The Fight Against Tyranny
Photo: This is the scene at the Narodni 17-11-1989 memorial. 17th November is the State Holiday for the Fight Against Tyranny. On my Prague City Walking Tour I try to describe what it's like here on the day but in this case a picture is worth a thousand words.
I was here in 1998 when Czech celebrated it's 80th birthday. Little did I know that I'd still be here for the Centenary. People have been commenting throughout the year on the amount of renovation and cleaning going on in the city and most of it should be ending in the next few weeks because October 28th this year marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the Austro-Hungarian influence and a new country was born, Czechoslovakia. Even though it split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, both countries celebrated the anniversary, Czech on October 28th, Slovakia for some reason on the 30th.
What's Been Happening on the Site
With all the changes going on with livingpraguetours I added the World War Two Prague post so that both sites can now offer the same tours.
Couldn't quite match the record of 55,142 but October made it to 51,902. Still that's now FOUR consecutive months at more than 50K.
Check the BLOG to see the latest 150 posts on the site.
Walking Tours - https://www.livingpraguetours.com
The new LivingPragueTours site is on the way and expected to go live in mid-November. Still got work to do after launch but feel free to check it out by clicking the picture or going to the test site.
I'm holding at number 16 out of a total 606 walking tour options in the Trip Advisor rankings. Of the top 10 private tours in Prague ranked by Trip Advisor, I'm currently 5th. More and more people are finding me just with a simple search for Prague Walking Tours.
If you've done a walking tour then you are welcome to leave a quick review on the LivingPragueTours Facebook page.
The EzTix tour calendars on Livingpraguetours.com will only run until November 9th. I will then be cutting over to a new website/hosting and the new calendars will then be available on both livingprague.com and livingpraguetours.com for dates in 2019.
Quick Links:
In Prague
No Signature Required
As part of a temporary exhibit the National Museum will host the original copy of the Munich Agreement. Signed on September 30th 1938, remember that although it directly affected Czechoslovakia, the Czechs were not signatories (only the British, French, Italians and Germans). It effectively handed of 10% of Czech land to Germany along with most of the fixed military defences. It was a precursor to the Second World War.
Not Invited
There are a variety of people who would normally have to be invited to official functions (like the Centenary Parade) but who do not support President Miloš Zeman and/or voted against him. To save them the problem of "wrestling with their conscience" he simply did not invite them!!
Winter Officially Starts
Note that from November 1st we have the official start of winter. Parks and Landscaped Gardens will be closed for the season and will not reopen until April 1st. This includes Prague Castle South Gardens and Deer Moat. Vehicles will begin changing over their summer tyres for winter tyres.
Old Town Hall Renovation
The Astronomical Clock is back to normal.
National Museum Reopens
Until December 31st the National Museum will be free to enter.
Early Christmas Markets
In the last week of November look out for the first Christmas Markets of the year opening at Namesti Miru (Peace Square) and Namesti Republiky (Republic Square).
Trivia
CZK20 New Designs
The CZK20 coin will have additional versions celebrating the Centenary year. Shortly the images of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Edvard Beneš will be appearing. These are regular coins, not just for collectors.
No Kissing
A small town called Bunkov made the headlines recently when 80 Tonnes of fish had to be destroyed due to testing positive for Herpes.
Going Up!
More people using the trains with more than 133 Million people using Czech Railways in the first three quarters.
Due to the dry summer the price of Beer, Fish and Potatoes will be increased.
Cybercrime and Online fraud increased by 6%.
Mortgage rates and mortgage applications increased with the National Bank setting a limit of 9 times the monthly NET income or spending a maximum 45% of NET income to service that debt.
Going Down!
Stefanikuv Most (bridge) will be demolished as it failed recent safety checks. Not quite as simple as it seems as it is one of the main arteries to Prague 7 and contains part of the "C" Metro line.
Death by drug overdose went down from 94 to 92 in the last recorded year (2017).
Due to the really dry summer, estimated losses for tourism, forestry and agriculture have been estimated at CZK24 Billion.
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