Czech Republic

Our final destination, Czech Republic the land of beer, beer and more beer!  We left busy Krakow for sleepy Olomouc where we met up with our new found friends from The Ginger Monkey in Slovakia.  It was a quiet little city but we had a blast cooking breakfast together, lazying in the sun, drinking beer, eating pork knuckle and visiting it's many (literally) underground pubs and tea houses.  It was hard to say goodbye to the homey little hostel but with only a week left in our travels we felt the need to carry on and see some more of Czech while we had the time. 

Our next stop was the city of Hradec Kralove.  We arrived by train and Colin took over the navigating duties to find us a hostel in this not so touristy town.  With great excitement Colin announced that he had found a pedestrian foot bridge that we could take over the tracks avoiding the long way round, perfect.  When we got to the bridge there was a clear as day sign saying 'Do Not Enter' but Colin insisted that he saw people cross it.  So up the creaky and wobbly steps we went which then led us into a small building with a very confused man who we assumed told us we weren't supposed to cross the bridge but we figured we're here now so might as well keep going.  We soon learnt what the man actually was saying was that we were in an industrial rail yard with no exit forcing us to weave through multiple factory lots and rubble to eventually walk along the tracks to a opening in the huge wall to get out.  As a result Colin's navigating privileges have been temporarily suspended.


From Hradec Kralove to the busy city of Prague.  The city is fabulous with Gothic architecture as far as the eye can see. We saw the usual suspects, the astronomical clock, the castle and Charles Bridge.  And then headed to the fortress Vysehrad to explore the inside of it's fortress walls.  It's not a well advertised tour and so few people take it but it was extremely impressive to see the massive walls built so long ago and at the end of the tunnel we entered a secret meeting hall that now houses the original Statues from the Charles Bridge as they are venerable to the elements outside.  We drank some more fine beer as we caught some of the Olympics before heading to the town of Plzen.

If you haven't guessed it already, Plzen is the birth place of what we know as Pilsner style beer.  The Pilsner Urquell brewery invented the light coloured beer many years ago and is now one of the leading producers of beer in the entire world (producing Miller, Molson, Grolsh...) .  The factory is the highlight of the town and they offer a top notch tour showing the producing, packing, storing of then and now and of course no tour is complete with out a proper tasting.  The highlight for me was our guide who was dressed in period clothing complete with top hat and tails giving the whole experience a Willy Wanka feel.

After the tour we went on another beer related adventure with a few of our hostel mates to a pub where you tap your own beer at the table.  While this is fun in it's own right it's even funner because they have a screen showing you how much beer each table is drinking...you can see where this is going.  We were the leaders for a while but stopped in time so we were able to make the walk home.

From Plzen we took a day trip to the town of Marianske Lazne. We knew nothing of the town before going other than people said it was nice and found out on arrival that it is a long time spa town.  Pretty much opposite of every other town we've been in, instead of drinking beer and eating pork and potatoes they sip on spring water and nibble on wafer thin treats.  The centre of the town has a "singing" fountain for your entertainment and there are Roman style baths on every corner. We indulged in some healing waters which Colin thought tasted like poison and then spent an hour (all we could afford) in a spa where we were the only patrons and swam in pools and relaxed in saunas.  A refreshing break from all the beer that our bodies probably appreciated.

We are now back in Prague feeling baffled that our trip is almost at an end.  We have another day to soak up what we can before saying goodbye to the lifestyle we love so dear.


R