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It’s January and every hotel in Ostrava is fully booked. So what’s pulling the crowd to a city that many Czechs wouldn’t visit for free? The answer is simple: Ostrava is playing host to the European Championship in Figure Skating. Join Radio Prague on a trip to the city with a bad reputation.

Čáslav is a small town 70 kilometres east of Prague, which lies not far from the historical town of Kutná Hora. Situated in the flat plains which lie to the west of the Iron Mountains, or Železné hory, Čáslav has a history spanning back to the 9th century.

The town of Kutná Hora lies just 50 kilometres east of Prague, and is a popular destination for tourists venturing outside the capital in search of more of the Czech Republic’s historical treasures.

Nymburk is a small town located about 30 kilometres north-east of Prague. It is situated on the banks of the Elbe river, which flows westwards from its source in the Krkonoše mountains, and along an area of vast plains stretching from beyond Hradec Králové all the way into Prague. Nymburk lies at the heart of this absolutely flat landscape – there’s not a single hill in sight here.

Mělník is a small town just 30 kilometers north of Prague, situated at the point where the Vltava flows into the mighty Elbe river. It’s the kind of place a visitor can easily pass through without actually seeing – or get the wrong impression from a mere cursory glance.

Roudnice nad Labem is a small, picturesque town situated on the banks of the Elbe river, about 30 kilometers north of Prague. As much as Roudnice is worth the visit to see the historical sights, it’s the spectacular views of the not far off České středohoří or Central Bohemian Uplands that really makes a trip here worthwhile.

Aš is a town in the far north-west of the Czech Republic, and is part of the so-called Ašský výběžek – or Aš panhandle – a protrusion of land surrounded by Germany on three sides. The panhandle extends from the city of Cheb in the south all the way up to the town of Hranice at the northernmost tip. Located in the middle of the panhandle, Aš is situated just one kilometre from the Bavarian border to the west, and about five kilometres from the German state of Saxony to the east.

Terezín is a small (tentative) UNESCO Heritage Site town in the Ústí nad Labem Region about 80 kilometres north-west of Prague. The town is situated on the banks of the Ohře river, about a kilometre away from the point at which the Ohře flows into the mighty Elbe river, and the same distance away from the much larger nearby town of Litoměřice. Of course, since WWII, Terezín has been associated with the notorious Theresienstadt concentration camp established by the SS.

Sněžka is the highest summit in the Czech Republic, and is found in the Krkonoše mountains in the far north-east of Bohemia. The Krkonoše mountains are synonymous with wintertime skiing in the country. Between roughly December and February, the numerous ski slopes there are filled with tourists from the Czech Republic, as well as Poland and Germany. The central hub for this is the tourist town of Špindlerův Mlýn. But Sněžka is best to visit after the snows have thawed...

If you add the ending “sko” to the names of a number of Czech towns and cities, then this is often the name for a larger area – or micro-region – also encompassing the surrounding countryside. One such example of this is Chebsko – the informal name for the region around the far western Bohemian city of Cheb.