So many stories to tell and write about… apart from an amazing Barbie exhibit at the toy museum at the Hradscane Castle, I think I have almost covered them all!

The last place I would talk about is this one called the monastery of Loreta. It consists of a large pilgrimage area containing beautiful chapels and chambers. It is also the most well kept site in all of Prague for security, pictures, visitors and so on.

I wish I could have covered with my camera the world famous and secretly hidden “Diamond Monstrance” — made in Vienna in 1696 by architect Fischer of Erlach. Fashioned from densely gilded silver, it is graced with 6,222 diamonds.

Unfortunately I could not do so, not even with a special permit from the president himself.

The Prague Loreto, as we know it today, is a fully-fledged pilgrimage site whose construction was initiated in 1626 by Katharina Benigna of Lobkowicz. The complex, today decorated with impressive statues and fountains, was gradually expanded to include cloisters, a tower, a chapel and the Church of the Birth of Our Lord. Its most important architects were Giovanni Batista Orsi and Christoph Dienzenhofer. The pilgrimage site is famous for its carillon consisting of 30 large and small bells, which was constructed in the Netherlands in the late 1600s.

On the stroke of every hour, an ancient Marian song, entitled “We Greet You a Thousand Times” rings out from the carillon. The pilgrimage site is very popular as is corroborated by a wealth of votive donations which now form the remarkable Loreta Treasure, consisting of a collection of valuable liturgical items and many splendid other artifacts originated from the 16th and 18th Centuries now used only for very special occasions (e.g. In 1999, at the 400 year celebration of the arrival of the Capuchins in Bohemia.)

While you walk under the irritated eyes of a very fat and strong Czech body guard dressed in a black coat, an organ plays different Bachian symphonies coming from the main chapel, the one of our Lady of Sorrows (St Wilgefortis).
The most important piece contained here is the Gothic Pieta, dating from the 15th Century and donated to Loreto by V. Rincolini in 1687. As legend has it, the Pieta miraculously survived a fire set by the Calvinists and therefore was thought to have miraculous powers. The Chapel is also dedicated to St. Wilgefortis, a martyr highly respected mostly in the northern countries.

It’s magic, and it’s also very cold in the air.

Among others, the Chapel of St. Anne built in 1687 with the support of public collections and the support of Katarina of Lobkowicz, who donated the relief of Christ Child. The Chapel of St. Francis Seraphinus designed by the famous K. Dientzenhofer (1655-1722) and contains besides a beautiful Baroque altar an impressing painting of the Stigmata of St. Francis Seraphinus by P. Brandl. Chapel of the Holy Family Except from the 17th century Baroque architecture, you will find here a Rococo altar of St. Felix of Cantalicia, decorated with sculptures by Richard Prachner (1705-1782).

Finally, Santa Casa a copy of the Santa Casa in Loreto, Italy, the house where Virgin Mary was told the she will give birth to Jesus, the Son of God.

According to the legend of Santa Casa, the place in Nazareth where the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that Jesus Christ, the Son of God would be born from her blessed womb. In the very same house the Holy Family stayed after their return from Egypt and Mary lived there for years to come.
In 1291 a Christian family named Angeli had the Holy House moved piece by piece from Nazareth to Dalmatia and later in 1295 to the Italian town of Loreto. From the name of the Italian family “Angeli” people developed in time the legend that the Holy House had been brought to Loreto by angels themselves. The story has become popular in all Christian world and many other copies of Santa Casa have been built all over the world.

The Loreto in Prague is the biggest and most famous copy of Santa Casa in the Czech Republic and attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.
Joelle’s Picks:

The Monastery of Loreta
Loretánské nám.7
118 00 Praha 1
tel.: +420/220 516 740
fax : +420/220 516 740
e-mail: loreta@kapucini.cz
www.loreta.cz

“Whatever you are doing today, stop!” she says. “This is really important, go to the museum and then call me when you are done!” I really don’t get it, what is there with this artist Mucha? I have seen his stuff in every commercial magazine ad, cafe and restaurant…what is the big deal?…

OK, she must know something, let’s go. I had in mind today to visit the Katedrala Sv Vita, San Vitus Cathedral located in the Prazsky Hrad, the Prague Palace. It doesn’t matter, I will go in the afternoon. The Mucha Museum, situated on Panska street, is in a small palace called Kauniki Palac. Built in 1998, this museum is dedicated to perhaps the most famous of all Czech visual artists, Alphons Mucha (1860-1939) — known for commercial work such as mass-produced decorative panels and posters for Sarah Bernhardt theatre performances.

