European sites for gemstones.

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I heading to Europe for a couple weeks r &r just wondering if anyone has seen or knows of anywhere to go for gemstones. Would be nice if I could get a tour or something that goes gem fossicking. I am spending time in Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Italy.

I was siting in the travel agent today a a guy pulled a green gem out of a creek about the size of the end of your thumb it said Austria underneath but can't find any thing. Would love to get on a guided tour or something like that would be great. Has anyone be o/s and done a guide your similar to the gold tours here.

I have seen the salt mines in Poland before which are amazing I can say if you are ever in the region you must see it. I will take a couple of pictures as I am heading there again. Love it.

Any info would be great thanks guys.
 
Cheers BB, I have been to Prague before unfortunately going to be in Brno this time so a little out of the way. Looks like a pretty cool place though. Might be worth a detour. A lot to do in one town..
 
If you can rent a car you would be there from Brno in no time. Its mostly freeway and everyone does around 160 km/h+. Keep it under 200 km/h because above that it is a criminal offense. Also try to keep in the left/fast lane as the other side is very bumpy because of the trucks. Just keep looking in the rear view mirror and get out of the way of anyone going faster than you other ways they will be flashing their lights at you. (Just a curtesy).
You may have to rent the car in Czech republic as the rental places usually don't want you taking it across the border due to Russian mafia stealing the car. They are very clever and the car would be in Russia within hours. Make sure you take up insurance.
When are you going? I will try to find out some more stuff for you. I know near Brno was lot of archeological finds from mammoth hunters so the place has a very long history of humans living there.
I speak fluently Czech so let me know if you need anything translated.
 
Hi mate,

you've made me to register to this (great) site :)

There is a heap of places for gem fossicking in the countries you plan to visit.
I just wanted to tell you about the green gem from Austria. I'm pretty sure it's an emerald from Habachtal area (old emerald mine up in the hills in a valley, which starts in Habach village). I was there couple of times, man, it's a beautiful place to make even just a trip. In (European) summer, though. You have no chance to get close enough to the old emerald mine in this time of the year or you will definitelly risk your life for nothing as the snow would be in the hills already. This is a bit dangerous even in the summer, very steep slopes, but still doable and the reward is indescribable (and I'm not talking just about potential finds of nice green emeralds).

Regarding the Czech Republic, I would probably concentrate on some places, where you can find agates (e.g. Kozakov or have a look on ceskeachaty*webnode*cz/lokality/) or garnets (see www*prague-guide*co*uk/articles/czech-garnet.html or "Garnet and other minerals in the shallow-water deposits of the Kutn Hora-Karlov locality "). As a newcomer, I can't post links, so please replace asterisks with dots... There are some bilingual pages, so you can try to google info about localities yourself.

Have a safe trip and good luck!
 
Beauty Pilsner sounds like I have the next holiday for next year sorted. I might need to be there in June for some other reasons so I might just relax this trip but the Habach sounds great. Would love an emerald as clean and the size of this one they pulled out on the video. Limited seasonal access could help to ensure good finds still to come out of there. And die to the nature of the enviroment always replenishing supplies. Also sounds like the sights are going to be just as breath taking as the fossicking.

Also welcome to the site. I am sure you'll find there are great people here and good local knowledge. Cheers again.
 

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