Hotel Ulrika Karlovy Vary

... 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>

... don't know what is. Have people walk around your town drinking water and then hit them up when they have to relieve themselves. Granted the bathroom was cheap only like $0.40, but there are tons of people going to the washroom. I think it is a pretty good business. In one of the collenades they had a computer that displayed which type of water you should drink to cure different ailments. I glanced quickly at it but ...

... say. This is a beautiful deco cafe, on a large scale, with all sorts of gorgeous details everywhere (the bathrooms themselves were quite an experience!) and very decent food. After lunch, we took in an exhibition of Czech photographer, Jan Saudek, who is famous to me for being the artist behind the cover art of Soul Asylum's Grave Dancers' Union album from about ten years ago. Obscure and random ...

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.

Hey friends, this week was boring again. I spent a lot of it hanging out with myself as Meghan's mom was in town, so they spent a bunch of time together, and Kristen went to Greece. I lot of the people who stayed in town this weekend (which wasn't many) had tests this week and spend a lot of time studying. Jerks, putting their scholastic needs ahead of my good times... Anyway, I spent a lot of time on my computer watching movies and whatnot, and in the day, I walked around a ...

Uh, the outlook today is dismal. I received a message from Ross saying he doesn't think he can meet up with me until after I get back from Rome. I'm not even sure I'm going to Rome. He said he was coming to meet me in Prague and would spend a couple of days with me here in Prague. This is ridiculous. Now I'm stuck with my stupid heavy expensive laptop ...

... and honored through this museum. We enjoyed our time in Prague. We liked just sitting amidst the many travelers and locals taking in the town as a whole. We too were creating our own opinion of the place and interactions with it. We couldn't afford to stay there a really long time, but the time we did have there was enriching and action packed. Our quick moving feet, or the metro wisped us from sight to sight. We had a blast and are thankful for the experience.

... blend here that Marty especially likes. We read somewhere that the Czechs eat more mushrooms than anyone else in the world. We believe that. The greengrocers have several different kinds. Recently a very strange, shelf mushroom appeared. We tried it. It was good but very strong. They have a wonderful drink here called Bekerovka. It is an herbal, bitter, liquor that can be used as an aperitif or after dinner drink. FM doesn't like it but MS does. We get about five English ...