OK, it sounds better in Czech, because it rhymes. But it’s still good advice – work a little, enjoy a little – but if you ask most outside observers, it’s not advice that the Czechs actually follow. It’s more like work a little, then eat, drink, and play a lot. And then drink some more. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other country in the world, about 142 liters per person per year. And it’s very good beer.

Recently I was on walking tour with a local guide in Belgium. When the tour guide asked people where they were from a gentleman, probably in his 70’s, said “Czechoslovakia…I mean Czech Republic. Prague”. And this was 25 years after the Velvet Revolution. It’s a country with a bit of an identity crisis, which is understandable given its history.
As a Slavic people with a Slavic language the Czechs have always had a distinct identity separate from the Germans, but much of their history has been dominated by their German-speaking neighbors.

Today one of the great attractions, aside from the beer, is the well-preserved Germanic-style architecture in many of the cities and towns. Beautiful Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque buildings give you an idea of what the big cities in Germany looked like, before they disappeared into a pile of dust and rubble in the 1940s, a forced redevelopment courtesy of the Allied air forces.