Mucha exercised his greatest influence through his Encyclopaedia for Craftsmen (1902), a catalogue of Art Nouveau decorative elements, forms and designs whose precise drawings and sketches in small shelves are absolutely superb. The great thing about the museum is that — in addition to displaying drawings, lithographs, posters, pictures of his stage, costume, jewelry and furniture, carpet designs, decorations, charcoal sketches, personal memorabilia and Parisian notebooks — there is a one hour video about his life.

With the video you clearly understand his versatile creative talent, but mostly his life in the fashionable world of fin-de-siècle Paris when he suddenly realized that even with all the available comfort it was not enough.  He felt the responsibility to make a difference for his country — at the time struggling. He was a communicator, and the tool was his art. On his return to Czechoslovakia, Mucha created the Slavonic Epic, a series of gigantic narrative oil paintings, which are now residing in Moravisky Krumlov castle, south-west of Brno.

In 1911 he completed the murals for the Prague Town Hall (Obecní dům), the last major interior decoration in the Art Nouveau style in Prague. Soon after that the independent state of Czechoslovakia was created. Mucha designed postage stamps and bank notes. The complete cycle of the “Slav Epic” was officially presented to the Czech people and the City of Prague. In 1931 he was commissioned to design a stained glass window for the St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague.

I rush (in Prague you only walk) and enter the grandest Hradcanske namesti gates of the Palace, where every hour the guard is changed, on the way to the cathedral. It takes more than half an hour of a not very welcome and arresting negotiation of what  sites I would like to see and therefore pay for, plus the photographic permit, a map of the castle in Czech, the cold and a long line passing through a first, a second and a third opulent courtyard, the oldest dominated by looming towers, pinnacles, spires and buttresses. I finally arrive at the entrance door of the San Vitus cathedral which personally reminds me of larger Notre- Dame in Paris.

Built over 1000 years and completed in 1929, no doubt this awe-inspiring building is the spiritual center of Bohemia. The cathedral’s Gothic structure owes its creation to Charles IV ‘s lifelong love affair with Prague. The 19th Century nationalists completed the work according to the original plan in a Neo- Gothic manner. My camera lens scans every corner of the enormous interior nave and the shutter speed quickly calculates the enormous amount of varying-hued light from the gallery of the 21 stained-glass windows created at the beginning of the 20th Century. And here it is, the third window on the left in the Archibishop’s Chapel…the most famous of all, it is created by Alfons Mucha. It’s vibrantly impressive, timeless.

In Prague — as in Paris — women, artists and men struggled to be immortalized by Mucha in the forms of  goddesses, seasons, flowers, muses, saints and universal heroes; all these throughout his immense art, devotion and sensibility.

Staring while a little dizzy at the intensity of colors of the magnificent glass, I ask myself what is more is to be worshiped than the divine within his gifted talent? Without really waiting for an answer, I remember having to call my mother…she surely has that one for me.

Joelle’s picks

The Museum:

Mucha Museum
Kaunický palác
Panská 7
110 00 Prague 1
The Mucha Museum Opening Hours:
daily 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tel./Fax: +420 224 216 415 – shop

The Cathedral:

Prague Castle Hadranske namesti

tel 224 371111/ open 9 to 5 daily/ admission50-350 Kc

This tranquil setting was established for the Premonstratensians, followers of the teachings of St Augustine. Destroyed by fire in 1258, it was rebuilt in Gothic style, with later Baroque additions.

Today, the monastery is of great importance in the history of the Czech Republic. In 1989 its archives housed over 6 million items. The Strahov library contains over 900 thousand volumes and 300 thousand works of expressive art. Over the centuries, the monks have assembled one of the world’s best collections of philosophical and theological texts, including illuminated (decorated with colored designs) manuscripts and first editions. The oldest manuscript is a summary of the Gospels which dates back to the tenth century. The collection is extremely valuable not only in monetary figures but in historical significance as well.

The ceiling of the 1679 Theological Hall is a stunning example of baroque opulence, with intricate leaf blanketing the walls and framing the 18th-century ceiling frescoes. The rich wood-accented Philosophical Library’s 14m-high (46-ft.) ceiling is decorated with a 1794 fresco entitled “The Struggle of Mankind to Know Real Wisdom”, by A. F. Maulpertsch, a Viennese master of Rococo. The fresco symbolizes the human search for truth through religious wisdom. The painting includes a picture of French encyclopedists hovering above an abyss between spiders and toads, terrified by the power of religious wisdom over science. However a strange irony exists here, in the same hall as the fresco, the monks placed the encyclopedia in a place of honor as its first literary work.

