Out of Prague

If you plan to visit this weekend other places than Prague, your good choice might be a small spa village in Hradec Kralove Region in the east of Bohemia. Visitors of this lovely place will turn back to the time when noblemen were strolling in the gardens and Count Spork, who founded the main feature of the village – a Baroque spa building, went hunting. To the times almost 300 years ago.

Annual celebrations will offer horse riding shows, old traditional markets, a period army camp, wine tasting, a reconstruction of historical events, a concert of scene and theatre music or big fireworks.

The celebration is held this Saturday from 9:00 to 22:00. Besides the programme of the celebrations, visitors can see the famous Baroque building, the lapidary of M.B. Brown statues, Church of the Holy Trinity and Czech Pharmaceutical Museum.

Traditional historical steam trains will depart from Prague main railway station this summer to take their travellers to Czech countryside. Travellers can get out at any of their stations on the way to get to know various towns and places. The trains will set out for the journey on 7th July, 18th August and 1st September 2007.

The trains will be drawn by steam engine made in 1917. Travellers can enjoy the journey sitting on period wooden chairs. There will be a buffet on the train as well as wagon for bikes and prams transportation. In the times of the biggest fame in 1920’s and 1930’s steam trains were often so full, that some travellers had to travel on the roof of the train.

The train departs from Prague at 9:44 in the morning (with stops in Prague-Vrsovice at 9:50 and Prague-Branik at 10:06). The journey continues via Vrane nad Vltavou, Cercany, Cesky Sternbek to Kacov. The return journey start at 17:29. The return ticket from Prague to Kacov cost 240 CZK.

Travellers who decides to go for the trip on 7th July can get off in station Sazava – Cerne Budy and visit the Sazava funfair.

Visitors of old castle Tocnik near Beroun can experience the life people lived thousands years ago. Tocnik Castle which stands really close to another castle Zebrak, will “travel in time”.

Bronze casting, fires, period costumes, historical ceramics and cuisine and many attractions for children will brighten up the castle area this weekend. Visitors can try to make old tools and cast bronze themselves.

The castle is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00 in April, from 10:00 to 17:00 in May and June and from 9:00 to 18:00 in July and August. The full entrance fee is 50 CZK.

Karlstejn Castle is a very popular place to visit near Prague. It was built during the reign of Charles IV and it used to hold the Crown Jewels. Visitors are now better informed about the guided tours thanks to a new information board near the booking office.

The first column at the information board shows the times of the guided tours. Second and third columns show the languages in which the lecture will be held. The languages are represented by national flags.

The fourth column represents the I. route. In the fifth column you can see how many people can still attend the group. Last column is designated for the names of booked groups. All the information is updated every 10 seconds.

XXXII. International Film Festival on the Environment and Natural and Cultural Heritage EKOFILM 2006 is the oldest festival of this kind in Europe. The aim of this festival is to present and evaluate new films and video records that refer to the environment and heritage. The festival gives the opportunity for the public to meet the film authors, experts and the representatives of the state administration.

Ekofilm 2006 takes place in Ceske Budejovice and Cesky Krumlov until 15th October. There are several items on the programme: the contest of films, film presentations, professional and creative workshops etc. For a detailed programme, click here.

Festival Ekofilm is a member of prestigious ECOMOVE International – The Umbrella Organisation of
International Environmental Film Festivals – seated in Berlin, which makes it an event of international importance.

A small town Radvanovice in Northern Bohemia was a place where was made a tomato battle – Rajcatovina. As it was in two recent years two “armies” in strength of fifty men fought at both sides. Their ammunition were of course overripe tomatoes.

Thirteen tons of tomatoes were used for destroying enemy blow-up balloons. After that the battle changed to free-for-all fight and target was also an audience.

These battle – La Tomatina has long tradition in Spain, where thousands of people use this ammunition.

Yesterday brought much more of history into Prague centre. A parade of Hussite warriors from 15th century marched across the Charles Bridge to Kampa island. At the top of parade rode on a horse Jan Zizka in full armor, a great leader of Hussite armies. Sound of drums could be heard in a wide surrounding.

People could see at Kampa medieval swordsmen, knights, a medieval market – a fair and jugglers. The meeting also offered medieval music.

This event was a small presentation of Medieval Festivities in Tabor town in Southern Bohemia. The festivities are between 15th and 17th September and visitors can see a lot from medieval times.

