May, Labour and Liberation
Photo: Spanish Synagogue
It was a strange April, partly cold, then hot enough for shorts, mostly dry with one day of intense rain which made it the driest April since records began. May should settle down a bit with at least no cold nights. Even though the April 30th Witches Night was the official celebration for the end of winter, May 15th marks the actual end of very cold weather. Early May starts off with two state holidays i.e. May 1st is Labour Day and May 8th is WW2 liberation. You'll see plaques in the city that say May 9th was the end of the war but it was actually the day when the Soviet armed forces entered the city. In the communist times May 9th was the holiday, since 1990 it's been May 8th.
What's Been Happening on the Sites
March 2019 had been the earliest month that I'd ever broken through the 50K visitor number with a total of 50,674. April continued this with 52,418. No new content this month. I answered more than 50 emails from people looking for a bit of advice for their trip.
UPDATED Prague City Walking Tour to show that the tram ride is now included as part of the price.
UPDATED Prague Bag Storage to show that Cubesave opened a second storage area.
UPDATED Baby Boxes with the rescue of the 188th baby (a boy at Mělník hospital).
UPDATED Prague Casinos to show Casino Admiral locations.
UPDATED Beer Bike Prague with regular and unlimited beer bike options.
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 12 out of a total 650 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.
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In Prague
Share and Share Alike
The car sharing company called Anytime started in Prague in April.
Too Hot
On one day last month the Prague Fire Brigade attended 216 fires which is 4 times the average. It's being blamed on an unusually dry early spring.
Too Bad
The government is introducing laws that no longer require Prague Taxi drivers to pass a street knowledge test or use a meter (no change there then!!). Taxi protest organisers said that it could destroy the traditional taxi service. I can't wait.
In Memoriam
The DOX gallery commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre with an exhibition including a bust of Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
Making the Breast of It
Breast-feeding mothers staged a protest at the Wenceslas Square branch of Raiffeisen Bank after a woman was asked to leave the bank when she began to feed her baby.
Trivia
Up and Away
1 in 5 students currently studying for a medical degree in Czech universities will try and work abroad if they can.
Old Money
The Czech currency i.e. the Korun, celebrated it's 100th birthday in April after formally being accepted as the national currency post-independence in 1918.
Right Tool for the Job?
A burglar in South Bohemia used a Mace (medieval weapon) to try and break open the door of a house in Tabor. Ironically Tabor was the base of the Hussites and their leader was often portrayed carrying a Mace.
Going Up!
Ryanair is increasing its routes from Prague from 31 to 47.
Taxes on Alcohol, Cigarettes and gambling are expected to increase between 7 and 13% this year.
The number of Czech road fatalities in the last year reached 62 per million residents. The EU average is 49.
Czech Breweries produced 21.3 million Hectolitres of beer in 2018, 4.7% more than 2017.
The number of people visiting Czech ski resorts over the last winter increased by 3%.
Going Down!
The number of children starting school this year will be 137,000, down by 8100 compared with last year.
PMI (Purchase Manages Index) fell to 47.3. It's an indicator of the way the economy is moving with more than 50 indicating growth.
The number of mortgages given to people fell by 27% in the first two months of 2019 probably because of the rush to get one in 2018 before tougher lending rules took effect.
Reservoir levels are 50% lower than usual despite above average snowfall over the winter.
Unemployment rate went down from 3.2% to 3% in March 2019.
The number of Czech companies operating from Tax havens fell by 259 to 12,500.
In 2014 the Czech Republic ranked 12th out of 180 countries measuring press freedom. Now it's 40th. This seems to be as a result of a second term President mixed with a right-leaning government.
Bye Bye
Czech hockey coach Luděk Bukač who was coach of the National Team that won the World Championships in 1996 when I first arrived here. Died aged 83.
Czech National football team player Josef Šural killed in a bus crash in Turkey. He was 28 years old.
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