Hotel Central Plzen

... plus a large hop warehouse fire and the worldwide hop supply was dwindling while growers had to replant. Now the hops are back and it isn&#8217;t quite a crisis anymore.<br><br> We are finally down to the cellars after going past the large copper covered tanks where the beer is mashed and hops added. Down here we are treated to a new beer. It has not yet been filtered and pasteurized but boy is ...

... put before him... <br><br><br>The tour starts with the production line - the cleaning of recycled glasses, the airation &amp; subsequent dispensing of beer into glasses and laser scanning of the bottles for imperfections, this was pretty much how it worked for the cans aswell (minus the recycling step). <br><br>If I could bore you with all the ...

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.<br>

... we camped at this weird, seemingly abandoned hotel. After we ride miles out of our way to get there this lady tells me in broken few words and mostly hand gestures that we can't stay there it's only for people of an association. I'm not sure if it was my puppy dog eyes or my deadly looks but in the end she let us camp out back. It was kinda weird because we were the only ones there.

... nipped in the bud. Czech is a whole different ball game. Like cricket. It sorta resembles something familiar, but you soon realize everything is differnt. Differnt field, different rules, different variations on familiar things. Even the liquid refreshment is different ...rather than breaking the action for tea, they break for beer here. And sadly, I have NEVER figured out cricket. Perhaps the beer will do the trick and I will eventually remember how to say hello without my crib notes.

... orgy." "The light is for the animals... without eyes....flies...BATMAN! No bat, bat." "You like beer here? We're only country where beer is cheaper than soda or water. If they raise prices we will REVOLT!" After spending several hours just sitting on a bench and laughing at every word to come out of Thomas's mouth, Johnny and I decided to head out to the Pilsner Urquell brewery for a tour. Now they did not have a beer fountain ...

... All of a sudden we hit a stop and tons of people start to get off the train. I keep watching and I notice that everyone is getting off the train. I don't know if it is a coincidence or if something happened that was explained in all those cryptic Czech phrases. So I am just sitting there contemplating to get off the train or not. I decide **** it, this train is supposed to go to Plzen, I look at my time ...

... chops. Beer and wine to drink. The trip back was a bit harrowing because the roads were icy and snow covered. In typical Czech fashion, the driver went like a bat out of hell on the straight aways and then pounced on the brakes when we came to a curve. It is a bit unnerving to be passing up passenger vehicles at 80mph. In the Czech Republic, 24, 25 and 26 December are national holidays. On Christmas Eve, after a lunch (about $15 for the four of us) at our favorite Chinese ...

... in the wallet but he lost all the credit and cash cards, driver's license, health card, pictures of the kids, telephone card, transit pass, ring rosary, and Irish good luck card from Jude (guess it didn't work). He would have rather lost the money he was carrying. We arranged to meet the rental agent at 2:00 tomorrow to look at apartments. Another bottle of wine with FM's delicious dinner of roll-ups. To bed early but neither of us could sleep well. One really feels violated ...

The greatest gift ever to bestowed on mankind!!!!! With my mother having delusional thoughts that the "tea-houses" were a pseudonym for some hash house in the back blocks of the Czech Republic, how on earth would she comprehend that her eldest son had travelled 189 kilometres, a three and half hour journey by train to be more precise, to the West Bohemian township of Plzen, for no other apparent reason than to visit the finest monument ever to be ...