Intricate woodwork frames the immense collection of books. Ancient printing presses downstairs are also worth visiting, as are several altars and the remains of St. Norbert, a 10th-century, German-born saint who founded the Premonstratensian order. His bones were brought here in 1627, when he became one of Bohemia‘s 10 patron saints.

Paths leading through the monastery grounds take you to a breathtaking overlook of the city. The collection includes works of world famous printers such as Aldus Pius Manutius of Venice, Frobenius of Basle, Plantin from Antwerp, and the famous publisher Elsevier. Also included are typographs dating back to the eighteenth century from the renowned Italian, Bodoni.

The Strahov Monastery is a fine example of the important role religion has played in the lives of central Europeans for centuries. It is a wonderful example of the architecture of the Gothic and Renaissance periods, and will always stand as a monument to the past.

Joelle’s Picks:

Strahov Monastery and Library (Strahovský klášter): Daily 9am-noon and 1-5pm
Strahovské nádvo?í­ 1, Hradcany, Admission 80Kc ($3.35) adults, 50Kc ($2) student
Tel: 220-517-278

It was built in the 13th century by Agnes, sister of King Wenceslas, and now houses a magnificent collection highlighting Bohemian and Central European Medieval art from 1200 to 1550. Prague, after all was the forefront of European artistic development during the reign of Charles IV (1346-78) and one of the greats of the end of the 14th century was the master of Trebon.

I am not allowed in with my backpack. It’s a Louis Vuitton, but they don’t care. They are very protective of this breathtaking collection of Medieval masterpieces never seen anywhere else in the world. You can see the Master altarpiece featuring the “Resurrection of Christ”, and his “Madonna of Roudnice”. The Master of the Vyšší Brod altar, Master Theodoric, works of the Master of the Winkler Epitaph, A. Altdorfer, L. Cranach the Elder and many others, all examples of the “beautiful style “that prevailed until the outbreak of the Hussite wars.

The sober and elegant set design of the exhibition is a contemporary masterpiece itself. It’s a combination of glass, suggestive halogen illumination invoking a theatrical sensation of drama, background walls finished in grey Anthracite and green Aquamarine variations of Venetian stuccos, further enhancing the impressive wood sculptures, altars and valuable paintings on wood.

Not to be missed, it’s a must!

Joelle’s Picks:

St. Agnes Convent (Klaster sv. Anesky Ceske) . U Milosrdných 17, Hradcany, Tues-Sun 10am-6pm , Tel: 224-810-628

The best shop for Medieval Art and Renaissance:

Les Enluminures, Le Louvre des Antiquaires

2, Place du Palais-Royal

75001 Paris

tel: 33 01 42 60 15 58

Fax: 33 01 40 15 00 25

“Prague. Religions get lost as people do.”

Tonight, I bought tickets for a concert in the Old Prague Spanelska Synagoga, the Spanish Synagogue. ‘Jewels of the World and Czech Classics‘: Mahler, Bloch, Ravel, Ben-Haim , Bernstein and Bruch — all Jewish composers. To stay in the mood, I decided to spend my day in Josefov, the Jewish quarter in Old Prague.

While the city holds an allure to worldwide literati and coffee connoisseurs, I particularly chose to have my breakfast coffee at the charming and atmospheric Frantz Kafka cafe. Prague café culture was a pivotal element in his life and an inspiration to his writing.

It was in the Prague café culture that Kafka experienced something of a religious awakening to his Jewish heritage. (Marilyn Bender describes the personable and café-hopping Kafka in Franz Kafka’s Prague: A Literary Walking Tour.) The characters in his novels and short stories are often coffee drinkers. So what were Kafka’s coffee preferences? While I look at all his portraits on the wall I wonder if he ‘d take it with cream and/or sugar? Unfortunately, the answer to this question remains elusive. The main street of Josefov is Parziska, an elegant avenue of designer’s shops, flashy restaurants, expensive cocktail bars which leads from the Old Town square down to the river. Russian tourists, wearing some type of unidentifiable furs, stroll around Cartier display windows and chic Italian Cremeries.

