April, Park Life
Photo: Garden gate at the Cross Club close to the Holešovice metro station
I can't begin to tell you how good April feels after 3 or 4 months of winter. The parks and gardens reopen, even if it's wet it's generally still warm, food festivals kick off as the summer season officially begins. You'll probably want to bring a light rain jacket or a small umbrella just in case but also bring a bottle of sun protection as the April sun can burn you. April is all about getting back into the parks and the riverside locations. Lots of eating out as April will see the restaurants rebuilding their external seating. We've got Easter in April this year so look out for men chasing after girls with "whips" on Easter Monday.
What's Been Happening on the Sites
NEW! Town Hall Pass is a money saving and queue avoiding way of seeing both the Old and New Town Hall.
NEW! Burčák introduces you to early Czech wine.
UPDATED Czech Food and Beer Tasting to show the choice of meal offer.
UPDATED Added links to Tour FAQs and Tour Booking Process to all tour posts.
UPDATED Skip the Line with the Town Hall Pass.
UPDATED Smichovska Naplavka to show as open (it had been closed in 2018 for renovation).
UPDATED Prague-by-month with 2019 Jewish Holiday dates when synagogues will be closed.
UPDATED Jewish Museum with detail about the closing time on Fridays being one hour before dusk.
UPDATED Prague Casinos to show that complimentary food and drink is now prohibited.
UPDATED Prague Stumble Stones with two more excellent local resources
IN PROGRESS : Prague Towers, Prague Architecture Tour, Castle Day Trips, Cheap Food - Jidelna.
Check the BLOG to see the latest 200 posts on the site.
I've offered this discount to my tour clients for the last year for those specifically looking for authentic Czech Garnet, Diamond Garnet and Crystal. The shop has now extended the range of the discount so now I'm offering it to any visitors to Livingprague. It covers gold, precious stones, semi-precious stones and cut/engraved crystal. Just click the picture and print the associated voucher. Redeem at the shop (Old Town location).
Livingpraguetours.com
LIVINGPRAGUETOURS at https://www.livingpraguetours.com runs exactly the same tour booking system and carries exactly the same tours as the parent site at livingprague.com. It just gives me a better platform to describe the tours, about me and my tours ethos but regardless of which site you use it's still me and you can read about the whole secure booking process at https://www.livingpraguetours.com/tour-booking-process/.
I'm holding at number 13 out of a total 656 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.
Quick Links:
In Prague
Farmers Markets Open
The Farmers Markets reopen this month. Look out for the popular Na Plavka Saturday market.
Out of Contract
Czech Police arrested what appears to be a contract killer wanted for murder in Serbia, Hungary and Holland. He was in disguise, armed and in possession of fake passports.
Flat Rate
It's reported that literally hundreds of Prague flats that were allocated to Russia at the end of Communist rule for use by Russian diplomats are not actually being used by diplomats. They are being rented out for cash and where do you pay the bill?....the Russian Embassy.
In Remission
Three men sharing a room as cancer treatment in-patients at the University Hospital in Prague Vinohrady had a heated conversation. The result was that one of the men aged 74 years old reached into his bedside cabinet, pulled out a revolver and shot the other two in the head. One died, the other is critical. Nurses disarmed the shooter.
Baby Boom
If you have done my Prague City Walking Tour then you learned about David Cerny's "Babies". Having been removed from the TV Tower for maintenance in 2017 the city expects they'll be back in place by April 9th.
Trivia
Fast Pace
Czech Speed skater Martina Sablikova broke the world record for the 3000 metre race, a record that had stood for 13 years.
Lion King?
A dispute between a guy who owned lions in a local Czech village was ended when 1) the lions killed the owner and 2) the police shot the lions.
Flower Power
A dispute between the church and the State over ownership of the UNESCO protected Kromeriz Gardens was settled in favour of the State.
Going Up!
Up to 2017 the number of Czech children with speech defects or requiring speech therapy increased by 26,000 to more than 156,000.
The average Prague Salary increased by 6.5% to CZK42,000.
More than 20% of Czech businesses now accept payment in Euros despite it not being the national currency.
The number of childless women is projected to have increased to 1 in every 6.
The Czech Video Gaming industry increased its revenue by 34% to almost 3 Billion Korun.
The number of private flights from Prague Vaclav Havel Airport increased by 10% over the last 5 years.
Skoda Auto sold a record 1.25 million cars in 2018 up 4% on the previous record.
Going Down!
Going down for 8 years in prison. Radim Zondra convicted for a knife attack on Czech Tennis star Petra Kvitova. .
12% of Czechs are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. EU average is 22%.
The number of PhD candidates that graduated in 2017 was 4749, less than 50% of the 10,000 that began the course and finance was blamed as the main cause of ending the studies.
Honey production went down by 4% in 2018.
Unemployment rate went down to 3.2% in February 2019.
The chances of getting "African swine fever" in Czech is now statistically zero with the official eradication of the disease.
Number of children born in 2018 was 369 lower than the previous year with a total of 114, 036. Just to note that 48.5% of those were outside of wedlock. Scandalous that even measure that any more.
Bye Bye
Vlasta Janouskova died aged 88. Anybody that ever watched the Czech animated cartoons "Vcelka Maya" knew her as the voice of the friendly bumblebee.
Vera Bila died aged 64. Gifted Romany singer.
|
