Kolín, 'Jerusalem of the Elbe'... and home of bears

The town of Kolín, 40 minutes east of Prague by train, is certainly not on the tourist trail. It's thought of as a workaday town of chemical factories, car plants and refineries. But it's worth a stop, and not just for a glimpse of 'everyday Czech life' over your lunch at Robert's bistro in the main square.

First, thanks to a once long-standing Jewish community, Kolín is dubbed 'Jerusalem of the Elbe', the river on which it stands. The old synagogue is right behind the tourist information centre, and well worth seeing. In front of it is what's left of the town's Jewish quarter. Behind it is a tranquil garden with a vineyard planted to mark the synagogue's former importance and also to celebrate Bohemia's often overlooked wines.

For a small deposit the tourist office will even lend you the key to the Jewish cemetery a short walk away. It's a poignant place, with hundreds of graves - most in Hebrew - dating from the 1400s to the 1800s.

This is a very different experience to the synagogues and cemeteries of Prague. You won't be hassled, hurried or assailed by tacky souvenir stalls here. You'll have the whole thing to yourself.

Kolín's mighty cathedral is well worth investigating too. It's one of four neo-gothic masterpieces in the area, along with Prague's St Vitus and Kutna Hora's two cathedrals. Behind it is an ossuary - a chapel essentially made up of human bones. Skulls, femurs and more from many hundreds of people have been arranged as pillars, walls and ceilings in a stark reminder of mortality. It's a very different experience to the ossuaries at Brno or Kutna Hora, which are always crowded and sometimes spoiled by squealing selfie-takers. Here you will be alone and have time and space to reflect.

And the town has one final, rather jollier, claim to fame. In a pleasant little park across the river from Zastávka station are statues of two bears known to all Czechs. They featured in the 1960s children's TV animation Potkali se u Kolína ('they met in Kolín'), though the setting is entirely notional. But the park is a good place to stroll, enjoy a drink at the cafe's outdoor tables, and chat to locals about their uncelebrated town.

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