The rumor that the famous actor Keanu Reeves is currently filming a secret project in Prague has most likely been confirmed.
The first photos of Czech fans have leaked to the Internet.
Who can resist taking a picture with John Wick or Neither from The Matrix?
The first fans met the famous star Keanu Reeves (58) in the restaurant Taiko Ramen and Instagram was flooded with selfies with the movie star.
He is supposed to be filming a sequel to the successful John Wick series in Prague, but the actual me of the project is still being kept under wraps.
Keanu Reeves became famous in the film industry at a young age. Before taking on the role of the protagonist of The Matrix, he rose to fame in classic films such as Dracula (1992) or Johnny Mnemonic (1995).
Reeves is considered not only an excellent actor, but also a person with great character in the Hollywood environment. Many colleagues and fans respect him for his legendary modesty and kindness even to the common people he meets.
The stories of people who met him and were stunned by his gentle and warm ture have long flooded the Internet. And it is possible that you, too, will be lucky enough to get acquainted with his legendary charisma while walking around Prague.
One thing is for sure – soon we will see more photos on the Internet from all the fans of his films, who will be honored to meet the iconic actor on the streets.
And who knows, maybe you will be lucky too.
Take advantage of the unique opportunity to taste the best young wines of this year!
You will have a unique opportunity to enjoy a Saturday afternoon with the best St. Martin’s wines of this year from leading Czech and Moravian wineries, just a short walk from the Malostranská tram/metro stop.
Together with the young wines, you can taste St. Martin’s gastronomic delicacies. There will also be good music and a heated tent for tasting the wines in warm.
The upper gate of the vineyard from Prague Castle opens for you on 12 November from noon 12 PM to 6 PM.
Did you know that St. Martin’s Day was traditionally a time of feasting and revelry?
And this pleasant custom of good food and drink has endured to the present day when people are happy to use the arrival of the new wine as an opportunity to entertain and meet friends in the height of autumn.
Let’s invite your friends and join us for a relaxing autumn afternoon and make your Saturday day more enjoyable.
Info:
- Entry: 150 CZK including tasting glass. Tickets can be purchased at the door. You can pay credit card.
- A token worth 30 CZK is the official currency throughout the vineyard to purchase samples and gastronomy. All samples of 0,05 l St. Martin’s wines will cost 1 token worth 30 CZK.
- Tokens can be purchased at any time during the event at the entrance or from the token vendors. The remaining tokens cannot be exchanged.
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About Villa Richter
Richter Villa (a classicist summerhouse from 1836) is an integral part of the St Wenceslas Vineyard, which dominates the area above the Old Castle Steps.
The whole complex of the St Wenceslas Vineyard and Richter Villa is rounded off by a panorama of Prague Castle.
The complex offers its visitors a unique and undisturbed view of the panoramas of Old town, Lesser Town or the villa Belvedere – come and experience with us the magic of enchanting moments while having Prague in the palm of your hand.
From January 2023, prices for water and sewage services in Prague will increase significantly. The price increase for this service will be 18.5%.
According to the new tariff, the cost of a cubic meter of tap water (including sewage) will go up by 20 CZK to 128.13 CZK, compared to the current price.
The company estimates that in 2021, the average Prague resident will spend about 113 liters of water daily.
This means that today, each citizen of Prague is paying about 12.22 crowns a day or 4,460 crowns a year for water and sewerage. From the new year, the cost will rise to 14.48 crowns a day or 5,285 crowns a year.
That is an increase of 825 crowns per person per year.
According to Pražské vodovody a kanalizace (PVK) spokesman Tomáš Mrázek, the company was forced to take this step because of increased costs.
Particularly, the price of chemicals, construction work and materials, as well as electricity went up noticeably.
It should be noted that PVK is foreign-owned. It is 51% owned by the French firm Veolia and 49% by the PVK. The length of the water supply network it operates is 4,444 km and the sewerage network is 4,760 km.
Water rates
Water rates are the user’s payment for the consumption of water. Water rates include the payment for taking drinking water. As for the base for billing of water rates is used the information on the water clock about the used water. Waterclock is a measuring tool placed by the customer.
Water rates are payment for water delivered through the water tubing. It includes the price of water, costs for her delivery and the gain of the supplier. The duty to pay vodné arose by flowing the water into the tubing connected to the water clock.
Sewer rates
Sewer rates is a fee for taking away the wastewater and her cleaning. The duty of paying sewer rates came up at the moment of flowing the water into the sewerage. The duty of paying sewer rates for the household comes up by the moment of flowing of the wastewater in the sewerage.
The price of sewer rates makes almost approximately half of the total price of water. The volume of wastewater that the customer pays for sewer rates is made up of the volume of water that flew came to the household, so from the information about the volume of water measured on the water clock.
