Central Europe Greenways


This week Let's Travel Radio goes to Central Europe to introduce a new lifestyle program in the area of "sustainable travel" - the Greenways Project from people who are directly involved with the project. This is the first of its kind in Central Europe encompassing the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria, and Slovakia.









What we'll be exploring

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Central European Greenways

Greenways are routes, trails or natural corridors used in harmony with their ecological function. They foster the preservation of natural and cultural heritage, provide options for safe transportation, recreation and tourism, and encourage a healthier lifestyle. Greenways bring local people and businesses together with regional and state governments to work towards improvement of their communities.

The Central European Greenways span the five countries listed in the map to the right. One of the Greenways in particular is the Prague-Vienna Greenway. The Prague-Vienna Greenways let you take a journey along centuries-old salt, silver and amber trade routes, allowing you to discover the most interesting, off-the-beaten path places, closed off for forty years behind the Iron Curtain. You visit castles and historic villages and admire the architectural monuments, some declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Walk or bike through fragrant meadows, watch rare birds fly over peaceful fields. Taste fine Moravian wines and varieties of hearty Czech beer and attend concerts and festivals of high quality and fun. And...meet local people!





Guests

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Suzanna Halsey, Public Relations Director
Halsey New York


Administrator, project coordinator, public relations Born and bred in Czechoslovakia. Graduated from the Charles University in Prague. Woman of many trades: She worked as a editor in a publishing house in Prague before she came to the USA in 1978. She studied filmmaking at NYU and worked several years as film/ video editor. She produced several cultural shows at the Symphony Space and a reading series at the World Financial Center. She also translates and teaches Czech. She joined the Friends of Czech Greenways in 1995. She is a chronic cross-cultural matchmaker of smart, talented and positive people.











Lubomir Chmelar, Founder and Director
Friends of Czech Greenways


Lubomir Chmelar and his wife Tiree spent the last 15 years tirelessly promoting worldwide the Czech Greenways program and cultural sustainable tourism to the Czech Republic.

Inspired by the Hudson River Valley Greenway in New York State, Chmelar and his wife Tiree co-founded in 1990 an organization called Greenways-Zelene stezky in Czechoslovakia and in cooperation with local enthusiasts they developed the Prague-Vienna Greenways, a network of hiking and biking trails to draw tourists out of Prague and to the countryside. The objective was to help develop local economy and revitalize the communities through sustainable tourism. These efforts included an emphasis on preservation of environmental and cultural heritage.

The Chmelars facilitated several exchange programs and assistance from organizations such as the Rockefellers Brothers Fund, the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the World Monuments Fund. They lobbied for the Lednice-Valtice Estates to become a UNESCO Heritage Site. In 1993, New York Governor Mario Cuomo declared Prague-Vienna Greenway a sister greenway to the Hudson River Valley Greenway.

Since its conception, the Prague-Vienna Greenways became the most successful program of Nadace Partnerstvi in Brno and a model for other greenways projects not only in the Czech Republic, but also in other Central European countries. Thanks to the Chmelars, the Prague-Vienna GW Association was established and now has 30 members - local community organizations, towns, and cultural and business groups and individuals working together.

In 1994, Lubomir and Tiree Chmelar founded a non-profit organization Friends of Czech Greenways (FCG) in New York City to represent and promote the Czech Greenways program abroad with main focus on the United States and Canada. An ongoing promotion of the Czech Greenways program included presentations at the Czech Embassy, the Czech Center, the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Rails Europe and the East-Coast Greenways Alliance. Chmelar and his wife Tiree also gave presentations in England, India and South Africa.

Since 1990 many articles about the Czech Greenways program appeared in publications such as the National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, British Airways in-flight magazine High-Life, Home and Garden, Transformations Abroad, Adventure Cyclist and Frommer’s Budget Travel.

In 1998, Chmelar and his wife were runners–up for the Conde Nast Ecotourism Award.







David Farley, Travel Writer and Author


David Farley is the author of An Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church's Strangest Relic in Italy's Oddest Town (Penguin/Gotham Books), a travel memoir/narrative history about farley's bizarre, intriguing, and sometimes humorous search for one of Christianity's most curious relics: the foreskin of Jesus.

He's the co-editor of Travelers' Tales Prague and the Czech Republic, an anthology of literary nonfiction about the Czech capital and its environs. His travel essays have also appeared in the books, The Best Travel Writing 2009, The Best Travelers' Tales 2004 and 30 Days in Italy. In 2005, farley's story, "Natural Born Pig Killers," won a Lowell Thomas Award, which recognizes excellence in travel writing; a year later, his story, "Of Kings and Cows" was named one of the notable travel stories in The Best American Travel Writing 2006.

farley spends his time eating, drinking, traveling and then writing about it. He writes the "Moveable Feast" column for the Travel Channel's WorldHum.com. His work also appears in the travel sections of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The Chicago Tribune, as well as the magazines Conde Nast Traveler, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, Playboy, GQ, New York magazine, Time Out New York, National Geographic Adventure, and National Geographic Traveler, among other publications. He's talked about his travels on the Fine Living network, as well as on radio stations all over North America.

Besides writing about himself in the third person, farley enjoys doing public speaking stints from time to time. He's lectured to hundreds at the Smithsonian Institution and the New York Times Travel Show. He's given lectures on writing at bookstores around New York City. And he teaches writing at New York University and Gotham Writers' Workshop.

He's also worked as the Nightlife Editor at BlackBook magazine and the New York City Restaurant Editor for Gayot.com.

After stints in San Francisco, Rome, Paris, and Prague, farley now lives with his wife and their dog Abraham Lincoln in New York City. He's the founder of the Restless Legs Reading Series. And he's also an awesome dancer.







Michael Seltzer, Founder
Business Enterprises for Sustainable Travel


Michael Seltzer is a founder of the Business Enterprises for Sustainable Travel, BEST, also known as BEST, a pioneering effort to make global tourism industry a leader in sustainable practices, to stimulate investment in the livelihoods of people and the preservation of the environment, culture, and heritage of destination communities. He is currently an advisor to both US-based and international foundations. He is also a senior counsel for a public policy and communication company Rabin Strategy Partners.