“Bike for life” is a descriptive translation of a name of one cyclists’ race. It will take place on this Saturday (5th August). Both the start and the finish are in Prague Chuchle – the famous Prague horse racecourse that celebrates its one hundredth anniversary. As a part of the programme the children will be able to go for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage.

The cyclists will have to overcome on their mountain bikes about sixty kilometres on the route between Prague, Karlstejn with its gorgeous medieval castle and the racecourse again. The participants will cycle through lovely nature in protected natural reserves.

Chuchle – Karlstejn is only one of many races under “Bike for life”, which has been organising races for the past three years. Altogether fifty thousand cyclists brought their bikes to starts.

Even though the electronic registration, which was filled by 750 participants, has been closed, it is still possible to register at the place and the cost is 500 crowns – you can choose between Friday evening (17 – 21 o’clock) or the day of the race (07 – 10 o’clock). The race itself starts at 11 o’clock and one of its participants should be Radim Korinek, who took part twice in the Olympic Games.

Biggest ska festival in Europe named Mighty Sounds now has a second year. This event is in Olsi u Tabore between 14th and 16th July.

Mighty sounds are not only about ska, but about punk, reggae, drum & bass and more too. There will be more than hundred bands and DJ’s from whole world. From Czech bands you can hear 2v1, Fast Food orchestra, Sto zvirat, Vokokos or Slovakia Polemic.

You can also hear there stars from another countries like Hotknives from United Kingdom, Panteón Rococó from Mexico, or Mark Foggo’s Skaters. As a best part you can see and hear legendary The Toasters from USA.

41st International movie festival in Carlsbad starts tomorrow. During 10 days you have a chance to see 230 movies. There will be many movies from many countries and many celebrities.

You can see almost every genre. You can visit some seminars for example about horror.

As a guests or celebrities who gain awards. You can met actors, producers, directors etc.: Matthew Barney, Richard P. Rubinstein, Andy Garcia, Robert K. Shay, Luc Besson, Terry Gilliam, Kim Ki-duk or Goran Paskaljevic.

The movies are from USA, Romania, Thailand, Brazil, Iraq, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Sweden… and much more.

Every information you can need you find at official IFFKV pages.

This is an article describing a trip to Karlstejn Castle, maybe the second most famous castle in Czech Republic, after Prague Castle. It’s importance was big during medieval.

The author takes some photos, drew some sketches and wrote some info.

The second day was dedicated to Karlštejn castle , which is situated in the Central Bohemia cca 40 kilometers from Prague.This High Gothic castle (founded in 1348) is the most visited and the most famous castle of the Czech Republic. It was built by Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV as a place for safekeeping of the royal treasures, especially Charles’s collection of holy relics and the coronation jewels of the Roman Empire.

Whole article is here

Children festival is in town Zlin from 28th May to 3rd June. This festival is for professional, journalists, but mostly for kids.

You can see a many movies and fairy-tales from Czech Republic as well as from abroad. There will be also many bonus programs and entertainment for kids.

There will be many world-known guests like Marléne Jobert, Pierre Brice, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Muti, Oleg Tabakov, Alfonso Cuarón (director of Harry Potter :Prisoner of Azkaban), Krzysztof Zanussi, Michael York and more.

You can see many program lines, like movies for kids under 13 and above 13, animated movies, student movies, documents, a competition and more and more.

Official pages of Zlin film festival is here.

4th year of Anifest starts today in Trebon, South Bohemia. The festival with a stork in sign presents animated movies from 49 countries. Out of 1056 movies 250 compete in several categories: a full-length picture, a short picture, a video clip, TV-film and serial, an advertisement, a signature, student movie and movie made by kids.

Movies are from many countries, this year focused on British and Ireland movies. As a new you can see display of movies for kids from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Czech.
There you can see movies for kids as well as for adults, unknown as well as famous. Most known representative of English animated films are andventures of Wallace a Gromit, Czech favourite is very popular Fimfarum 2. There cannot miss Ice Age 2 or Tim Burton´s Corpse Bride.

You can meet there best animators, see traditional animations and 3-D computer techniques, and it is expected 30 000 visitors. Festival ends 10th May. ...

By and large, if you are interested in animated movies, this festival is exactly for you.

More information is on official Anifest websites.