Parkhotel 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>

(76 miles) Slowing ourselves down has really helped us go longer while feeling like we are riding less. Today we entered the Czech Republic and found out that the roads are not as nice and little towns are run down. It's interesting the change. Everything is much cheaper here as well. We find ourselves dodging potholes more and eating out more. However so far I have taken less pictures ...

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 ...

... this little gem of a converstation... Me: "Not gonna lie, when I first got off the train I thought the city looked like ****. I'm still not so much a fan." Girl: "I was born in Plzen, this I my hometown." Me: "Ohhh, did I mention how much I like Plzen?" After further conversation with the Irish, who were quite the generous bunch, Johnny and I stumbled back to the pension to get a good nights rest. We were heading off to Brno the next day.

... a buffett i might add´´ i cannot go wrong.. plus i get someone to clean up after me on a dailz basis.. ahh the life of luxurz at rock bottom prices1 haha. I managed to see the Pilsner brewerz alreadz = was prettz cool.. not unl,ike all the other breweries i§ve been to.. but nevertheless it was interesting to go underground and see how the beer was made.. and we had a chance to trz ...

... me some, but we managed to find a marker of some sort which showed Josef Koucky. From my understanding he was born in house #24 on October 8, 1803. Following Josef's birth was his son Frantisex on December 1, 1830, and his son with the same name on August 9, 1863. So I guess this house has a lot of Kautsky family history. It was neat to see the place they once called home. We then ventured to Tetin, the previous home and the resting place of some of the Kautsky family ...

... s (toilets). The first thing that hit you when you walked in was the wonderful smell of meat cooking over an open fire. It was so dark that you really couldn't see anything for a minute, just smell. We have done a lot since we have been here. School, of course, was the main thing. It was four weeks long and was very intensive. Each night we had about four hours of homework and over the weekends about six or eight hours. We did get a chance to teach eight classes. These were all ...

... were closed and the city was packed. The castle was more crowded than on Sunday. We had a late lunch and headed back. Because most neighborhood shops are closed tomorrow, we had to shop. Quiet dinner at home and then Scrabble and a crossword. Impressions: Age rules on public transport. The front section is saved for the handicapped and elderly. If a young or middle-aged person is sitting in one of those seats and an infirm or elderly person gets on, they immediately offer up ...