This is all, however, in sharp contrast to the rest of what once was Prague’s Jewish quarter. The spiritual heart of Josefov, Staronova Synagoga the Old-New synagogue, stands on a wedge of land between Maiselova and Parizska. Built around 1270, it’s the oldest surviving synagogue in Europe. Legend has it that the foundation stones were flown over by angels from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem on the (al-tenay in Hebrew) that they should be returned on Judgment Day, hence the name Alt-Neu in German or Old-New in English.

After standing in a long line in the cold weather, I present my ticket (in Prague, except for breathing, you must buy tickets for everything you do, for photographic permits and even to shop!) and I finally get into the small stone entrance hall with Hebrew writing encrypted in the wall.

While I try to figure out their meaning, (straining my poor memory of elementary Hebrew studies in Milan) an old lady explains out loud with a strange Yiddish accent, that the ticket I bought is not valid for THIS synagogue but for all the other ones belonging to the Jewish Museum, whose original aim since 1906 was to preserve valuable artifacts from the Prague synagogues that had been demolished during the reconstruction of the Jewish Town at the beginning of the 20th century.The museum includes a total of 4 synagogues: Maisel synagogue, Klausen synagogue, Pinkas Synagogue where I am going tonight, the Spanelska synagogue, the former Ceremonial Hall, and the Old Jewish Cemetery.  She sends me quickly back to the ticket window.

Back in the synagogue’s lower vestibule, this time holding tight the right ticket in my hand, the old lady accepts the ticket but says “No Photos!”. I explain, irritated, that I have a permit to do so. Without answering me, she turns away to intercept a South American young man who also bought the “wrong” ticket.

In the center of the main hall of the Old-New Synagogue is the Bimah, which is like an elaborate wrought iron cage. Above the Bimah hangs a remnant of a red flag with the Star of David, the Jewish symbol. In 1357, Charles IV, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire at the time, allowed the Jews of Prague to have their own city flag. This is the synagogue which Franz Kafka, the famous writer, attended when he lived in Prague; his Bar Mitzvah was held in the Old-New Synagogue.

On the west wall of the main hall, there is a glass case shaped like the two stone tablets on which Moses chiseled the ten commandants. The case is filled with tiny light bulbs which light up on the anniversary of someone’s death if the relatives have paid for this feature. One of the lights is for Franz Kafka.I look at the the seating arrangement along the walls, the synagogue has retained the original seats. I recall images of my own father, sons, grandfather, and great grandfather who I never met, all sitting one next to each other, singing the Maariv (evening daily prayer) like this place was just one more synagogue in a neighborhood in Aleppo, Beirut, São Paulo or New York.

I felt there was no difference being a Sefaradi or a Jew from Prague. With this thought, I rushed out and headed to the Pinkas Synagoga at the end of Maiselova street. After all, the ticket bought yesterday will allow me free access today. Pinkas Synagogue was the private house of the Horowitz family in 1492. At that time it was a small building at the edge of the Old Jewish Cemetery, forming part of the house : U Erbu. In 1519 the house of prayer was inherited by the ambitious Aron Meshullam Zalman Horowitz, one of the leading figures of Prague.

Here, the line to get in is also very long, and the cold is still making its unwelcome presence known. Last year at this time, I was in Rio De Janeiro enjoying the burning sun on Ipanema beach. A red-cheeked man with a white mustache and a checkered wool hat, older than the lady in the Old-New synagogue, is telling me in English (resembling more of Czechoslovakian) that the ticket I bought is not valid. “Why sir? It’s the Jewish Museum ticket!” The reason is that the ticket expired five minutes ago and I must buy a new one.

With a new valid ticket in my hand, I cross the late Gothic style building complemented by rich stone-cut decoration on the Holy Arch and Bimah, adorned themselves with traceries and withered pinnacles. The most sophisticated feature of decoration in terms of style is the front portal, which is rendered in the usually pure forms of the early Renaissance. A forged Rococo grille decorates the Bimah , its side section features motif of the Star of David with a medieval Jewish hat — the symbol of the Jewish community in Prague.

Among the members of the Horowitz family there were a number of rabbis and scholars who devoted themselves to the studies of Jewish mysticism — the Kabbala. These include Shabetai Sheftel ben Akiva Horowitz and Isaiah ben Abraham ha-Levi Horowitz. After several floods in 1758 and 1771, the vestibule, Arch and Binah got damaged and remodeled in the Baroque style in 1820.

