Hotel Gomel Cesky Krumlov

... designated role of communications officer, struggled to make herself understood, as the hostel worker did not sphraken de english so well. Thankfully she made some headway and gathered that no, the bus had not arrived yet, no he did know if it was delayed, but that there were people waiting back at the hostel to be collected. We asked him to get the busabout people to wait, sighing with relief at the thought that we hadn't been left behind yet... Preparing to walk back to the hostel (the ...

... 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 ...

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

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 got there, the place was seething, seething, seething, with them. Swarms of coachloads of package tourists following guides with flags held high, coming at you like a tidal river you couldn´t fight against - too much. We did find a lovely little local brewery, which apart from a few locals, had a lovely absence of the chaos up the road. We met up with Mark and Mandy and ...

... just eat a pastry for a quick lunch. I was glad she suggested this, because right after lunch we met a steep 2km hill. It would have been painful on a full belly. We still made it back to the hotel in time for the castle tour, which my riding partner for the day went on. I relaxed in the tub instead. Dinner was at a great open fire restaurant called U Dobraka. Unfortunately, their specialty is cooking meat over an open fire.

... girl that ran the place always had a pleasant smile so if she was ripping me off, at least she was nice about it. The hostel itself was in an excellent location and had a sunny courtyard with big umbrellas to relax in while sinking a pilsner or two. I was sharing with a girl from America, Jenny, and we had a nice evening chatting about all our travel exploits. She had just come from spending a few weeks in Greece and with me on my way there we had a lot in common. While she was in Greece ...

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.

... out of the case behind the cash register. The big supermarkets are strange. Albert's, the one we go to at Plac Flora (the local shopping center), seems to stock every few weeks. We have noticed that they might be out of the same items for weeks on end. When they do stock, they stock in the middle of the busiest times. One day before Christmas the store was extremely crowded and one of the clerks got a pallet of cold food stuck between the cooler and a display. It took him ...

... We walked with knotted stomachs through the Ghetto Museum, once the boy's dormitory where a newspaper was secretly printed for the Jewish population. A large group of German schoolchildren were visiting and were uncharacteristically quiet. The Czechs, who never did treat their Jewish population well, had previously wanted to forget about the 140,000 Jews who passed through here. Now there is a sense of honesty and a ...