Stará Aerovka – Czech Aviation Museum Complete with Hangars

Stará Aerovka is a Czech Aviation Museum complete with hangars, a unique complex representing not only the architecture showing the beginning of Czechoslovak aviation, but also the development of aircraft technology during WWII. At this single location it’s possible to see uniquely preserved buildings, typical for Central European airport structural engineering of the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and...

LIFESTYLE

July 12, 2016

Flowers at the Farmer’s Market in Prague

Summer is a wonderful time to be in Prague. One of our favorite reasons are the outdoor farmer’s markets. Many of these also have vendors who sell flowers. Flowers at the Farmer’s Market in Prague just make summer feel more… summery! Flowers are a huge part of Czech culture and they are on sale throughout...

LIFESTYLE

July 12, 2016

Back in Time to Charles University Students of 1948

Last week we posted about the esteemed professors at Charles University in 1948. Today we wanted to share a little about student life. LIFE Magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt went to Czechoslovakia in 1947 and he captured the images of some students at Prague’s Charles University. The photographs accompanied an article in LIFE Magazine on January...

Czech Schools, LIFESTYLE

July 9, 2016

How Music Can Change Your Mood

Similar to the way when a child is raised listening to one accent, he or she is most likely going to grow up speaking with that accent. Not because he or she does not know that others exist but rather because it is the one it is the one heard most. Music is the same except...

LIFESTYLE, Shopping

July 8, 2016

Strawberry Crumble Cake or Jahodový Koláč s Drobenkou

Strawberry Crumble Cake (or Jahodový Koláč s Drobenkou in Czech) is a quick and easy dessert to make. This moist cake tastes more like a super sweet strawberry bar than a cake and that is precisely why we love it so much. I remember eating this cake as a young girl for breakfast and feeling...

Food, Recipes

July 6, 2016

Carlsbad Dumplings or Karlovarský Knedlíky

There is nothing more popular in Czech cuisine as dumplings. Today we are going to share a family recipe for Carlsbad Dumplings or Karlovarský Knedlíky. In the Bohemian forests, around the Šumava mountains, dumplings are called bosáky, in Southern Bohemia, they’re called drbáky and in Moravia they’re often served with poppy seeds and called šulánky. In the...

Food, Recipes

July 4, 2016

Back in Time to Charles University Professors and Doctors of 1948

LIFE Magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt went to Czechoslovakia in 1947 and he captured the images of some amazing notable people at Prague’s Charles University. The photographs accompanied an article in LIFE Magazine on January 12, 1948. These are the esteemed faces and personalities of Charles University at the time… So how much did an education cost...

Czech Schools, LIFESTYLE

July 1, 2016

Retro Czech in the 70s and 80s – Exhibit of ČSSR Memories

Are you interested in seeing retro Czech in the 70s and 80s? If so than do we have a plan for you. There’s a fun exhibit going on at the Dancing House. It’s a groovy retro time capsule including a prefab apartment complete with appliances and home accessories, vehicles and camping gear to take you...

LIFESTYLE

June 30, 2016

A Unique One-of-a-Kind Škoda Limo

If you speak Czech, you get the pun on the cars name. A Škoda (Czech car) translates to damage but also means something like “bummer”, so today we are looking at a funny old bummer of a limousine. Škoda Auto more commonly known as Škoda, is a Czech automobile manufacturer founded in 1895 as Laurin...

LIFESTYLE

June 29, 2016

Radio Free Europe’s Czech Game Show from 1952

Did you know that there was a Czech game show version of What’s My Line? is called Hádej kdo jsem? What’s My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. It is the longest-running game show in the history of primetime network...

LIFESTYLE

frantisek-hilmar-kytka-FM-Hilmar-Frantisek-Matej-Hilmar-Polka

June 28, 2016

František Hilmar, Father of the Polka

Here is something that most of you may not know about our family… My father can trace his history back to around 1648, when the first Hilmar (Hylmar) came from Swedish/Nordic territory to Košťanech (in what’s now known as the Czech Republic) as a soldier in the Thirty Years’ War. He settled and made his...

Bohemians, CULTURE, LIFESTYLE, Music

June 25, 2016

Your Chance To Save a Czech Castle

Ever since we’ve started this site, we have lots of emails coming into our mailboxes from sharing of recipes, to old photographs, to places yet undiscovered and artists we may never have heard of. This morning we received a call for help to save a Czech castle from ruin. The castle is located in Veselí (Janovice...

LIFESTYLE

June 17, 2016

Mount Airy Lodge and the Czech Connection

Now is the perfect time And the feeling is just right You can play all day and dance into the night At beautiful Mount Airy Lodge All you have to bring Is your love of everything… Surely you remember the popular commercial which seemed to play day and night advertising the beautiful Mount Airy Lodge...

LIFESTYLE

June 10, 2016

A Czech Favorite: Zelí aka Sauerkraut

Czech Zelí (Sauerkraut) is like no other. Unlike German sauerkraut or American sauerkraut Czech sauerkraut is not necessarily sour. When most people make sauerkraut they just take pickled cabbage and heat it, but when Czechs make it (or at least the Czechs I know) they use pickled cabbage, sugar, onions, an apple, and lots of...

Food, LIFESTYLE, Recipes

June 7, 2016

Keeping Salt on The Table

Whenever we have Americans over to our house for a meal there is always one thing that they notice immediately and that is that we keep our salt in a small bowl in the middle of the table, not in a shaker, and not in a grinder. To get the salt you need to reach...

Food, LIFESTYLE

May 17, 2016

A Czech Tradition: Snack Platters

Czechs are famous for their food, but what most people don’t know is that that does not only stand for their meals. In Czech it is almost unheard of to go to someone’s house and not find a platter of snacks ready for you. In Czech there are so many bakeries, delis, and vegetable markets, and...

Food, LIFESTYLE