Prague Excursions

One of the benefits of studying abroad is the ability to venture outside your host city and explore the surrounding area. Excursions are offered for all semester, year, and summer programs. Semester students are typically offered two to three excursions and summer students are typically offered one to two excursions. You will receive a calendar of the specific CEA excursions offered for your program during orientation. To give you an idea of the possibilities, we have collected typical experiences from some of the day trips and weekend tours offered to our students in the past.

Kraków and Auschwitz - Birkenau (Semester Only)

Kraków ranks with Prague, Vienna and Budapest as one of the architectural gems of Central Europe. Unlike its neighbor, Warsaw, Krakow miraculously escaped unscathed from WWII. Students will tour the main sights of this UNESCO World Heritage site including Rynek Glówny, the largest town square in medieval Europe and the hub of the city since 1257; Cloth Hall, the world’s oldest shopping mall which has been in business for 700 years; St. Mary's Basilica with its giant Gothic alter carved from wood by Veit Stoss and the cathedral, royal chambers, stately rooms and beautiful arcaded courtyard of Wawel Castle, home to three dynasties of Poland's monarchs. In the old Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, the Old Synagogue and the Remuh Synagogue and cemetery will remind students that the area was once a thriving Jewish community. The Schindler's List Tour will introduce sites which are both historical and recognizable scenes from Spielberg's movie about the Nazi occupation of Kraków, including Oskar Schindler's factory. The tour of the Martyrdom Museum in Auschwitz-Birkenau is one of the most sobering experiences and yet it remains a must-see. Camp buildings, barbed wire fences, watchtowers, and the entrance gate inscribed "Arbeit Macht Frei" all remain to bear witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust. The last century has been very rocky for Poland, so seeing it now makes for a unique experience.

Plzeň

The West Bohemian town of Plzeň (Pilsen, in English) is one of the biggest in the Czech Republic outside of Prague. On a day trip to Plzeň, you will get to visit the second largest synagogue in Europe and learn about the once-thriving Jewish community of the Czech Republic; see the Pilsner Urquell Brewery’s museum to learn about the Bohemian tradition of beer-making; and visit the monument to the liberation of the city by American troops at the end of World War II. The city’s main square, with St. Bartholomew's Cathedral at its center, is surrounded by shops and cafés. Recently, it’s been tapped by the European Union to be the European capital of culture in 2015.

Kutná Hora

Imagine that you are standing in one of the more important financial centers of the world - the place that provides the region with its common currency of exchange, and that stands at the middle of a global trade network. London in 1844? New York in 1964? No, you’re in Kutná Hora in the 14th century. Larger than London at that time, Kutná Hora was the center – geographic as well as economic – of a trade network that spanned Europe and reached across the spice routes to the Middle and Far East. The silver deposits that were mined in Kutná Hora were minted into groschen (a later currency from the region, called the tolar, was the origin of the word “dollar”). This was one of the most broadly exchanged currencies in medieval Europe, valued for its reliably high metal content. Kutná Hora’s place on the stage of world history did not last – ravaged by plague, religious wars, and the destruction of most of its silver mines, the town sank into centuries of neglect. If you visit Kutná Hora with CEA, you’ll see a beautiful, well-preserved medieval town, now protected and preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site. You’ll don a white miner’s cape, similar to that worn centuries ago, to tour the old silver mines, visit the gothic-style Church of Saint Barbora, and see the nearby “bone church” – the ossuary decorated in the 19th century with elaborate arrangements of the bones of the tens of thousands of victims of the Black Death and Hussite religious wars.

Karlovy Vary

Beethoven, Casanova, Chopin, Freud, Kafka, Mozart, Tolstoi and Wagner have all taken a dip in the hot springs of Karlovy Vary, one of Central Europe's most famous spa towns. Legend has it that King Charles IV came upon the springs in 1360 and promptly named the area in honor of himself. Students will walk around the historical city center and visit some charming stores and boutiques. They can even purchase crystal glasses at the Moser glass factory before having a typical Czech lunch of Smažený Sýr (fried cheese) in the famous Thermal hotel. In the afternoon, CEA will spend a couple of hours at the open-air swimming pool in the hotel, filled with natural thermal water. After returning to Prague in the early evening they still have time to go to the university disco with some with some Czech friends.