Hotel Klor Doudleby

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.

We hit the museum first which had some really nice ...

... put before him...


The tour starts with the production line - the cleaning of recycled glasses, the airation & 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).

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.

(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 ...

... beautiful at night. We are going to leave soon to see the same things in the daylight. Adam and his family have made us feel very comfortable here. I was SUPER happy to take a shower finally. (The ones at the flying pig weren't exactly inviting.) We well are about to head out. Talk to you soon! Natale

... and change Kroner (about 10 bucks). Not bad! For me the city was even more pleasing to wander around as I had the fortune to meet up with an aunt of mine taking her own trip from Prague up to Berlin on a river cruise.... nice. So after visiting with her and her niece (and her husband) for a couple days, it was hard to get into tourist mode again. But we had fun and the four of us attempted to take a 2 hr bus tour of the city, which turned into a bus-almost-breaks ...

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.

... these ideas inevitably file themselves into the "bad idea..." category. This phenomenon is akin to other "hard-to-leave" places, namely: Zipolite, Mexico; Bend, Oregon; and Rome, NY before Trinkis Manor burnt down (The lights! The lights!). PS- Don't miss the "24-hour Don Geovani Vivaldi black-light puppet theater" show time every 3 minutes in all theatres of Old Town.

... dressed up in all their finery, yet nothing really happening there, no life to the place. It came across as an elaborate shopping district and tourist centre. Which is not to say I didn't like it - far from it, I spent a very enjoyable day just getting lost and marvelling at the incredible spectacle of it all. Had that been all I saw of the city, I think I would have been quite content to move on within a few days; however, when I explored a few of the districts surrounding the ...

... nevertheless. It's too bad because it does detract from the beauty of the city, and that is not limited to the downtown area. We live in Vinohrady, which, according to the guidebook, was allowed to decline from a handsome area during the Communist era. Now it is being restored, and the signs of restoration are everywhere. Again, almost all buildings are 5 stories, and many are very handsome, homes or apartment buildings--though many still need substantial renovation and ...