Textile & Culture Tour of Czech Republic & Hungary

Tour Details

• Country: Czech Republic, Hungary
• Duration: 19 Days/18 Nights
• Guiding: Guided
• Type: Art & Culture
• Rated:

Description

This tour will be a mix of visits to museums and active crafts centres. We will go back 27000 years and come up to the present. It takes in some of the Czech Republic’s most beautiful countryside.

Land content cost per person twin share 6-10 people $5232, 11–15 people $4167
Single supplement $857

Day 1 May 22 Sunday Individual arrival in Prague (transfers from airport can be arranged)
Day 2 May 23 Monday Day in Prague to recover and explore Prague at your leisure. The Jewish Museum has some interesting embroideries, Obecni Dum is open. Zoe is happy to accompany people if they wish.

Day 3 May 24 Tuesday 10 am depart Prague by train to Olomouc arriving 12.15. Drop off bags at 3* Hotel Palac before walking into Olomouc with guide. The hotel is on the tramline which links the train station and the city centre. There is a stop very close to the hotel.
The cathedral and Archbishop’s Museum (the latter has a small but lovely display of ecclesiastical embroideries) are around the corner from the hotel. The hotel is 5 minutes walk from the Baroque city and only 12 minutes from the main square, with its collection of fine Baroque fountains and sculptures including the UNESCO listed Marian column – the largest group of Baroque statues within a single monument in Central Europe and the 15th Century Town Hall.
http://tourism.olomouc.eu
The Vila Primavesi is an Art Nouveau villa with decoration by Hanak, Klimt and Hoffman. Most of the building is closed to the public, but you can have a coffee and a cake in the restaurant on the ground floor.
Dinner at The Konvikt Restaurant of the Palacky University Art Centre in the Baroque Jesuit Seminary (the oldest building in the university).
Day 4 May 25 Weds Drive to Uherske Hradiste Museum (journey time 1hr 15mins) – large collection of traditional costumes and textiles http://www.slovackemuzeum.cz/english/614/. After museum visit walk into town – time to visit two shops selling traditional materials, costumes and ribbons and/or have lunch.
Drive (35 min) to Zlin Bata Shoe Museum, where more than a thousand exhibits introduce visitors to the history of footwear, footwear manufacture and the craft of shoemaking. The collection follows the development of footwear from the earliest period of Czech history to the present. http://www.czechtourism.com/c/zlin-shoe-museum/ The Czechs have a long-standing reputation for producing high quality leather goods. Zlin is totally unlike other towns and cities on the tour. It is a modernist masterpiece.
1 hr drive to Roznov Pod Radhostem and the superior 4* Eroplan Hotel. The hotel has a very good health spa.
Dinner in hotel.

Day 5 May 26 Thurs 20 min Drive to Valasske Mezerici for visit to Moravian Gobelin Factory. Founded in 1898, the factory is still operating today as a centre devoted to the hand production and restoration of textiles: tapestries, rugs, and theatre curtains. During the visit we will see tapestries being restored and produced by the skilled craftswomen of the factory. Also on display are a number of old looms, carpets and tapestries designed by artists from before World War II to the present. More information: http://www.gobelin.cz
Return to Roznov for lunch and afternoon at Wallachian Open Air Museum. The Beskydy Mountains area was populated by Wallachians, so the style of architecture and folk costume is unlike other areas of the Czech Republic and Moravia. The Wallachians were shepherds and so the wool and felt manufacture was an important industry.
The Wallachian Open Air Museum is the largest and oldest open-air museum in central Europe. http://www.vmp.cz/en/ The complex contains hundreds of timber structures from the Wallach area and is divided into three areas – the Wooden Town, the Mill Valley and the Wallachian Village. We will be taking a guided tour of the Mill Valley – where you can see a number of traditional water-powered crafts including a working felt mill. Lunch in a traditional Wallachian pub in the Wooden Town where you will be free to explore the buildings and watch craftsmen. You can also explore the Wallachian Village zone,15 minute leisurely walk through a park to the Hotel Eroplan, where we will have dinner.
Day 6 May 27 Fri 2 hr drive to Petrov – short walk around the wine cellar area, http://www.czechtourism.com/g/plze-wine-cellars/ There are about 80 cellars, the exteriors of some of these are decorated with traditional patterns. These are really useful to photograph if you want to use the patterns in an embroidery).

1 hr Drive through the Palava Hills to Dolni Vestonice and the Museum of the Mammoth Hunters. Dolni Vestonice is one of the most important old stone age sites in the the world. It is famous for the Venus of Dolni Vestonice, the oldest ceramic female figure ever found, but you will also see impressions of woven material in fired clay, which pushed back the history of weaving by at least 17,000 years. http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/56/
Lunch might be a picnic by the lake!
40 min drive to Brno. Visit to Gypsy Museum which tells the story of the Roma in the Czech Republic and central Europe. It has a collection of typical gypsy costumes as well as more modern designs. http://www.rommuz.cz/en
Hotel Europa. http://www.hotel-europa-brno.cz/en/ Nice 3* hotel on a quiet street, but within walking distance of the city centre and only 16 mins walk (via a park) from Vila Tugendhat and 10 mins from Vila Low Beer.
Friday evening – walk into city centre for dinner – a short guided tour from Zoe ( if the cymbalon players are at the restaurant we will go there.)

