The Olympic games start today in Vancouver, Canada. The Czech Republic has sent a record number of 92 athletes to participate in the games. If you plan to follow the various sporting disciplines, you may hear some Czech names mentioned. We thought we would offer an audio pronunciation of the names of some of the Czech athletes to watch out for.

Click on the “play” button to hear the name pronounced. The button for the hockey team includes audio for all the players.

The ice hockey team
Miroslav Blaťák, Petr Čajánek, Roman Červenka, Patrik Eliáš, Martin Erat, Tomáš Fleischmann, Martin Havlát, Jan Hejda, Jaromír Jágr, Tomáš Kaberle, David Krejčí, Filip Kuba, Pavel Kubina, Milan Michálek, Zbyněk Michálek, Ondřej Pavelec, Tomáš Plekanec, Roman Polák, Tomáš Rolinek, Jakub Štěpánek, Josef Vašíček, Tomáš Vokoun, Marek Židlický

Lukáš Bauer – cross-country skiing
Tomáš Kraus – freestyle skiing
Nikola Sudová – freestyle skiing
Martina Sáblíková – speed skating
Šárka Záhrobská – alpine skiing

The Prague Post article Vancouver 2010: Czechs send record team to Olympics provides background on the Czech team and contenders.

The Czech Olympic Committee published their Czech Olympic Team media guide that lists details about all of the Czech athletes participating in the games.
http://www.olympic.cz/public/img/MediaGuide2010_LR.pdf (Note: the file is 40MB)

Best of luck to the Czech team! Hodně štěstí!

We have not had any new snow in Prague for a few days, but a lot of it still remains on the ground. More snow is expected next week. The pictures below were taken earlier this week around náměstí Míru in Prague.

The Czech Republic is digging out after heavy snowfall around the country. Trains and flights were delayed and there were serious problems traveling by road. Border crossings with Germany and Slovakia had to be closed for a few hours for snow clearing.

Heavy snow creates problems around the country

Main Prague roads covered with slush, others with packed snow

Prague to start removing snow from centre to Vltava River

Snow in Šumperk

Snow clearing in Šumperk

We want to wish all of our blog visitors a happy, healthy, and successful new year.  Thanks for visiting and we hope you stop by in 2010.

Jeff and Dana

It’s that time of the year again. The end of November, a month before Christmas, and that means that the first Prague Christmas market opens at Náměstí Míru. It started on Friday morning and we went to take a look. It was the same market as last year, with the same stalls selling the same merchandise and foods, with the same tree and nativity scene. But one thing was different. The weather. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it was about 13 degrees Celsius (55 Fahrenheit). The flowers on the square were still in full bloom, the lawns were bright green, people were dressed lightly and the market decorations felt out of place. It made me remember all the falls and winters I spent in California, and how hard it was for me to get into the Christmas mood there.

The unseasonably warm weather we’re having is supposed to last through November and possibly into the first week of December.