The Czech Republic is on the way to legalizing adult-use cannabis, and it aims to coordinate with Germany to share information and the best practices to regulate the legal industry.
Following Germany’s announcement to legalize cannabis, the Czech Republic has just started to embark on the journey toward cannabis legalization, aiming to harmonize its legislation with Berlin.
The Czech coalition government is drafting a bill to regulate the industry, which is expected to be presented in March 2023, while full legalization may be entered into effect by January 2024
In September, the government commissioned drug commissioner Jindřich Vobořil to draft a law to legalize adult-use cannabis.
Vobořil announced that Czech officials are in contact with the German government to coordinate and consult each other over their proposals.
“We are in contact with our German colleagues, and we have repeatedly confirmed that we want to coordinate by consulting each other on our proposals,” he said in a Facebook post.
The Czech Republic is considered one of the most liberal countries regarding cannabis legislation.
Although its recreational use is still illegal, it decriminalized cannabis possession for personal use in 2010 and legalized medical cannabis in 2013.
In addition, the Czech Republic is one of the few European countries that cultivate hemp with a THC content of up to 1% for industrial purposes. In comparison, other EU member state legislations have set the limit to about 0.2%, although the European Union recently decided to increase the THC level from 0.2% to 0.3% for authorized hemp crops used for industrial purposes.
Hence, the regulation of the recreational market appears to be a natural path to follow for a country in which about 30% of the adults have tried cannabis, and 8% to 9% use it regularly, according to the Addiction Report released in August by the National Monitoring Center on Drugs and Addiction (NMS).
Despite the decriminalization for personal use, the illegal market still thrives because no legal production has been established, and the supply chain lacks quality control and control of sales to young people under 18.
Some experts believe that legalization has the potential to generate significant revenues from cannabis consumption taxation, taking into consideration that there are about 800,000 active cannabis users in the country.
According to the Czech Pirate Party, the smallest political group inside the government coalition and one of the most prominent cannabis advocates in the country, cannabis products could generate about €800 million in tax revenue annually.
Furthermore, the government’s National Economic Council (NERV) suggests that regulating the legal cannabis industry would help the Czech Republic to fight high public budget deficits.
In an interview with a local news media outlet, Vobořil said that cannabis would be sold in selected pharmacies upon a license’s authorization and likely in licensed dispensaries.
Furthermore, municipalities should have the opportunity to decide whether allow or ban cannabis stores.
Vobořil also wishes to start a trade partnership with Germany to supply each other, although Berlin’s plan to legalize adult-use cannabis would exclude imports of cannabis products.
The German airline of Eurowings is celebrating the first anniversary since the launch of operations of its base at Prague Airport.
During the first year, the carrier handled almost half a million passengers.
Under the summer flight schedule, the company operated 19 regular destinations, while under the current winter flight schedule, Eurowings services 12 destinations.
“Last summer, Eurowings boosted operations to popular holiday destinations such as Malaga, Mallorca, and Faro. Under the current winter flight schedule, the carrier launched four new routes, namely to Madeira, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, and Oslo. After the first year, it is clear that this is a successful co-operation, which we will continue to develop in the future,” Jaroslav Filip, Prague Airport Aviation Business Director, said.
Under the summer flight schedule, Düsseldorf ranked among the destinations with the largest number of handled passengers, while Mallorca was the destination with the highest seat capacity.
Under the current winter flight schedule, Eurowings offers flights to Barcelona, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Hurghada, Larnaca, Madeira, Malaga, Marsa Alam, Oslo, Rome, and Stockholm.
The German airline has three aircraft based in Prague, namely two Airbus A320 and one A319 aircraft.
Israir airline intends to take over Czech Smartwings for EUR 44 million.
This emerges from a mandatory publication published on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Smartwings does not want to comment on this at the moment.
Currently, the Czech carrier is majority-owned by Jiří Šimáň and Roman Vik. A company from China is also involved as a minority shareholder.
The former subsidiary CSA has already been separated from the group and is now a sister company.
It is currently still unclear whether Israir will take the offer. If it can be assumed that a construction must be created that formally guarantees EU majority ownership.
Smartwings does not want to comment on the possible takeover by the carrier from Israel.
Smartwings also owns Czech Airlines (CSA), the legacy carrier that is the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Czech Airlines is not in a very good position at the moment: it is in administration and is being reorganized.
The reorganization is going well so far because the administrator is selling off Czech Airlines’ emissions allowances to generate
revenue to gradually cover its debts.
Smartwings has subsidiaries in Eastern Europe
The Smartwings Group also runs flight operations under the Smartwings brand in several countries outside of the Czech Republic.
