Travel | Topic Archive

In Spotlight this week, we go to Vyskov, a town of 23,000 inhabitants, which lies about half an hour's drive from the Moravian capital of Brno. The first written reference to Vyskov dates back to 1141, where its name appears on an ecclesiastical document. By the thirteenth century, Vyskov was listed as part of the property of the Bishop of Olomouc and it was prosperous enough to be considered one of the bishopric's most important towns by the fourteenth century.

Welcome to Prague Airport located just east of the capital. All it takes is a thirty-minute metro and bus ride from the centre of Prague to get to a place which connects the Czech capital with the rest of the world. Where there were fields just a few decades ago, you get off the bus in the middle of a steel and glass airport city. It's hard to believe that the history of the Prague airport goes back seventy years.

Without question the town of Kutna Hora in central Bohemia is a must-see destination for anyone visiting the Czech Republic, a town with a long and fascinating history. In the 13th and 14th centuries the site became increasingly famous for silver deposits, which attracted miners and eventually accounted for as much as a third of all the silver production in Europe.

Holesovice market is the largest in Prague and attracts 12 million visitors a year. Fruit and vegetable stalls are perhaps its biggest draw, though it also features some regular shops, and lots of Vietnamese stalls, selling everything from knuckledusters to fake designer clothing. Now its operators are working hard to modernize the market and clean up its image. They have even given it a new name: River Town Prague.

Prague's Troja district is one of the city's most luxurious residential areas. It is also the home of Prague Zoo, which after Prague Castle, is the most visited place in the capital. But the district was hit hard by the floods in 2002 and it also boasts two more sites that only a few tourists know about. City Hall is now introducing an ambitious new project that hopes to turn Troja into an attractive place of fun and leisure.

Today we're in Brandys nad Labem-Stara Boleslav just north-east of Prague. This place has a rather long name - the longest in the country, in fact, and that's because it actually used to consist of two separate towns: Brandys nad Labem and Stara Boleslav.

This edition of Spotlight comes to you from the Czech Republic's famous Jested Mountain: the site of a popular ski hill as well as a space-age hotel.

In today's Spotlight we visit the Moravian town of Bystrice pod Hostynem, close to the city of Zlin. Lying beneath the Hostyn Hill, which is a place of pilgrimage but also offers ideal hiking routes and skiing conditions, the town attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Just a few moments ago I arrived in the town of Nymburk, our location for today's Spotlight. Nymburk lies in Central Bohemia, just 50 kilometres east of Prague. Now, it may not be an obvious destination but the town is in many ways remarkable.

One thing missing so far from this Christmas season is proper Christmas weather: snowy conditions and temperatures well below zero degrees Celsius. So far this month, the mercury has stubbornly stayed well above freezing, for instance, daily it has been around 11 degrees Celsius). That has some skiers suffering - with very few runs at any ski hills operating. Still, it's too early to get too worried yet: as Jan Velinger reports, operators are confident things will soon take a turn for the better.