Kids in Prague

Candle Factory, Crafts & Animal Farm, Sestajovice by Prague

Activities on 14 January 2013 by Darina

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I don’t really know where to start. With the animal farm, or candle crafts for kids or the candle shop, or with a tour around the Candle factory .with the lingering smell of beautiful lavender that follows you thoroughout the whole visit and home. For me this was in the middle of nowhere (sorry all respectable citizens of Sestajovice :-) and the entrance looked rather - OMG, where did I drag my family to this time. But when we entered a yard full of animal huts with REAL animals - I knew this was going to be good.

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The boys immediately ran off to see all the animals; pigs with piglets, goats, sheep, pigeons - you name it. We went there right before Christmas when the snow was melting and the boys got wet in the first 3 seconds. Imagine how nice it must be in warm weather. Even like this it has no weak spot. When the darkness fell the garden was lit up in Christmas lights and all I was missing was mulled wine. I will mention the farm later on because I just want to move on to the great experience of candle dipping.

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They have a cafe in the shop right next to the candle factory. It’s all in wood creating a warm atmosphere. Inside the cafe visitors make their own coloured candles or scent candles. Imagine the kids here. They are taken to a HUGE metal table with warm wax of all colours. They get an average white candle and can color it in any way by dipping it in different pots with hot wax.

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Give a child sand and water and you have peace for at least an hour. Here, leave your kids to dip candles and you wont hear the end of it till Christmas :-). Every candle costs 10 CZK which is peanuts. You colour it and keep it Gift wrapped. You can imagine what all our family members will get from the boys for Christmas….. yes, self coloured and decorated candles. Funny enough, I could not drag Nikki away from it, and he kept on dipping and dipping until his candle became BLACK from all the layers of colours he put on…

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After this there is a special table where you pour hot wax on the coloured candle to make it more stable. I think it looked like a small miracle for kids. Hot wax, I mean - safely warm, getting cold in 3 seconds. Just like that. I remember I used to love to play with candles when I was a teenager, burning the wax and let it drip and create different shapes. ( Yes, I do take pills for that… :-)

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Another thing they do is to make your own scent candles. They give you a small candle in a flower plastic cup that has enough space around to add. You choose a scent ( lavender, vanilla, lemon, orange, mint…) and you pour hot wax over it and let it cool down. Again, this you take home. Is it really so simple to make a nice smelling candle?? Yes it is!

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Here in the factory you get everything for very little money because they are Wholesalers. They supply quality candles to big supermarket chains. We were told they just left the Kaufland chain, because they were pushing them down with the prices and the owner Daniela didn’t want to go down with quality after 23 years of running this business. Yes, that’s the spirit. Instead of gasoline smelling candles you get a nice smell of wax from candles Rodas Factory.

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Alert for School Principals and Teachers!!! They have s special room for schools. They charge 50 CZK per school aged child and 80 CZK per kindergarten aged child (they say it’s more work and responsibility with the little ones and I believe them. The excursion includes creating candles and also crayons, and.. they take their creations home with them, so really - the price is very symbolic. They can arrange transportation if needed. I am going to talk to our Headmaster about organising an excursion here knowing how much my boys enjoyed the experience - it worked for me.

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The owner already has a licence for cosmetics. Perfumes, soaps etc…For now they produce Bath Salts with different scents. They have special plastic containers in the cafe craft area where you can fill up your own little foil bag or plastic bottle with different Bath Salts. You can mix colour and scents. The plastic bottle costs only 40 CZK - FILLED. We are big fans of Bath Salts because Marcus is allergic to any chemicals except salts. It helps his ectopic eczema. Also, if Bath Salts are used correctly at a certain temperature - it has a tremendous effect on your body and health. If you would buy such a bottle in a regular shop you would pay at a minimum double what you would pay here. For a second there I was tempted to open my own Christmas stand with their salts and make money. That’s how cheap it is !

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It took us just 30 min by car to get here from the centre of Prague. They are open to the public every Wednesday and Friday 15:00 - 19:00 and Weekends from 10:00 - 18:00

You might as well skip the excursion to the candle factory. First of all it is in Czech and simply quite boring unless you are interested in viewing automated machines. It all happens in 4 rooms and is more or less fully automatic. I tried to listen and understand but I lost the thread in 3 minutes. With my brain - 3 minutes is pretty good. The candles are not hand crafted so you cannot see people manually painting and creating the pieces. All you will see are machines and from time to time some of them will be switched on and candles will be coming out of it - already made. The kids were totally bored and in 1 minute they were looking for trouble.

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I almost forgot!!! In the cafe they do paraffin hand wraps., now I am not sure if this is a correct English expression. You dip your hands in a warm wax bath, take it in and out a few times until you get a layer of wax on your hands. Like this you remain for 10 min. My manicure lady charges 150 CZK for this in her salon, here it costs 55 CZK and you get as many as layers as you want (my lady in Prague only does 2-3). It’s supposed to be kind on you hands, warms up the joints and smooths your skin. It felt really good. You have my recommendation on that. In Czech it is called:“Parafinovy zabal” so this is what you have to ask for.

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Now back to the Farm . I was really wondering.. why the farm? I have been told by the owner it is their son’s hobby. When he was 6 his best friend was a goat. Now he is 21 and has around 30 animals he looks after. A natural born farmer I guess :-) hes managed to create a great display of farm animals for kids and make the place more attractive for the visitors. The whole family takes part in candle making and their son was present at the candle dipping, looking after us, meanwhile the owner was performing the tours.

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From time to time they publish a discounted offer on one of the most popular Czech webs http://www.slevomat.cz and in January they will publish a special offer for the whole family for a crayon making workshop. My girlfriend who brought me here had a voucher for 150 CZK which included a family ticke for 4, 4x tea or coffee, 4 cookies, 4 white candles for dipping, 4 scented candles and the excursion… peanuts! I will try to update you when the offer comes through again. I definitely want to go back with my boys because they enjoyed it so much.

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OPEN: Wed and Fri: 15:00 – 19:00, Sat and Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00

ADDRESS: Rodas - Na Balkáně 211, Šestajovice, 250 92

FURTHER INFORMATION: http://www.rodas.cz/?lang=en