Plzen

We felt a slight tinge of homesickness when John and Amanda left Prague for home. They're back to real life, Minneapolis, the holidays, friends, family. But then we were off, too, leaving Prague for Plzen, a city often ribbed for its lack of things to see and do. I suppose compared to Prague, the city of a hundred spires - and gift shops - it may seem that Plzen pales in comparison. It's harder to find out what's worth checking out in Plzen, to be sure, but with the right resources, and an open mind, one can find plenty to see in the birthplace of the Pilsner Beer.

We exited the train station and, from the almost-total lack of signs in English, we knew we weren't in Prague anymore.

The station was rough-looking, a bit rundown. We made our way to the tourist information office for a free map. Most train information booths have maps for sale, anywhere from one to four Euros, but you can usually ask for a free basic one that can usually get you by.

Our pension, Stara Roudna, was just a few blocks across the river from the city center. We walked there along the Radbuza River, a desolate and gray but very pleasant walk, our feet shuffling through a path of fallen leaves.

We finally arrived, huffing and puffing and sweating as usual. We cleaned up then headed out to the center, the sun already on its way down in the late-afternoon.

Plzen, we thought, had one of the more beautiful collection of hundreds-years-old buildings we've seen on our journey thus far.

It surrounds St. Bartholomew's Cathedral , a relatively understated yet beautiful - especially how it was lit up at night - church with the tallest spire in the Czech Republic.

We climbed the tower the next day for free, about 100 meters, for a fantastic, 360-degree view of Plzen.

BeerAdvocate has been a great resource for finding places to eat and drink. Just Google-search "BeerAdvocate" and the city you're in. Presto, you have a slew of quality bars and brewpubs. In the city of Pilsner Urquell, we knew that would be available pretty much where ever we went, so we wanted something a little harder to find in the U.S. We visited a few pubs, had some delicious Czech food, and then called it a night.



Seems a shame to visit Plzen without checking out the brewery that put the city on the map. Pilsner Urquell is huge. They're now a flagship arm of the massive brewery company SABMiller, which also owns Miller in Wisconsin. They explained this, with pride, during the over-three hour tour. Yes, over three hours, much of it in their new, huge, bottling factory and adjacent exhibition hall. There was a theater with a rotating platform (what?) that showed a short video on the history of the brewery. There was a museum-like hall with an exhibition on the brewing process. Needless to say, this was far different from our brewery tour in Belgium. Probably the most fascinating part of the tour included a partial tour of their expansive underground cellar, where we were treated to an unfiltered, unpasteurized pilsner from the tap of a wooden barrel. That was delicious. Taking pictures was prohibited without paying extra, so no photos to show.

After two nights, we headed out the next morning to another side of Prague - the cozy town of Cesky Krumlov.