What an unbelievable achievement for the small, even intimate ‘garden’ that was hit so hard by disaster only seven years ago! In fact, ‘intimate’ must be one of the factors that put the zoo so high on the list. This is where I studied a gorgeous six foot tiger from six inches away and stared in the face of a disturbingly human looking gorilla lounging some four feet away from me.

Besides feeling intimate, the zoo projects a friendly atmosphere towards its visitors. It is very child oriented with fun little play areas for kids. You can borrow a stroller or cart to push or pull your little ones around. You can even bring your dog with you, and you’ll see plenty of them around.

Another thing that made me feel good at the Prague Zoo is the environment that’s been created there. Gravel paths, wooden boardwalks and lots of greenery make it feel very natural and pleasant to walk around.

If you would like to visit the Prague Zoo, you can find some practical information on the Prague Zoo page of our site or directly on the Zoo Praha website.

And here’s the Forbes Traveler Magazine’s list of The World’s Best Zoos:

1. Animal Kingdom, Orlando
2. Basel Zoo, Switzerland
3. Beauval Zoo, France
4. Berlin Zoological Garden, Germany
5. Bronx Zoo, New York
6. Chester Zoo, U.K.
7. Prague Zoological Garden, Czech Republic
8. National Zoological Gardens of South Africa
9. San Diego Zoo, California
10. Schönbrunner Zoo, Austria
11. Singapore Zoo
12. Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington DC
13. Taronga and Western Plains Zoo, Sydney
14. Toronto Zoo
15. Ueno Zoological Gardens, Tokyo, Japan

European Tour returns to Czech Republic in 2009 after 12 years
Golf has been gaining in popularity over the years here and this should give it a boost.

Dogs – Czechs’ best friends
I do see a lot of dogs around and unfortunately you have to watch where you step when walking on the sidewalk. 

Season tickets in Prague to be replaced by chip cards
It would be very convenient to buy monthly/yearly tickets or to just add credit online.

We haven’t been taking very many trips this summer but I hear that this is another good year for mushrooming. Even rare kinds of mushrooms, ones that can be seen just a few times in a lifetime, can supposedly be found in the Vysočina (Bohemian-Moravian Highlands) region where the weather has been just right.

When we were in Italy last fall, we marvelled at the abundance of fresh forest mushrooms that were sold at outdoor produce markets. I was jealous and wondered why forest mushrooms aren’t sold anywhere in the Czech Republic, a country that is so devoted to mushrooming. Is it because people are expected to pick their own mushrooms?

There’s a good article on mushrooming on the Radio Praha website.

Many other Czech skiing resorts are still closed or are open only partially. The skiing season in Czech mountains typically starts around the end of November.

More on the topic:
Prague Post: A white Christmas just a dream?

It is easy to run into these markers in the Czech Republic. They are used on tens of thousands of kilometers of trails that form a dense network, which not only makes the Czech Republic a hiking heaven, but a world trail marking superpower.

The very first trail marker appeared 117 years ago, on May 11, 1889. It was a red marker that marked the trail through the Štěchovice Valley to St. John’s Rapids on the Vltava River. This was then a major hiking route through one of the most beautiful natural areas in the country. A part of Smetana’s symphonic poem Vltava is devoted to St. John’s Rapids. Neither the marker nor the rapids exist today. They both disappeared under the Štěchovice Dam that was built during the Second World War.

Unlike trail marking systems in other countries, the Czech system was unified from the very beginning and hasn’t really changed since. Only red markers were used at first (red and white were the colors of the Czech flag at that time) but three more colors were added soon after. The use of the colors is not random but follows clear rules, each color signifying a different trail level:

Red – long distance and summit trails; you can pretty much walk through the whole country following the red markers
Blue – significant trails
Green – local trails
Yellow – short or connecting trails, shortcuts

Jít po červené/žluté, etc. means “to follow the red/yellow marker”, literally “to walk the red/yellow trail”.

By 1938, Czechoslovakia had the longest and best trail marking system in the world with 40,000 km of marked trails. Today’s 39,742 km no longer constitute the longest marked trail network, but it is still the densest in the world. All trails are perfectly inconnected and the clear and frequent markers enable a hiker to hike without the need of a map. And when a marker starts rubbing off or gets damaged, it is simply painted over with a hand brush and looks like new in a matter of minutes.

The simplicity, clarity and ease of maintenance of the Czech trail marking system has inspired other countries. “Czech markers” are now used in Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary and some trails are marked with them in Romania and Croatia. The Canary Islands are considering switching to the Czech trail marking system as well.

Happy hiking!

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Magazín Víkend that was aired on TV Nova on October 30, 2006 was used as a source.

It seems like all the pubs and bars in Prague will be showing the games.  Some of them have had their signs out for weeks, inviting people to come and watch on their large screen TVs.

Of course, the offical FIFA World Cup website run by Yahoo! is a good source of information.

If you can read Czech, here are a couple sites to stay on top of the excitement:
ČTK – Sportovní noviny
Česká Televize - ms fotbal ‘06

Overall, the Czech team didn’t seem to be together somehow during the Olympics. It was made up of many excellent, experienced players but they weren’t very well coordinated during some of the games, and didn’t seem motivated enough. It felt as if the bond that makes a team was missing. Their inconsistent results (four wins and four losses) make the bronze medal feel less deserved.

Jaromír Jágr announced today that the bronze-medal game in Turin was probably his last game for the Czech national team. A number of his team mates, the golden guys from Nagano, are supposedly leaving as well. What does it mean for Czech Republic ice hockey? We’ll find out during the 2006 IIHF World Championship in Riga that runs from May 5 to May 21. Something to look forward to!

The Czech hockey team, which had two wins and three losses in the preliminary round, beat Slovakia (undefeated in the preliminaries) 3-1 in the quarterfinals. The Czechs will face Sweden on Friday, while Finland meets Russia in the other semifinal.