Insta Friday: Česko Saské Švýcarsko

Českosaské Švýcarsko is kind of funny geographical name of the area, meaning Czech/Bohemian (Česko) Saxon (Saské) Switzerland (Švýcarsko). Any idea where you can find it? Partially in the Czech Republic, partially in Germany (the Saxony part of the country, but check the wiki because “Saxony” can be pretty complicated even within Germany :-)).
You can visit both Switzerlands (Boheiman and Saxon) in my today’s Insta Friday post.

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Insta Friday: Nature in Prague

As the season started my posts on blog will slow dow, as I would not be able to spend my time at the computer. But I will do my best to keep the blog alive during summer at least with Insta Friday posts :-).

Spring – in fact the last days it is more summer – is coming to Prague and for my Insta Friday post I have selected couple of Instagram sights for sore eyes from Prague. Some of them are yet from winter but the others are bringing bloom to our life.

Cozy Cafes of Prague (3) – Čajovna U Cesty

Explanation: Only I have started a set about cafes in Prague, I am going to do an exception. In Czech culture we distinguish Kavárna (cafe), where you go for a coffee, something sweet, even food. You can get a tea there as well, but it would be tea from a teabag, or ginger/mint tea. On the other side there are special places, called Čajovna (tearoom), where you can get the “real” tea, meaning loos teas such as Oolong, Chinese, Japanese and any other special types as Karkade or Rize. Also in such a tearoom you can get something to eat (not in every one), but it would be more oriental, such as pita bread, hummus or couscous. Even in a tearoom you can get a coffee, but do not ask for Espresso or Americano, you can get Arabic coffee with cardamom.

This is how it looks in the tearoom.

Interier of the tearoom in September 2004:

You see these two cultures are really separated here. But based on a comment in one of my previous Cozy Cafes posts, I decided to add a tearoom to this series. But it is not that easy, as I decided to write about the Tearoom On the Road (or more: By the Road) –Čajovna U Cesty. This tearoom doesn’t have any special “room”, but you can find it in a large tent at Prague Botanical Garden, and only at the weekends. And why this one? Because the owners are my friends, and we used to go to Botanical Garden once a month (at least) just to meet them. Since I have started to drink coffee, the visits slowed down, but still we like to drink tea and visit our friends :-).

Our first ever meeting with Pája a Týna, Botanical Garden 2003.

2003 year – garden flowers and view to Troja castle maze:

For this post we had to go Botanical Garden this weekend, to interview the owners. This weekend they were outside the Fata Morgana greenhouse, as there was an exhibition of butterflies (as every year).

Butterflies exhibition in Fata Morgana in 2005.

The owners are Týna a Pája, they drink and prepare tea from 1990s. They travel to Vietnam, India, to choose the best species of tea. They used to have their Tearoom at the Náprstek’s Museum and later next to the second Botanical Garden in Prague (just a coincidence). Finally 13 years ago they decided to leave the stable place (we were at the farewell party) and keep only the weekend tent at the Botanical Garden.

Special tea tasting afternoon with lecture about tea in October 2006 with Pája and Týna.

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The farewell party August 2005.

The farewell party, the crowds who attended are not on the pictures, but they were there.

Why this place and Your recommendation what to see or where to go in Prague
The answer for both these questions is the same, the garden is beautiful and there is always something on a program, from butterflies and bonsai exhibitions, to Halloween. That’s why you should visit and enjoy it, and you don’t have to drink only tea, but there is St Claire’s Vineyard with Vineyard chapel from 17th century. Next to the botanical garden there is famous Prague ZOO (currently the 5the best in the world) and Troja castle, and this triangle is really worth visiting.

Spring in the garden 2011.

Spring 2004:

Spring 2006:

Spring 2007:

Spring 2009:

Spring 2011

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Spring 2011:

2004 Halloween.

Halloween in the Garden 2004

Halloween in the Garden 2010

Halloween in the Garden 2011

What would you order from the menu:
The answer for this question got pretty complicated and I am not able to reproduce all the different teas, which belong to the special mood and weather, and season … So simply: tea, and preferably from the old(est) tea trees you can find hidden in the mountains :-).

2018, lot of Vietnamese teas.

You can also buy the tea to prepare it at home (2018):

Nice story:
And I do not have any nice story for you, as I have forgot to ask, mainly because it was really crowded and I was steeling the little talks in between the clients of the tearoom. Everytime we wanted to say goodbye, Pája had offered us another cup to taste, so we have spent there almost 3 hours. We have started with karkade, then got touareg, rize, arabic coffee with cardamom, gruzie tea and one more I forgot, the one with milk… masala! And I don’t know how much tea you can have, but I was shaking pretty much after the third cup. And this could be your funny story :-).

