Hotel Palace Plzen

Today was Beer Day. We signed up to go to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Plzen (pronounced Pilszen). It is about a one hour drive from Prague. There is also a museum there and some caves about ½ way there. The tour included stopping at the caves which we thought at first were associated with Pilsner Urquell but they are just nice caves.<br><br> We hit the museum first which had some really nice ...

... 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.

We finally made it to the Czech Republic after a delightful delay of German bike touring. We waited an extra day to cross the border so that we could early in the day....just in case anything went wonky....only to find the border crossing unmanned. No papers, no stamps, no inspections, no officials, no nada. Czech Rep. is a different world...sorta like going from the US into Mexico, and pretty much what you might expect from Eastern Europe. Pastoral landscapes, small villages, and old ...

Before arriving in Plzen I had a certain image stuck in my brain of how the city would look like. I imagined a Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory type of city but with beer fountains instead of chocolate fountains and little munchkins frolicking in beer lakes. Obviously, I was quite disappointed when I got off the train and stepped out of the train station. I was instead met with a lovely sight of three drunk shirtless old men (it was ...

... t impressive at all compared to St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague or St. Barbara's Cathedral in Kutna Hora. Otherwise the city was pretty large and was modernized with tidbits of history interlaced. What made the trip worthwhile was a visit to Pazdroj Brewery where they make Pilsner Urquell. One interesting thing is that SAS Miller (from Milwaukee) owns this brewery! I was able to take a tour of the brewery ...

... it was all in Czech. It was very melodic and seemed like one, long folksong. We hurried home, threw two ducks in the oven and had a delightful last night with the Klugs. Lyn teaches in a Lutheran school in Bratislava, Slovakia, so we spent a lot of time during their stay discussing TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) and the best way to approach it. It was fun to compare her program in Brno with ours at ITC here in Prague. One striking difference was the number of ...

... on a very busy street. Nice place with a beautiful kitchen. The other two were just south of City Center. She really pushed these. Nice places but they were only one bedroom. They were in the same building. It had an exercise pool, whirlpool, fitness room, and party room. Nice, but still only one bedroom. We told her we would call on Monday. She took us into Tesco to show us where the office supplies were. MS bought a card case and several plastic envelopes for all the papers we ...

... few of these suckers, you will know doubt think you are a good lookin bloke, any babe would leap at the chance to rip your clothes off, leave your Viagra at home big boy, the equipment will not miss a beat tonight!" But it continues..."Pilsner Urquell beer also supports the treatment of digestive problems. It has a beneficial effect on kidney functions and it consolidates bone development". By this time i had burst into bouts of hysteric's, why ...