Marttel 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’t quite a crisis anymore.

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 ...

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.

... spend their time between an apartment in Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) and a tiny village in the countryside called Brody. The Czech Republic changes every year I visit. In 1990, I remember standing in line with my mother at a tiny shop that sold whatever it happened to have (a battery, a box of tissues, ten potatoes) because we heard they had bananas. After an hour and by the time we got up to the counter, the bananas were, of course, gone. Now we go grocery ...

Hi everybody, This is Natalie. We arrived in Prague last night after training through Germany, which was absolutely gorgeous by the way. We got here at about 11 Prague tim e. We decieded to wal k around some turist attractions some b ecasue they  are stil all lit up and basically deserted. Charles Bridge ...

Left 5 may at 1am and drove from Ipswich to Calais then on to France Belgium holland, Germany and Czech.Apart from taking few scenic detours on the way all good(tip for travelers don't use a 15 year old atlas as your road map!). Slept in a ga age fourcort for a few hours and got to Prague ...

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.

... had to be up and on the bus for Cesky Krumlov at 8 am. I went home and instead of going to bed like a smart girl, dinked around on the Internet until like one or two in the morning. When Megen text messaged me at ten minutes till 8, I leaped out of bed and frantically tried to make some semblance of an outfit, packed my purse with the 5 things I never leave without and blew out the door. I waited on the bus (without it moving at all) for a half an hour for the rest of ...

... Lots of nice pastel colours, some frescoes, stone statues framing grand windows(got lots of pics of course), huge carved doorways,etc. Charles Bridge is cool too. The bridge of statues. (I also did NOT! make it out this morning. Woke up at 4:45am looked at the alarm, shut it off and fell back asleep for about 4 more hours - this morning FOR SURE!) It wasn't as busy during the week, but today was nuts. If you ignore the people it's good though. Some jazz band ...

... for herself and her son. She lives south of the city. It is about a 40-minute trip for us on the Metro and bus. We have spent quite a bit of time with her during the past two weeks. Fred spent about 45 minutes with the six-year-old son yesterday. There was an immediate bond. She told us today that when we finish school and if we are interested, she has four more women who want tutoring. This could be good for us but it would mean that we can't get green cards and will have to ...

... away by the absolutely marvelous & endless old & beautiful architecture that is literally everywhere one can look within old Prague. It's almost impossible to digest even a small portion of the ancient life & soul that ebbs from every narrow coblestoned corner! From a high vantage point, (Petrin Tower) we could see the red brick roofs go on for miles & church peaks, towers, marble statues and castles lurk everywhere. Most notable is the Gol'gothic' Prazsky Hrad. (Prague Castle) At night ...