
The smoking ban is 1 year old. A survey of pubs not surprisingly found less people visiting pubs especially those with not very good outside options for smokers. Can you believe it, some blamed the pavement outside was not wide enough or covered in the event of rain. My response? find more ways of getting non-smokers into a pub or get a better location.
Rail Link
The potential rail link from the city out to Prague Airport is in the news again after securing the permission to build on land which has been part of a court case for some years now. Not a done-deal and it will still be several years before any link is opened but this is a huge step towards it.
No Charge?
If you think that Trump has issues with possible impeachment, our president Miloš Zeman is potentially facing a treason charge due to releasing information that was classified as "secret". As it needs 60% of the Senate to progress, it's likely that this will not proceed but the message sent is very clear.
Airship ahoy!
We've had the Zeppelin NT, which is the largest helium-filled airship in the world, flying over the city for the last week. Very graceful.
Even Steven
The Czech Supreme court has now directed that gay parents of a child should have the same legal rights. Gay civil partnership is allowed here but currently only the biological parent has legal parental rights. So I hope that will be implemented soon.
Goodbye!
Writer Phillip Roth died this week aged 85. Many will know him as an author but he spent a fair amount of time in Prague in the early 1970's meeting with Czech dissidents, even basing one of his books in Prague. From 1977 onward, he was banned from entering Czechoslovakia. http://radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/philip-roths-crusade-to-help-czechoslovak-dissident-writers-under-communism
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