Exploring Czechia

The city of Příbram, an hour southwest of Prague, was a silver-mine boom town in the 1800s and 1900s. Technically they weren't in the city itself, but a suburb to the west; but they're definitely in Příbram now. You can visit the mines, just one of so many underground experiences in the Czech Republic. The old shafts are flooded but an old water tunnel is dry (ish) and walkable. The 600m-long former conduit is surprisingly wide (1m) and high (2m) so even claustrophobes have a chance. But the highlight of the subterranean jaunt is a ride on the train. The electric-powered loco and carriages used to take the miners deep into the shafts, but now it only runs visitors for a hundred metres or so through some large entrance tunnels. It's all great fun, and must be a candidate for one of the world's shortest metro systems...

The Czech Republic may be the most atheist country in the EU, but it still has plenty who do believe. And of those who do, Svata Hora is the most important place for pilgrims. Many arrive by tour bus now, rather than walking or kneeling or even making their way up the remarkable 365-step indoor staircase from down in the town centre of Příbram. Some non-pilgrims do manage to make their way up on a folding bike, such as me, sustained on the steep climb to Svata Hora by the lure of Svata Hora Apartments , a beautiful, tranquil place to stay right on the site itself. Svata Hora had a reputation as a place of miracles, which earned it a small chapel. But it attracted so many pilgrims also hoping to be healed, saved or bailed out that the Jesuits built the modern basilica, monastery and general complex in the 1630s. It's a glorious set of buildings, and you get a real sense of arrival, especially if you've been puffing your way up from town on a laden bike. The sheer glo...

One of the great Czech artistic traditions - apart from making beer, obviously - is the production of high-grade glass works. Czech crystal is known the world over, hopefully intact by the time it gets there. One of the best places to see it being made is in the little village of Nižbor, conveniently on a train line Prague. The Rückl factory here - right by the station - still makes superb glass items in the traditional hand-blown way. The company's logo is a stork, and there are indeed two rehabilitated, injured storks pottering about the garden, plus more flying ones nesting on a pole above the visitor centre. Tour groups come here from all over Czechia. In winter it's nice to warm up in the main part of the works where the furnaces and puffing take place: the blokes who work here are in T-shirts and shorts all year round. Taking just the right amount of glass to make a piece and then blowing and spinning it just the right way takes years of practice. There ar...

A candidate for 'the Czech Republic's best castle beginning with K' is the one at Křivoklát, just over an hour by train west of Prague. It towers over the small village of that name nesting in the middle of hills that feel centuries away from the capital's bustle, hustle, scams, and people making YouTube videos about the hustle, bustle and scams. Křivoklát itself (pronounced something like 'ksheevo klart', though not much) consists of little more than a few pubs, hotels and guesthouses, train station, and general store. There are very nice flat walks and cycle rides - or hilly ones - to be had to nearby villages which, don't worry, have bars or pubs of their own. As always, the app mapy.com is your friend. The castle is the reason people come. Tours show you the stark medieval grandeur of some rooms, and the late-19th century opulence of some others (such as the magnificent library). There's an entertaining collection of traditional sleig...

Think Czech caves and you probably think Moravia's karst region, not far from Brno. But here in Bohemia, not far from Prague, is the underground world of Koněprusy. It's possible to cycle here (indeed I did) but it's hilly round these parts. A car is your best bet, or perhaps the irregular bus from Beroun (whose trains can whisk you the capital). Koněprusy's caves were accidentally discovered in 1950 by a blast the nearby quarry, whose vast terraces dominate the view outside. Down at the bottom amid some trees you can see some labyrinth-like artworks, and a message picked out in stones asking someone to marry them. We don't know if it worked. The quarry still is though. The caves opened in 1959 after investigation by astoundingly brave/mad explorers who didn't mind crawling through tight dark rock passages that might lead nowhere. A tour is much easier, just an hour of ambling along a flat concrete path through some astounding formations. Stalactite...

Big must-visit castles in the Czech Republic all seem to begin with K: Karlštejn, Křivoklát, Konopiště, Kačina . Karlštejn is the easiest and most popular, thanks to its proximity to Prague. Getting here from the capital is a simple and cheap twenty minutes of regular local train from Prague Smíchov station (just west of the river, a short tram ride from the centre or the Old Town). Karlštejn station already feels out in the country, a world away from Prague on the pleasant Beroun river. Follow the crowds - slightly smaller crowds since the Asian tour groups fell away during Covid, but still plenty in summer - for twenty minutes from the station, over the bridge, and up the notionally car-free lane lined by tourist shops and eateries towards the castle itself. You can't miss the cream towers rising up over the village, defying you not to use the word 'fairytale'. There are various tours available. You'll get plenty of history and Important Kings etc, but it...

Beroun is one of those likeable, indeed curious, little towns that bears a close look. Sort of literally. It's only half an hour by train west of Prague, but few stop off here. Known for its twice-yearly pottery fair that draws craftspeople from all round the country and well beyond each spring and autumn, it also has a resident bear. The main square is where most of the stuff happens. It's not too much of a car park, and has two grand old entrance gates flanking it. The helpful Tourist Info office is on one corner and has racks full of leaflets and brochures. That pottery museum first. It's down Beroun's most charming little cobbled street, just off the main square. Opened in 2015, it's quite the multi-tasker. It makes and sells jugs, mugs, pots and plates in a charming style fusing traditional local with a modern sense of dash. I'd be happy to have these in my kitchen instead of my Sports Direct mugs and budget-white supermarket crockery, but I...