Tearoom tent and Honza (blue jacket) having another cup of tea.

Týna, she loves people 🙂 .

Combined gallery from August 2004 – Fata Morgana and Tearoom details:

Týna giving recommendations on tea in Summer 2005 .

Pája happy that someone is enjoying his tea in August 2011.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rise/Set

For another (sun) Rise/Set challenge I have decided to look back in my computer and I have found couple of nice pictures of sun from my holidays. I hope you will enjoy them:

Early morning trip from Istanbul.

Sunrise above the ocean in Madeira.

Maltesean sunrise.

Couple of sunsets from Montenegro in the gallery:

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Sunset above Ta’izz in Yemen.

And finally we caught the sun during the sunset in Tunisia.

Sunset in Tunisia.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Rain or Rainbow

For this week Cees Fun Foto Challenge: Rain or Rainbow I have chosen for you few photos from Iceland.

The first two are taken at the South Iceland almost at the same place, the same time of year, but 2 years difference (2015 and 2017).

These four were all taken in Gullfoss, 3 of them are with rainbow (2001, 2016, 2017) and one (2015) with rain :-).

Couple of years ago I posted about Rainbow above Prague and you can find my post with pictures here :-).

And one about Rainbow colors here and about Water here.

Winter Walks (4) – Vrsovice (2)

Second part of our Vrsovice freezing walk, first one here.

Balcony in front of Rangherka with view to the church and nice building of saving company.

Our walk went on to the church and the area behind it, as it looks like you went directly from the city to small village with homesteads from 19 century in Botic stream valley, under protection now, but currently not available to go closer or inside.

What’s-behind-the-church gallery

One more street art on new reconstructed building.

Nice glasses :-).

Finally we crossed the border of Vrsovice back to Vinohrady area to visit Havlickovy sady (Havlicek’s Gardens). I have visited these gardens (and vineyards) many times, but always from the Vinohrady side, to visit the popular vineyard gazebo or nice grotta(east part), but never been to the western part until now. Therefore I was nicely surprised by the architecture and views from here.

Garden building with balcony, secret stairs and hidden places.

Details in the gallery:

View to Nusle and Bohdalec.

After the walking on the freeze we needed to warm and have some more hot drinks, and we visited nice Cafe Kavárna Pavilon Grébovka for tea and coffee.

Pavilon Grébovka.

Lovely and sunny, but we decided to sit inside. 🙂

With the coffee we fulfilled our daily plan for walk and drink and took tram home, with enjoying more beautiful buildings around the Gardens.

New York in Prague 🙂 (you must look closer to the sign on the light green building).

U Havlickovych sadu street, beutiful living

Other Winter Walks you can find on these links:
1. Letná
2. Vyšehrad
3. Vršovice (1)
4. Vršovice (2)
5. Kampa

The series about Night Walks can be found here:
1. Prague Castle

Rumšiškés

Today I want to take ayou for a visit to one of the nicest Open Air museums Rumšiškés. It is located in Lithuania, on the hill above Kaunas sea (lake, in fact :-)). Museum was opened in 1966 and it has about 50 buildings mapping the village life in 4 parts of Lithuania. I love wooden buildings and wooden crosses, the place is so lovely. Enjoy my shots.

Rumšiškés.

Travel theme: The Four Elements

I decided that for The Four Elements Travel Theme I will not present here four different shots, but I chose one shot which combines all elements in eternal balance :-). The shot was taken in South Moravia (Eastern part of Czech Republic) in Lednice, are with beautiful castles and also nature gifts, water-tables, forests, meadows.

The earth is represented with trees and small mountains at the back of the shot.

The air is shown at the sky and clouds.

Water is the lake bosom and fire is the sun hidden behind the clouds and reflecting in the water.

Four elements

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: The Season of Spring

Let’s stay in Krkonoše mountains for my Cee’s Challenge Spring.

Spring in coming to the mountains, but winter still rules …

Spring in coming to the mountains, but winter still rules

… or maybe not :-).

or maybe not 🙂

A Word A Week Challenge – Mountain

For Mountain‘s challenge I take you to the highest mountains we have in Czech Republic. Their name is Krkonoše and they are located at the north part of our country. The highest peak, Sněžka (Snowy hill), is the Czech Republic’s highest point with an elevation of 5,256 ft (1,602 m). I visited it few years ago in April, when Spring was coming, weather was beautiful, flowers started to bloom and the peaks were still covered with snow, the springs were full of crystal clear water.

Beautiful mountains Krkonoše

In winter you can ski there, hike during summer / spring, but you can also go on horses :-).

How to travel there, if not by walk