Nižbor's glass factory: a transparently great place to visit

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 are young apprentices still, but this tricky craft is less attractive to the TikTok generation.

It's fascinating to watch the artworks literally take shape. And colour. You can have a go yourself, and see how hard it is. Very.

In the next room is where the cutting takes place. Here more chaps spend their working day concentrating hard and keeping a steady hand to etch astoundingly intricate and delicate patterns on to the glass pieces. Again, you can try your hand. If it's even a fraction unsteady, as mine was, you end up with a mess.

This is a superb opportunity to see craftsmen (and one woman) at work in a traditional industry. Rückl's pieces can be the highest quality: the choice of wealthy oil sheikhs and of top-status media awards such as Czech's TV dancing competitions. It doesn't come much more prestigious than that.

And afterwards, as you wait for your train back to Prague, you can enjoy another traditional Czech art. Beer and hearty food in the delightful (and not expensive) wooden restaurant Zastávka, there in the station itself.

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