Day 7 May 28th Saturday –
am visit to Villa Tugendhat
Brno is known as the Czech Republic’s Manchester, because of the city’s hugely successful textile industry. Prosperous mill owners invested their profits in the patronage of art and architecture. The city’s most famous building is Mies van der Rohe’s modernist masterpiece the Villa Tugendhat (UNESCO listed). http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/
Tour of the Art Nouveau Loew Beer Villa, which has been restored and there is an exhibition about Mrs Tugendhat’s industrialist family, Brno’s textile industry and the fabric Brno is known as the Czech Republic’s Manchester, because of the city’s hugely successful textile industry. The city’s most famous building is Mies van der Rohe’s modernist masterpiece the Villa Tugendhat (UNESCO listed). http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/
Also planned is a tour of the Art Nouveau Loew Beer Villa, which includes exhibitions about the Brno textile industry and architecture in Brno. http://www.vilalowbeer.cz/en/cultural-offer/exhibition.Museum of Applied Arts has a good Art Nouveau section – Hoffman was a local man

Day 8 29 May Sun 90 min drive to Vlcnov to view the Ride of the Kings at Vlcnov. This spectacular annual folklore festival is recognized by UNESCO for its “Intangible Cultural Heritage”. The culmination of the celebration is the procession of the king and his entourage on adorned horses, which passes through the entire village. The Ride of the Kings is accompanied by performances of folklore ensembles, concerts of wind and dulcimer music, wine testing, a crafts fair, craft demonstrations and exhibition. All the community will be wearing traditional dress, and the King and attendants wear special costumes.
http://www.czechtourism.com/c/unesco-jizda-kralu/
Return to Brno for farewell dinner
Day 9 30 May Mon Train to Bupapest in Hungary

Hungary
30 May to 10 June – 11 days 10 nights

Day 1: Mon 30 May: Arrival Day in Budapest from Czech Republic with transfer train station to hotel – time tba Accommodation & dinner at hotel
Day 2: Tues 31 May: Day with time to explore Budapest on your own, shop, visit the markets, baths or galleries. Included evening boat trip with buffet dinner then photo stop at Gellért Hill and return back to the hotel.
Day 3: Weds 1 June: Guided tour in Goldberger Textile Museum (Budapest) www.tmte.hu/apparelhungary
Castle area walk with guide then free time there with arranged lunch in the castle area next to Matthias Church in the restaurant called PEST-BUDA. Matthias Church inside visit included.
Afternoon: visiting Ígéző viselet varázsa workshop with activities –showing the workshop plus teaching you to make a specific pattern.

Evening free or Hungarian evening with folk dancing show –timing to be decided
Day 4: Thurs 2 June: Inside visit of the Parliament and Museum of Ethnography www.neprajz.hu (located on the same square as the Parliament) other option to see the Museum but no inside visit of the Parliament. Lunch with set menu at the Strudel House .
Afternoon :meet local artist(s) with activities(Szigeti Szilvia Eventuell Galéria ) www.eventuell.hu/szigeti-szilvia-cv You will be met at the gallery with maybe 2-3 other Hungarian artists..Evening meal with set menu and gypsy music at Rézkakas restaurant or Matthias cellar.

Day 5: Fri 3 June: Travel to Hollókő( Northern Hungary) approx 2hrs. and return back to Budapest by 17.00.
Local ladies dressed up in traditional costumes and welcome us with pálinka and scones. There are ‘real living folk traditions” there. We split the group – half of the group learns weaving,other half sees the Doll Museum and the village .Then switch. 3 course lunch at private homes.
En route visit  Heroes’ Square. Evening free.
Day 6: Sat 4 June: Travel to Balaton Lake via Pápa approx 2.5 hrs
Pápa: blue printing museum and blue printing workshop with activities!www.kekfestomuzeum.hu

Accommodation and evening meal in Echo Residence All Suite Hotel in TIHANY.
Day 7: Sun 5 June: Exploring Tihany, rent bikes,swim……etc, dinner and wine tasting at KOCZOR cellar, Accommodation in Echo Suite Tihany.
Day 8: Mon 6 June: Travel to Szeged through Szekszárd and Kalocsa,
We need to cross Balaton by ferry (approx. 5 minutes to take but timetable!) and cross Danube easily on a bridge ,as well. It is a very nice route,not boring at all. Tihany-Szekszárd approx.2,5 hours,Szekszárd-Kalocsa max.1 hour and Kalocsa -Szeged less than 2 hours.
Lunch and wine tasting in Szekszárd(at MÉSZÁROS Winery). Meet local ladies who are involved with local embroidery making in Kalocsa. Kalocsa is a home for the most well-known colourful embroideries of Hungary www.kalocsa-embroidery.com Accommodation in Szeged

Day 9: Tues 7 June: Free morning in Szeged… optional sightseeing walk with guide in the town, duration max. 2,5 hours. Free time for lunch – not included.
In the afternoon:travel to Kiskunhalas and get know everything about HALASI LACE.
www.itshungarian.com/hungarian-secrets/made-in-hungary/this-is-the-lace
Either in Szeged or in Kiskunfélegyháza,we learn how to make SZEGEDI PAPUCS(slipper) from a local man.(we will be pleased to see a man working after all the beautiful textiles made by ladies!) www.szegedipapucs.com/en

Accommodation in Szeged
Day 10: Weds 8 June: Return to Budapest, evening meal with Hungarian Folk music
Day 11: Thurs 9 June: Transfer to station or airport Departure or extension on request