FK Dukla Praha vs. FK Teplice

FK Dukla Praha vs. FK Teplice, 21st February 2014 © Ricky Yates

On Thursday 20th February, my son Phillip and his girlfriend Lisa, flew into Prague for a four day visit. Yours truly paid for the flights as a birthday and Christmas present 🙂

Their visit fortunately coincided with the resumption of the Czech football season following its mid-season break. Like many leagues in Central Europe, the Gambrinus liga, (the top tier of Czech football), cease playing during the period when harsh winter weather is most likely to occur. There had therefore been no matches since the very beginning of December. It is ironic that this winter has been so unusually mild in the Czech Republic, that matches could have continued to be played right through the mid-season break.

Immediately behind where the Chaplaincy Flat is located, is the stadium of FK Dukla Praha, one of the four . . . → Read More: FK Dukla Praha vs. FK Teplice

Prague Zoo

A ring-tailed lemur in Prague Zoo © Ricky Yates

Prague Zoo has always been one of our favourite places to visit on my ‘day-off’, ever since we moved to the Czech Republic nearly four years ago. It isn’t really feasible to see everything in one visit and, depending on the time of year, different animals and birds are more willing to show themselves each time we visit. And all the time, there are new developments at the zoo, some being the result of ongoing repairs to the damage caused by severe flooding in August 2002. Realising that we hadn’t visited Prague Zoo at all in 2012, we put it on our ‘staycation to visit list’ and we duly visited once more on Wednesday 18th July.

Prague Zoo is located directly across the Vltava River from where we live. Part of the fun . . . → Read More: Prague Zoo

A local derby football match

My ticket for Bohemians 1905 versus FK Dukla Praha © Ricky Yates

On Sunday 16th October, after celebrating the Eucharist at St. Clement’s Church and chairing a meeting of the Church Council, I went with eight of the guys I play cricket with, to watch a local derby football match – Bohemians 1905 versus FK Dukla Praha. The game was part of the tenth round of matches in the 2011-2012 season of the Gambrinus liga, the top division of Czech football. For the benefit of my American and Australian readers, the sport I am talking about is what you call ‘soccer’ but everybody else in the world calls ‘football’ or fotbal in Czech.

Bohemians’ emblem & mascot is a kangaroo. This apparently dates from a tour the club did to Australia in 1927 when they were given two live kangaroos which they donated to Prague Zoo. One . . . → Read More: A local derby football match