Other major reconstructions took place in 1954-59 where the synagogue turned into a memorial to the nearly 78,000 victims of the Nazi Genocide of the Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia. Their names are arranged in alphabetical order on the basis of communities and families and inscribed on walls of the vestibule, the main nave, women’s nave and gallery. I realize looking at these white walls filled with firm and well designed orange, red and black letters, that the victims lost the anonymous impersonality of numbers and regained their human quality .

On my way, the old Jewish cemetery is placidly waiting to be visited. As a daughter of a Cohen (Great Priest) we don’t have the habit to go. I just content myself with taking a few pictures from afar. My camera and I (with a permit in my pocket), witness with respect and distance, how the memorial synagogue and the neighborhood of the Jewish cemetery symbolize the unity between of those who lost their lives victimized and their mystical ancestors. Dinner tonight is at the hotel room. It’s Shabbat.

I ordered the King Solomon’s Shabbat Meal Box with a bottle of Kosher Baron Aaron Gunsberger 1999 wine. It will be delivered shortly before sunset at the time of the candle lighting, which should be at 3:55 pm. It’s my day of rest. I need to reflect on my new year in Prague.

Malher’s sublime movements reign supreme among a piano, a flute, a baritone and a violoncello. Arabesques of stucco, gilt and polychrome motifs are the main feature of the Moorish style employed in the second half of the 19th century of this synagogue. My eyes gaze through the Ark the east section of the synagogue building, while a piano and a violin echo highlights of Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole . I envision myself resting under the Alhambra canopies in Andalusia this summer. What a day…

What a Shabbat, what an evening….the gentleman was right tonight. Music is a universal language, religions too. The city of Prague, Gustav Mahler and obviously Kafka know better that anyone else that it’s a metamorphosis’ desperate ode to life and innocence.

Joelle’s Picks:

The Cafe:

Café Franz Kafka , Široká 12/64, Praha 1, Metro: Starom?stská /Tram 17, 18, Open 10am-10pm daily

The Restaurant:

King Solomon restaurant by Aron Gunsberger – Rated by square meal top 10 ethnic restaurants 1999,2000,2001, Glatt Kosher, Le Mehadrin Certified, Di Ro Pe Grand Award Wine Expert Award. Široká 8Prague 1 Tel + 420 224 818 725, Fax + 420 274 864 664 e-mail solomon@kosher.cz The Jewish Museum: For tickets :U Star Skoy 1, Prague. Tel 1 221 711 511

With all the traveling I have done , it would be my first time in the Czech Republic. I knew it would be a different experience from anything else, but I had no idea the emotional impact the city would have on me.

I arrive on a cold morning, leave my luggage in the pretty garden room at the Mandarin Oriental — a carefully restored 14th Century monastery in the Baroque district of Mala Strana (“Little Quarter“), for centuries known as the home of artists, poets, boozers, dramaturges, novelists and photographers. It is situated at the foot of the Prague Castle and opposite to the Vltava River and Staré M?sto or Old Town.

My almost vintage Louis Vuitton backpack is so heavy, filled with all sorts of Italian, Brazilian American guides on the city. It seems like everyone that has come to this old city has different advice to give you. I read everything on the plane. I’ve only got a few days and really don’t know where to start… Maybe breakfast. We were advised to go to Cukrkávalimonáda, a cute place nearby with lime washed interiors where you can eat delicious hot honey and butter croissants and a wide choice of pastries under 17th Century beams.

Warmed up by the early breakfast we decide to go for a walk crossing the Bohemian Malá Strana, into the most popular Karl?v most or Charles Bridge where blind folk singers perform and a man plays Beethoven concertos on finger bowls. You can get your portrait painted in a few minutes to pair it with the one sketched by the New York Central Park Koreans last year. You can take advantage of the view to take great photos of the Castle and then move to the Old Town and finally the Josefov or Jewish Quarters.

The city’s architecture is fully built since the Middle Ages. A flavor of every period from Romanesque to Post-modernism, passing through Gothic, and Neo-Gothic, Renaissance, Neo-Classical, Revivalism, Art-Nouveau, Modernism, Communism and Post Communism, is proudly displayed. It’s as if you’re at an epic building buffet, all within a half hour walk of Old Town Square.

The same happens with churches, synagogues, temples, monasteries, cathedrals, cloisters, basilicas, convents and chapels. They are all part of the city’s architectural fairytale written in cycles of repression and strife, but indeed managed to resolve most of them after a great deal of suffering and sense of loss, with happy endings. Most Czechs today admit they believe in something — they just don’t know quite what.

