It’s another sunny day in west Bohemia and another sunny day in the whole of Europe, I think; even friends and family on both the east and west coast of the USA are complaining about the heat. Summer never used to be this hot. What a bloody mess we’ve made of the climate.
This morning, we went underground to explore the passageways running under Plzeň. It was about 10°C down there, providing welcome temporary relief from the glowing orb in the sky above ground. The guided tour, which was in English, was very interesting, too.
Afterwards, Sarah went back to the hotel and I ascended the 303 steps of Chrám sv. Bartolomĕje (St. Bartholomew’s Church) tower for views over the city. One has to work off all of that zmrzlina somehow.
In the afternoon, we went to the Pilsner Urquell brewery for a tour of the brewing process and the brewery’s premises.
Incidentally, have you ever wondered why this famous beer is better known by its German name than by the Czech name of Plzeňský Prazdroj? Well, as the company history shows, the name of the beer was registered before the Czech Republic had come into existence, so the official language of the Austro-Hungarian empire was used, that being German.
Before the tour, we had dinner at the brewery’s excellent Na Splice restaurant, which is very large and has a great playing area for children. We liked this place so much that we went back there this evening for dinner, too. Eloïse mercifully left us alone to eat, happily engrossed with building blocks and other toys.
The guided tour was in English and was great, especially the 6.5°C beer-fermenting cellar. We could have happily spent the rest of the day down there. I’m quite proud that we found two good ways to keep cool today, whilst not sacrificing any of the touristic experience. On the contrary, both activities were firmly rooted in tourism.
The tour culminated in — what else? — a beer-tasting session. Straight from the cooper’s barrel was poured for us a generous beaker of the golden pivo. You can’t get this variety anywhere else; it hasn’t been filtered or pasteurised. It tasted as vile to me as any other beer, but Sarah liked it. Even Eloïse sampled a few drops, much to the amusement of the people around us.
Speaking of beer consumption, Sarah has downed no less than 1.5 litres of the amber nectar today. “I don’t like beer,” she says, but the fact speaks for itself. She likes lager, all right.
And so our time in Plzeň comes to an end. Tomorrow, we drive the 83 km to Karlovy Vary, where we’ll spend several nights relaxing in this famous spa town (a.k.a. Carlsbad in English and Karlsbad in German).
Karlovy Vary will almost certainly be our final stop in Czechia, bringing to an end our exploration of the Czech and Slovak republics. Of course, we’ll still be in excess of 800 km removed from Amsterdam at that point, so we’ll break up the journey by spending a night in Germany somewhere (Kassel, perhaps) on the way home.