2016 is the year of the 700th anniversary of Charles IV. Charles IV. (1316 – 1378), the Bohemian king and the emperor of the Holy Roman empire of the German nation presents an outstanding personality of Bohemian and the European history. He was an ambitious ruler, a farsighted politician with a fine urbanistic vision.

         All over the year 2016 there will be a series of interesting actions and events, exhibitions and historical reconstructions, meetings, conferences and special touristic programs in Prague. The aim of these actions is to remind our tourists about this historical event and to show an outstanding personality of Charles IV and his great role in the European history. 

  A new museum of diamonds has recently opened in Prague, Czech Republic. Located in the very heart of Prague Old Town, near the Pincas synagogue, the Diamond museum was created for all admirers of that kind of precious stones, the first and only of its kind in the Czech Republic. A voyage through the age-old history of diamonds awaits you in the exhibition. They may date back 3,5 billion years. Local guides explain how they are created and the journey which takes them from mining, processing, cutting, sorting and a final assessment to the dazzling jewelry of today. Every visitor of the exhibition will receive a lended iPad and disposable headphones. The iPad serves as a map and source of information /text and audio/ on individual displays. The disposable headphones and iPad rental are included in the admission price. Also the guests of the Diamond museum can visit a Diamond cafe, a Souvenir shop and a brilliant shop where you can buy beautiful jewelry and single diamonds from an Israel factory. 

  Have you ever tasted real Mozart sweet chocolate balls? When you visit Salzburg, Austria you will never miss visiting the Furst cafe near the Mozart square. Of course you will say these are sweet delights in the form of balls in the red foil wrapper. The original Mozartkugeln sweets appeared in Salzburg when confectioner Paul Fuerst opened a small cafe in 13, Brodgasse, Salzburg . In 1890 Paul Fuerst created the now world famous Salzburger Mozartkugel. The original name of the candies was Mozartbonbon and later the name of the chocolate balls was changed into Mozartkugeln. He chose the name Mozartkugeln because of Mozart, a great son of Salzburg. And the quality and the fine taste of this new speciality, which brought the Mozartkugeln such a great success.

    In 1905 Fuerst was awarded a gold medal for his productin in the Paris international exhibition. The main ingredients of Mozartkugeln are pistachio marzipan, nougat and dark chocolate. In the sixties of the last century several companies from Austria, Germany and Switzerland started copying the production of the chocolate balls which made Norbert Fuerst, the present owner, appeal to the European court. The Mirabell company of Salzburg produced ball sweets with the name Real Salzburg Mozartkugeln, a Swiss company produced same chocolate balls with the name of Original Austria Mozartkugeln and a Bavarian company copied the product with the name Real Reber Mozartkugeln. 

    The decision of the European Commitee was the following: the Bavarian company Reber should produce the ball sweets with the name Genuine Reber Mozart-Kugeln (with a hyphen in-between). Only the original Fuerst company ball sweets could be of blue foil wrapper. The Mirabell Mozartkugeln company from Salzburg was authorized by the EC Commissioner in Brussels that the ball sweets are to be round. Other industrially produced Mozartkugeln sweets should have at least one side flat. Norbert Fuerst still makes these fine chocolates today according to the old recipe and method handed over to him by his great grandfather. For this reason, this can truly be called original Salzburger Mozartkugel.

    In 2006 artists designed 80 oversized polyester Mozartkugeln of 1,6 meter in diameter and placed them in the old town of Salzburg. In March of the same year vandals released one of these Mozartkugeln from Franziscanergasse where it had been bolted to the ground. Then the vandals rolled it onto the street causing damage of several thousand euros. Cafe-Konditorei Fuerst, Salzburg www.original-mozartkugel.com

 A new film was recently released called Krampus. People who did not travel to German speaking countries in the Advent time can hardly know this name. He has other names as Christmas Devil, Bad Santa: a half-goat, half-demon, horrific beast who literally beats people into being nice and not naughty. Krampus isn't exactly the stuff of dreams: bearing horns, dark hair and fangs, the anti-St. Nicholas comes with a chain and bells that he lashes about, along with a bundle of birch sticks meant to swat naughty children. He then hauls the bad kids down to the underworld. Krampus, whose name is derived from the German word krampen, meaning claws, is said to be the son of Hell in Scandinavian mythology. 

