Hilton Prague Old Town

... restaurant called Pavlac Cafe. I had ham and eggs with a coffee and orange juice and it was awesome. I got 3 eggs that were cooked on the ham and toast. This only cost 90 koruna! After breakfast I got back to the hostel and met up with 2 aussie girls and another random aussie guy joined us. We all wanted to do the walking tour of prague so we stuck together and headed into old town Prague. We hopped onto the tram and headed into old town. Unfortunately we headed the ...

... and sauerkraut. Didn't really care for the dumplings and sauerkraut but the goulash soup was great.

Then on to the brewery. Pilsner Urquell has been purchased by a conglomerate, the South African Brewers or SAB but Pilsner Urquell has also become their flagship as it is such a good beer. It was our misfortune to be there on a day when they were cleaning the lines in the bottling and ...

... I would - as they were pretty impressive, but then you all know how to use google!!


We then had a tour of the fermentation tanks and details of the vital ingreadients (water, malt, special yeast and bacteria...). The tour concluded in obvious fashion - with a taster straight from the keg, poured by the most photographed man in Plzen!!

Today we went to the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Plzen. Pilsner, the type of beer, originated here, where Pilsner Urquell was brewed from local crops and local mineral water. The tour was awesome. We saw the traditional brew kettles and the modern ones, as well as a very modern new packaging plant. We also tasted some unpastuerized beer directly from fermenting barrels.

... up with an axe. I signed up (on my own, as the concierge goes home before 3 pm) for an evening walking tour of beautiful, historic Prague. This translated into a not so informative, but nevertheless entertaining, guided pub crawl. Our guide, Radec, wore a traditional Czech poker face which said “we are so thrilled you are here”, but turned out to be a very funny guy and an excellent tour guide. He took us to three lively pubs where ...

... buskers and vendors stalls along the way.  We ended up at Petrin Hill and Gardens.  It is quite a large park that makes a wonderful retreat from the chaos in town below.  It even has an Eiffel Tower-esque structure that provides some spectacular views of Prague from the top.  After soaking in the views along the walk back down we headed for Josefov, the historic Jewish neighbourhood and the oldest in Central Europe.  Most of the buildings here were demolished ...

... how important my history is and how necessary it is to pass this knowledge along to my children. I think I am even more committed now to raising my kids Jewish than ever before. What strikes me, however, is the way in which the religion is also a culture, and it is the culture I am pulled to. The more time I spend seeing synagogues in other countries, and learning about the experiences of other Jews, the more I want to label myself a Jew. However ...

Arrived in Karlstejn on the "City Elephant" train at 1.20pm and walked 2km to the Karlstejn Castle. Went on the 2.30pm English tour of the castle which took about an hour. No photography allowed inside the castle. Took in the views over the town before walking back to the train station and catching the train back to Prague.

... to cook like a Czech housewife. I haven't cooked knedliky (dumplings) yes, but we have served them as the Czechs do with a piece of meat and a lot of gravy and three huge pieces of knedliky to soak up the gravy. I'll bet that really turns you on. There is a huge transmission tower about two blocks away, which we think is the reason that my new birthday radio can't get the BBC, but we do use it for tapes and are buying a few CDS. I mention the tower because our neighbor ...