Plzen
- home and the beginning of Pilsner beer - why we're here
- home of Skoda works 1859 or as we know them Skoda cars
The beginning of our campervan trip led us an hour or so out of Prague to Plzen, population of around 150000, one of the larger cities in Czech. Found a caravan park for around 25 euros and raced into the Pilsner brewery to get a beer and suss out the tours.
On the drive we stopped just out of Prague to stock up the camper with plenty of groceries, beer and bits and bobs since after the Czech Republic we'd be traveling to Austria and Switzerland, two very expensive countries.
** disclaimer: unfortunately i've forgotten some of the brewery information because its been so long since the tour :(
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| Cheers |
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| Gates to the brewery these gates were installed for the 50's anniversary of the first frothies |
We didn't get into Plzen till around 3.30pm so we were a bit late and the last tour had gone for the day so we had a beer, explored the city centre, went out for dinner (full meal for and beer for ($11AUD ea) and headed back to the camp site for an early night. We were camped on a pretty sweet lake.
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One of my fav. photos of the trip. Photo credit to Amy
The following day we got the first brewery tour which was around 10am.
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| Learnt' something here, see this box of plastic tubes, that is how a plastic bottle starts out before it is formed. like a little test tube. Then depending on the shape and size of the plastic bottle required, they blow the test tube up to the size and shape they want in house. I never really thought about it, just assumed plastic bottles were bought in. |
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| Bottling hall was a huge automated investment, they can bottle something like 120,000 bottles an hour on a couple of lines, along with 30,000 cans etc. pretty impressive stuff. Because its fully automated, they only require about 7 persons to run the bottling hall each shift. |
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| Bottling hall |
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| Part of the original beer filtration system which I believe was used up until 2004......... |
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| Original kettle used until 2004.... |
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| New brewing kettles/area |
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| The original tank for mixing, boiling adding hops etc. from the 1840's |
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| Entry to the cellar, 9km worth of the bastards!!! |
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| Cellar layout under the brewery |
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| They still brew a small batch the old fashion way using these barrels as fermenters for tourists to taste the beer as it would have tasted before modern facilities and techniques were preferred. |
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| Our host was a classic, so regimented and zero character. |
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And we get to taste the "original style" Pilsner - Tarn very satisfied with the result!! How did it taste? |strong and full flavored, not as crisp and refreshing as the current brew (consider the same brewing method is still used today just refined with better quality ingredients and technology/equipment), and not as drinkable but still worthy.
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| So, back in the day the coopers had to get inside and periodically clean out the barrels, this is a photo of Jake trying out the man hole (classic Jake), giving us an example of what it would have looked like for barrel entry. |
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| This massive room was the Ice Room, the highest point of the cellar. During winter they would stock this room with ice from the surrounding lakes etc. then as the ice melted, cold water flowed thru channels along every cellar tunnel to help keep the area around 6degrees. Ice could stay frozen for up to two years. |
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Cesky Krumlov
Rated 2nd I believe in most popular places in Czech to Prague, Cesky Krumlov town was built around a 13th century castle. The medieval town is pretty unique since it remains mostly untouched since its construction due to the peace Czech has seen during WW2.
The castle, castle garden and bridge are all pretty big for a small village.
Getting to Cesky Krumlov was a bit of a drive, it was off our direct route to Austria and the GPS we had with the camper no matter what settings we tried to put it on, kept trying to send us up back roads, it was a bit of an adventure and we got in late arvo.
When we arrived we parked up next to the castle gardens, paid about 40 kruona (from memory) for a couple of hours while we explored. The gate master at the park told us parking was free from 10pm to 10am each day so we decided park the camper up and stay in the car park for the night - success!!
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| Castle gardens with the crew! |
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| Classic Jake! |
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| Hiding from Tarn! |
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| Lookout over some of the town and castle. |
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| Old Town is all located within the sort of horse shoe bend of the River Vltava, castle on the left there. |
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| To give an example of the costs in Czech, Espresso 35 koruna = 2.3AUD, Pint of beer 30 koruna = 2AUD |
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| Interesting gallery similar to what we've seen in French Chateau's, constructed around the same time just the build quality and finish doesn't compare. |
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| The flash buildings have decorations painted onto them rather the calved out of stone... |
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| Last cheeky beer in Czech, Amy tried some honey wine which she said was amazing, we sat at this trendy little cafe/bar over looking the river for an hour or so before dark reflecting on the last few days in Czech and getting excited for the coming weeks in Austria and Switzerland. |
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| Very impressive bridge from the underside. |
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| This building fascinated me, built on a rock on the edge of the river. It looks like its been there for hundreds of years! |
Summing up Czech: Amy and I have been sitting here for half an hour now thinking about how to sum up Czech. Its hard. So we're going to have more of a think and discuss with our partners in crime Jake and Tarn because I think its important.... will update this soon.
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