The legendary beast also shares characteristics with other scary, demonic creatures in Greek mythology, including satyrs and fauns. Christmas celebrations begin in early December. Krampus was created as a counterpart to kindly St. Nicholas, who rewarded children with sweets. Krampus, in contrast, would swat "wicked" children and take them away to his lair. According to folklore, Krampus supposedly shows up in towns the night before December 6, known as Krampusnacht, or Krampus Night. December 6 also happens to be St. Nicholas Day, when German children look outside their door to see if the shoe they had left out the night before contains either presents (a reward for good behavior) or a rod (bad behavior).

 In Germany and Austria there are so called Krampuslauf, or Krampus run, the processions of Devils. Some people wearing the masks of devils could have inherited them from their grand dads and some of the devil costumes could cost over one thousand euros. A more modern tradition in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic involves drunken men dressed as devils, who take over the streets for a Krampuslauf—a Krampus Run of sorts, when people are chased through the streets by the "devils." In the Czech Republic St.Nicolas is accompanied by the devil and the angel. The angel gives some presents to good children and the devil threatens to put naughty children into a bag and haul them down into the hell. 

 Why scare children with a demonic, pagan monster? Maybe it's a way for humans to get in touch with their animalistic side and revitalize pagan traditions. The person dressed as the beast "becomes mysterious," as coming from the other reality. Krampus's frightening presence was suppressed for many years—the Catholic Church forbade the raucous celebrations, and fascists in World War II Europe found Krampus despicable because it was considered a creation of the Social Democrats. But Krampus is making a comeback now, thanks partly to a "bah, humbug" attitude in pop culture, with people searching for ways to celebrate the Advent period in a non-traditional way. In the US people are buying into the trend with Krampus parties. Monday night's episode of, called "Minstrel Krampus”, "highlighted” the growing movement of Anti-Christmas celebretions. For its part, Austria is attempting to commercialize the harsh person of Krampus by selling chocolates, figurines, and collectible horns. So there are already complaints that Krampus is becoming too commercialized.

                                      Regensburg in Eastern Bavaria is considered the oldest German city. If you traveled to Regensburg you approach it by Steinernbrucke or the Romanesque stone bridge of the 12th century. The north end of the bridge was formerly the border between the Duchy (later Electorate) of Bavaria and the Free Imperial City of Regensburg. At the highest point of the bridge is a stone carving called the Bruckmandl or Brückenmännchen (bridge mannikin), a largely naked young man shielding his eyes with one hand and with an inscription reading "Schuck wie heiß" (likely a reference to the hot summer when the bridge was begun. He has been said to symbolise the city's freedoms and its emancipation from the control of the Bishop. He has also been said to represent the bridge builder, and another figure on the cathedral to represent the cathedral builder. He was originally seated on the roof of a mill, and now sits itself on the roof of a miniature toll-house on the bridge.The current version is the third. The original was replaced in 1579; the current statue was erected on 23 April 1854.The 1579 statue, which lost its legs and arms in the fighting in 1809, is in the Regensburg Historical Museum.There was formerly a crucifix on the bridge which was removed in 1694. According to a legend the two heads made a bet who will finish the construction first. The master of the bridge construction asked a devil to help him finish the construction of the bridge before. The condition of the devil was that three first souls passing through the bridge would belong to the hell. The bridge master agreed and soon the construction of the bridge was finished. Before the commissioning of the bridge when well known people of the city could participate in the ceremony the master confessed to a local priest about nis deal with the devil. The priest was a wise man and he decided that the devil had not specified if it would be a human or animal soul to belong to the devil and he ordered to put a donkey, a dog and a goose before the people procession. The bridge also has a number of other sculptures: full statues of Emperor Friedrich II(standing on a masked head with ram's horns, and originally on the now demolished north tower; the current statue is a 1930 replica), Philip of Swabia and his wife Qween Irene (both enthroned and originally on the middle tower; Philip's sculpture is a replica) and reliefs including various arms (including both the city and the bridge itself), heads that may be those of the original builder and the rebuilders later in the Middle Ages, a lizard,a basilisk,a weasel,a lion (replaced with a replica in 1966),two roosters fighting and a reclining dog.There were also originally an apotropaic mask and a Roman sculpture of a winged lion on the middle tower.The roosters and the dog have been related to the legend about the building of the bridge; alternatively the Bruckmandl, the basilisk, the dog, the three heads and a now lost "small stone within a large stone" which was in the floor of the watchman's hut next to the middle tower have all been interpreted as Christian symbolism indicating that the bridge was the work of a school of clerical architects.