Curious Pelhrimov -- the Czech 'town of records'

For fifteen years running now, the sleepy little central Bohemian town of Pelhrimov has been home to a summer festival of controlled record-breaking madness. Here, one minute you may see a teenage ballerina attempt to stand on her tippy toes - or bouree, as it's known in the dance world - longer than Balanchine ever dreamt possible; on the other side of the town square, perhaps, is a man preparing to quaff down 100 raw eggs in ten minutes flat. There to record it all for posterity - and perhaps for entry into the elite club of Czech record holders or even the Guinness Book of World Records - are the good folks at the Dobry Den (Good Day) agency.

Automated tour guide: "The International Festival of Records and Curiosities - known as Pelhrimov: Town of Records -- is the biggest event of its kind in Europe. You can see not only dozens of record attempts, but also, even if you just start off as a spectator, you might very well finish up as a record holder."

Before venturing into the historic city tower gate that now houses the Pelhrimov Museum of Records and Curiosities - and a tour from the president of the agency that runs it - I stop to listen to a preview of what's to come from an automated tour guide, posted just outside the imposing gothic structure.

Automated tour guide:"One of the exhibits of the Museum of Records and Curiosities - a giant stainless steel frying pan with a diameter of two meters - established several records already. Cooks from the 'Dobry Den' agency in Pelhrimov made an omelet on it, using 1,001 eggs; it was used for frying the longest sausage, and a two-meter potato pancake."

Over the years, Radio Prague has reported on Czech record holders of all sorts.

"A Czech cartographic company has produced the smallest map of the Czech Republic ever made. You'll literally have the Czech Republic at your fingertips with a map that is 3 centimetres times 1.7 centimetres big. Although it is minute, it contains all the information you would find on a full size map. If you magnify it 100 ties you will find even the smallest villages and if you magnify it one thousand times you will be able clearly distinguish the streets of Prague..."

We've reported on the guy who spent more than 24 hours in the Vltava River and covered a distance of 90 kilometres seemingly without breaking a sweat, for a new world record in fresh-water distance swimming, or the country's fastest postman - who, and you can be sure it's no coincidence - hails from Pelhrimov and in the course of 9 hours and 36 minutes made 200 deliveries to twenty different towns and villages in the region.

Automated tour guide:"A sure and firm hand was called for when archer Frantisek Hadar managed to shoot off - 23 times in a row - a flame of a cake candle, placed at a distance of ten meters, in a candlestick from an apple."

So it was with no small feeling of anticipation that I entered the museum with Czech record guru Miroslav Marek, president of the 'Dobry Den' agency, which is in charge of entering new records into the Guinness Book of Records in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The festival of records has been going for fifteen years while the museum itself has been open to the public now for nearly twelve years.

"Its five floors are packed with some 300 curious objects: giant-sized versions of everyday objects, like a wooden spoon that doubles as a rowboat or the coffee cup that holds nine litres [enough coffee to get fifty-four people wired in short order ]..."

The world's single largest set of pajamas, which sleep 280 people, albeit rather uncomfortably, can be seen here, as can be the smallest motorcycle in Central Europe, built by the region's own Ales Spirman, and a fully functioning bicycle made entirely of wood.

Yes, wood.

Automated tour guide:"Not only a frame, wheels and handlebars, but also a chain and a pump made of wood, can be found on a bicycle made by Ludovit Lenart. The bike took more than 4,000 hours to make and can now be seen at the Museum of Records and Curiosities."

There are also documentary photographs everywhere, of course, of successful attempts to set new Czech -- and world - records in the oddest of categories. And this being the Czech Republic, there is an entire exhibition devoted to beer.

Miroslav Marek: "The Czechs are a beer drinking nation; we are written in the Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest consumers of beer. People here, according to statistics, on average drink 162 litres of beer each year - that means for each and every person: grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and nursing babies. So, we are really fans of beer from infancy."

Among the beer-flavoured records set in Pelhrimov and documented or housed in the museum: the world's largest beer coaster, with a diameter of 80 centimetres, part of a series of one thousand coasters. Now if you are thinking that for a world record, that doesn't seem all that big - as I was - think again.

"It is true, of course, that probably it would be possible to make a bigger one - but it isn't at all easy, you know. It isn't easy to make such a large press all at once from this type of coaster paper. And in any case, not a series of one thousand, which was a condition, set by Guinness, for contenders."

Who knew?

Automated tour guide:"And I wonder if you know that a unique men's suit shown here is made up of 25,751 sewn-up buttons."

Don't these people have anything better to do with their free time? Like woodcarver Josef Sumera, for example, who fashioned a 16.10 metre-long chain of 480 links from a single piece of wood. Sure, it's the fourth-longest in the world and the longest in the Czech Republic... but what's the motivation?

" It may look that way at first, that these people haven't enough work and spend their time with nonsense. [laughs] But it's a bit different, really. The majority of these exhibits are by people who are masters of their particular craft - they know something truly very well - and want to, in some way, call attention to the fact. Making that wooden chain was very difficult work because you must think not only of the link you are working on but the next one to come. So contenders show their talent by making something absolutely out of the ordinary, maybe even absurd, to show that, for example, Mr Sumera is truly an excellent woodcarver."

Automated tour guide:"The snake woman, Milena Siskova, managed to show nine different acrobatic stands - each for at least ten seconds - on a carpet covered with broken glass...."

Then there's Jindrich Zobl - the master of whip cracking who can, of course, like any cowboy worth his salt, strip the cigarette straight from his lovely assistant's lips. Zobl fell short of the world record for doing this as many times as humanly possible within 3 minutes, by a single stroke - but not for want of trying.

But wait; that's not all: drum roll please!

Automated tour guide:"The most exciting exhibition of the Century, presents over 80 works made, incredibly, from more than one half million multi-coloured matches."

Wow. What could possibly top that?

The 9-metre long set of pajamas, which sleeps 280? Or maybe the longest scarf in the world - knit by readers of the 'Practicka Zena' (Practical woman) magazine, which stretches 158 kilometres, from Pelhrimov to Prague?

No, in this reporter's humble opinion, it just may be the biggest lollipop ever made in the Czech Republic, a 12 kilo treat crafted especially for the popular singer Karel Gott - who, says museum director Miroslav Marek, is rumoured to have actually licked it.

"By now, it is probably not edible, because it's over 30 years old. But, yes, I think Gott tasted it."

But don't take my word for it; go see for yourself. No fewer than 62 world records were broken this summer at the Festival of Records and entry to the Museum of Records and Curiosities in Pelhrimov is free of charge -- although some restrictions do apply.

Automated tour guide:"It's possible to enter this unique museum - the only one of its kind in Central Europe - without paying a single penny: Giants over 205 centimetres tall, adult dwarves under 135 centimetres, and fat people, with a waistline of over 145 centimetres, are allowed to see the museum free of charge."