Rango Plzen

... tasty.<br><br> Our trip through beer land at an end, we climb into the van to go to the Koneprusy caves. They are living caves with three levels but we can only visit 2 levels. Lots of steps, around 500. My legs are quite irritated that I went through the whole cave. Thought to give my hip some rest today by going on a tour. Opps. Forgot walking in caves is never restful for arthritis.<br><br> Fun day

... in it's main square.).<br> <br>The brewery tour was 90 mins long and I'm sure the gentleman conducting the tour was the human muse for the creation of 'The Count' on sesame street, his hair didn't move, sadly there were no mirrors anywhere so I couldn't check for a reflection... He was a brilliant tour leader and was happy to answer any ...

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 ...

... just isn't the same). All in all, a great way to spend an afternoon and it will be hard for the rest of the trip to stack up really. Having drunk a 'few' beers it was time to put my money where my mouth is and indulge in the Czech speciality of roast pork knee... Let's just say that will remain a one off experience, but what an experience it was, I was presented with 1.5kg of extremely fatty lump of pork, enough to feed a good sized catholic ...

... of earplugs for noisy nights. It was a real problem deciding what should be left at home, things that normal sensible travellers regard as essentials. When I reach Delhi the second hand Lonely Planet guide book, that I hope to purchase there, will present a bit of a stowage dilemma. But I am sure I will cope with that somewhat knotty problem. (perhaps dispense with the spare underwear) So here I go. Wish me luck (sounds like I need a lot of that)

When we returned from Vienna, it was time to get ready for the Klugs. We did some pretty fancy cleaning. Fred bought some greens and real mistletoe and decorated. Interestingly everyone here buys real mistletoe. They sell it in the green form (with berries) or spray painted gold or silver. It is really quite nice. We also decorated our fake ficus tree with lights and some small ornaments that we had bought at the Christmas fair on Old Town Square. The Klugs arrived in a timely ...

22 October, Wednesday We didn't get up until 9 and then showered and shaved. We were pretty well over our jet lag. We had arranged with our Penzione to have breakfast at 10:00. The same lady who wouldn't let us in was there for us. She had set up a buffet of cold cereal, milk, juice, coffee, tea, yogurt, salami, pressed turkey, cheese, orange quarters, and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. It was $4.00 each. It was still raining and cold, but more intermittent drizzle than solid rain ...

Josef recommended that we head south to see Konopi&#65533;te castle, a hunting lodge built by Austria's Hapsburgs in the 14th century. The last owner was crown prince Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in Sarajevo kicked off World War I. Ferdinand became the crown prince after crown prince Rudolph shot himself. Of course, we took the tourist train up the hill. Since we had ...