It has a subsidiary in Hungary, called Smartwings Hungary, which is based at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) and has one aircraft in its fleet. The aircraft is a parked Boeing 737-800 that is almost 20 years old.
There are also subsidiaries in Slovakia (Smartwings Slovakia with one Boeing 737-800) and in Poland (Smartwings Poland with one Boeing 737-800).
Delta Air Lines, American air carrier, is going to resume its direct flights from Prague to New York, JFK Airport, effective 8 May 2023.
The operation of these flights will be extended until 28 October.
Throughout the summer flight schedule, the airline plans to operate the route up to seven times a week using Boeing 767-300 aircraft.
“The resumption of direct flights to New York is excellent news primarily for Czech passengers. They will be able to enjoy a convenient and fast connection to the east coast of the United States,” said Jiří Pos, Chairman of the Prague Airport Board of Directors.
“We are pleased to return to the Czech market with direct flights, able to offer passengers a comfortable and fast connection from Prague to New York and to further-away destinations on the American continent,” Guido Hackel, Air France, KLM and Delta Air Lines Country Manager for Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, noted.
Delta operates more flights to Europe out of JFK than any other US carrier, with its flight to Prague operating in conjunction with its joint venture partners Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic.
More info here
Prague Airport Handles 3.8 Million Passengers Last Summer
Prague Airport has managed a strong summer season without major complications. From June to August, over 3.8 million passengers were handled, which is one third less than in the record year 2019.
However, the increasing tendency prevails. Since the beginning of the year until the end of August 2022, nearly seven million travellers passed through airport gates. The busiest day was 1 July when the number of handled passengers exceeded the 50 thousand mark.
The most popular country in terms of the number of handled passengers was Greece, followed by Italy, and Spain. In terms of the most popular holiday destinations, Antalya took the first place, with Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Burgas, and Heraklion among the sought-after holiday retreats.
This Sunday, November 6, will take place one of the most awaited festivals of the year, hosted by Karlin Market.
Once again, at the Street Food Festival you can expect a lot of great food and drink from the best street food professionals, and as a bonus, organizers have prepared a presentation of Armenian cuisine and their culture, which will surely fascinate and surprise you with its diversity and tastes.
There will also be entertainment for children, so come with the whole family and friends.
The festival will begin at 11 AM on Sunday and go until 6 in the evening. Come for the food, stay for the performances, and make sure to bring your whole family.
It’s just a quick walk from the Karlínské náměstí tram stop.
During the Hussite Wars, one Bohemian military leader triumphed in every battle – despite constantly being outnumbered, outgunned and not even being able to see the battlefield.
Any list of history’s greatest military commanders will include some clear and undeniable choices: Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, and maybe Sun Tzu for his book The Art of War. But no list is complete without Jan Žižka.
A national hero to the Czechs, the 15th-century general was an unmatched tactician and an innovator in weaponry, who never lost a single battle despite leading an army of peasants and farmers against hardened soldiers. And most of the time, he was completely blind.
While Žižka’s deeds in the Hussite Wars made him a legend, his life before has either been lost to history or can only be guessed. Maybe born c1360 or 1376 in Trocnov, Bohemia, to an upper-class family, it is believed he became an experienced mercenary, maybe a bandit too.
At some point, he lost one of his eyes. He may have fought in the battle of Grunwald in 1410, a major engagement that shifted the balance of power in Europe, before possibly entering the service of King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia.
What can be said is that Žižka became a follower of the religious firebrand Jan Hus, whose movement was a forerunner of the Reformation. For criticising the Roman Catholic Church and seeking reform, Hus had been condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake in 1415.
His ‘Hussites’, hailing him as a martyr, continued to grow in number and split into factions, with Žižka joining the more radical and militant Taborites, who called for a complete break from Rome.
In 1419, religious tensions between the Church and Hussites snapped. In what became known as the First Defenestration of Prague (not to be confused with the second, the 1618 Defenestration of Prague) a Hussite procession led by priest Jan Zelivsky – with, according to some accounts, Žižka present – turned violent and several of Prague’s town councillors were thrown out of a window.
Shortly afterwards, Wenceslas died and his half-brother Sigismund, King of Hungary, looked to take the Bohemian throne. He was a staunch opponent of the Hussites, who had betrayed Hus to his death.
These events lit the spark of the Hussite Wars. Žižka was immediately appointed a commander of the Taborite forces and undertook the daunting task of getting them ready to face not only Sigismund’s royalist armies, but – since the pope launched a crusade to eradicate the Hussites – thousands of experienced mercenaries and knights from across Europe.