It’s 1:30 pm and I am hungry again. I just visited the city’s Baroque Magnum Opus, the Church of San Nicholas, dominating Malá Strana. My feet hurt, my neck even more, attempting to photograph the immense dome and bell-tower,  this monument to the money and effort that the Catholic Church sank into the Counter- Reformation.

The rich facade by Christoph Diententhofer was completed around 1710 and conceals an interior and dome by his son Kilian Ignaz, dedicated to high baroque at its most flamboyantly camp-bathroom-suite pinks and greens (see it in the photo gallery) swooping golden cherubs, swirling gowns and dramatic gestures.

Commissioned by the Jesuits it took three generations of architects, several financial crises, and the demolition of much of the neighborhood between presentations of the first plans in 1653 to final completion in 1755. Inside a Trompe-l’Oeil extravaganza, created by the Austrian Johann Lukas Kraker, covers the ceilings seamlessly blending with the actual structure of the church below. The church tower also appeared to make a favorite spy roost for teams of secret police.

I convince everyone after this strenuous walk to take me to Kavarna Slavia, the cafe situated at the left of the remarkable restored Art Nouveau foyer the Obecindum or Municipal House (I speak six different languages and it’s absolutely impossible to associate any to the Czech, so hard!). Dark wood paneling and green leather banquettes sit serenely beneath the ornate ceilings and mirrors. It’s a very busy place but everyone is in a hurry, too many things to see so tables quickly become available. We decide to eat a salad at the counter of the American Bar.

It’s getting colder. Many of the tourists are turning me into a zombie. We are now at the Staré M?sto, the Old Town on our way back to the hotel. It’s three o’clock sharp on Monday, December 31; the tick-tocking sound of a magnificent clock, called the Prague Orolj or Astronomical Clock is pulling in the crowd. Apparently since 1490 every hour on the hour wooden statuettes emerge from trap doors while, below them, a lesson in Medieval morality is enacted by Greed, Vanity, Death and the Turk.

The clock shows the movement of the sun and the moon through the zodiac, as well as giving the time in three different formats ( Central European, Old Prague and Babylonian time. While I try to read my love horoscope for 2008 through those movements I am told a particularly resilient legend concerning the fate of the clockmaker. Master Hanus was blinded by the vainglorious burghers of the town to prevent him from repeating his horological triumph elsewhere.

This city is full of mysteries and legends. As I walk almost alone with my own thoughts, among them the one of Master Hanus, wondering what could be the next city legend about Kafka? Mozart? Mucha? I hear a whisper in my ear… “Wouldn’t you like to know what is part of your surprise for this evening?”

Part of the surprise happens in two hours at the church of San Salvador. I just have time to quickly get a massage at the hotel’s magnificent spa and get ready for the Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons Concert Autumn, Allegro-Adagio, Winter Allegro- Non molto, W. A. Mozart Ave Verum, J.Pachebel Kanon, J.S. Bach Air, G.F. Handel Allegro, Passacaglia, Bach-Gounod Ave Maria, W. A .Mozart Church Sonates A, F Major, F. Shubert Ave Maria all performed by Chamber Ensemble Musica Pragenesis. Ah I forgot… with heated seats!

After that, dinner in one of the romantic river’s edge terraces of Nils Jebens’ chic Kampa Park with unrivaled views of the Charles Bridge while sampling the appropriately fishy menu, oysters and Iranian Caviar. The delicious dining together with Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte will leave us in the hands of Prague’s world famous fireworks for us to welcome the new year to come.
Master Janus forgive me but honestly this year, I will pass on the horoscope!

Joelle’s picks:

The Hotel :

Mandarin Hotel Prague: Nebovidska 459/1, 118 00 Praha 1
Czech Republic
· Email: moprg-reservations@mohg.com
Reservations
· Telephone: +420 233 088 888
· Facsimile: +420 233 088 668
· Online Reservations
· Email: moprg-reservations@mohg.com

The Cafes and Restaurants:

Cukrkávalimonáda: Lazenska 7, tel 257 530 628

Kavarna and American bar: Plzenska Restaurace, tel 222 002 784, namesti Republiky 5, tel 222 002 763

Kampa Park : Na Kampe 8b, tel 257 532 685

The Sites:

Church of San Nicholas: Malostranské nám?stí Prague open p am-4 pm daily. Adm 60 kc

Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock: Starom?stské nám?stí Prague 724 508 584 open 11am-5pm adm 50 kc

The first 3D Czech movie on Master Hanus: “The Old Prague Legends” by Art and Animation Studios