He had to make do with Bohemian peasants or farmers, poorly armed and equipped, and with next to no training. Žižka set about introducing drills and discipline, as well as a devotion to their cause to turn the Hussites into an army.
His real strength as a leader, though, was his ability to utilise his limited resources effectively: farmers were more used to agricultural flails and pitchforks than swords and bows, so he simply adapted and gave them flails and pitchforks as weapons.
But to be one of history’s greatest commanders required innovation. That came in the shape of his war wagons and battle-winning tactic wagenburg (wagon fort). Reinforcing common carts with thick wooden sides, mounting small cannons and guns on top, and manning each with up to 20 soldiers with hand weapons, crossbows and pistols, Žižka developed the rudimentary concept of mobile artillery.
These could be positioned in a square to form a defensive barricade – the wagenburg – against which enemy cavalry could not launch an attack. The fighting was on his terms. His Hussites could stand their ground against numerically superior forces, and win.
From his first battle, at Sudomer in March 1420, Žižka’s revolutionary tactics and strategic mind proved their worth. By establishing a position in a swampy area, his 400-strong force, which included women and children being escorted across Bohemia, defeated 2,000 crusaders forced to dismount in the unfavourable terrain.
He followed that by defending Prague at the battle of Vitkov Hill. Thousands of knights led by Sigismund were repulsed by an estimated 60-80 Hussites, before retreating in panic amidst Žižka’s surprise counterattack.
- Czechia continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the whole of the European Union, according to newly released data by the European statistics agency Eurostat. Unemployment rate dropped to 2.2 percent in September, compared to 2.4 percent in August.
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The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech lower house described the current Russian regime as terrorist. In a resolution passed on Thursday, the committee condemned the large-scale attacks on Ukrainian civilians and key infrastructure and refused to recognise the referendums on annexation of the four Ukrainian regions to Russia.
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President Miloš Zeman vetoed an amendment to this year’s budget on Thursday, arguing that the revenues are lower than they could have been had an amendment to the Income Tax Act been adopted first.
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The Czech Republic will from now on present itself as “Czechia” for the purposes of international sports, according to a decision by the executive committee of the Czech Olympic Committee (COV) yesterday.
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Czechia plans to close its embassy in Mali and its consulate general in China’s Chengdu, the Foreign Ministry’s state secretary Radek Rubeš said at a meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on Thursday.
The eurozone unemployment rate declined slightly in September, a sign of a resilient labor market even as an economic recession looms.
The eurozone jobless rate fell to 6.6% in September from a revised reading of 6.7% in August, according to data from the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat released Thursday. The reading matched economists’ consensus forecast in a poll by The Wall Street Journal.
The number of unemployed people fell by 66,000 in September to 10.99 million, the statistics agency said.
The youth unemployment rate–among people under 25–rose to 14.6% in September from a revised reading of 14.4% in August, Eurostat said.
The eurozone unemployment rate stands at a record-low level.
Economists expect joblessness to increase as the region’s economy falls into a recession around year-end, but any rise in unemployment is likely to be modest.
Czechia continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the whole of the European Union, according to newly released data by the European statistics agency Eurostat.
The unemployment rate dropped to 2.2 percent in September, compared to 2.4 percent in August.
The country has had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU for several years now.
The Danish toy conglomerate LEGO opened today (November 3rd) the company’s official stores in Prague.
It is located in the Prague shopping center Westfield Chodov.
Customers will find a large variety of exclusive sets, which are sold only at official points. It will be built on the concept of retailtainment – that is, the showrooms will offer visitors not only goods, but also a range of entertainment for the whole family.
“LEGO is interested in inspiring children, developing their imaginations with creativity. We have no doubt that Czech children who visit the store will feel that everything that can be built here can be built and produced anywhere and for them – the sky is the limit,” states the company.
Customers are welcomed by a unique 3D model inspired by Czech history with a knight on a horse that is over 2.5 meters tall.
In addition, there is a replica of the view of Wenceslas Square, including the National Museum in the background, as well as a mosaic reminding of other beautiful Czech monuments and famous places.
“The store offers not only the largest range of products but also many opportunities to play with the bricks and help us in our mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through creative play and learning,” says Adriana Jahňáková, Lego’s General Manager for the Czech and Slovak Republics.
This will be done through interactive elements such as Minifigure Studio, Minifigure Expression, and a ‘hands-on’ play area.
The arrival of a LEGO store in Prague may leave some of us wondering why one hasn’t appeared before now. That’s because the city is home to the LEGO Museum (reportedly, the world’s largest private museum dedicated to the toy) and a LEGO factory in the nearby Kladno – which was inaugurated back in the year 2000.
That factory has helped Czechia become the largest exporter of toys in Europe – but not, it seems, a direct seller of the toys it produces.