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Published: June 17th 2008
Well, we made it back into Germany... First of all, sorry for the lack of an update yesterday (Rhiannon borrowed the laptop to do an update, and ended up chatting with her buddies back home all night, and never got around to uploading our journey). We've done a lot since our last update, but I'm tired, and will try to keep it short....
We spent another partial day in Praque, and determined that we're not Prague people. The place is full of beautiful old buildings, but it's not all that English friendly, it's pretty dirty for it's size, and it WAY too overcommercialized. We got up on Monday, and hoped to see the Communist Museum and Jewish Quarter before heading out of town. We hit the ATM again to get more cash, and got the car out of hock. We headed toward the museum, and parking was an absolute nightmare. We ended up finally finding a parking place about a block from our hotel (ok, that was a big waste of time). We secured our car as best we could, and used the GPS to get us the rest of the way on foot. We got to where the museum
Prague Policie on Segways
Now you don't see that every day...was supposed to be, and it wasn't there. After 30 minutes of frustration, we ended up tracking down a Tourist Information booth that gave us the correct location. When we got to the location of the museum, it was gutted, and being either remodeled or turned into something else (Charlene and I think they're just getting rid of it because most people in this town don't want to remember those years). Of course there are no signs that say anything, so we just gave up. It was starting to rain pretty good by now, so we ducked into a pseudo mall, and did a little shopping. We then treked back toward the car, and stopped for lunch on the way. After a good meal, we all decided we were done with Prague, and headed out. On our way out of town (exiting to the East this time), we got a few good shots of the "Dancing Building".
The drive to Plzen was short (maybe 90 minutes). We arrived about 4:00, and got checked in to our hotel. This hotel was MUCH nicer, cleaner, and newer (best yet on the trip). We relaxed a bit in our rooms before deciding
The 'Dancing' Buiding in Prague
OK, use your imagination here.... to have dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Dinner was excellent (every time Charlene has chicken, it's better than the time she had it before. The hotel we were staying in is on the outskirts of town, so it really wasn't within excursion distance. We retired to our rooms, and watched more soccer. Oh, by the way, Czech lost to Turkey in the 1st Quarterfinals of the Europe Cup (the night before), so the whole country was pretty depressed. On this night, however, we watched German defeat Austria, so we expect the mood in German to be much better... Off to bed, because Tuesday is our tour of the Pilser Urquell brewery.
We were up relatively early today. A nice breakfast at the restaurant (all breakfasts are included with your stay over here), got packed up, then off to the Plzen Brewery Museum. This museum is dedicated to the history of beer making in the region. It had some interesting facts about the history of brewing, but really was overpriced. Also, there were several school field trips passing through the museum, so it was loud, and felt rushed. In all, we felt it wasn't worth the $360 Kr. We finished
up quickly, then drove the short distance over the Berounka River, and to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. We arrived early for the 12:45pm English tour, so we hung around the main courtyard, checked out the shop, and took pictures. The tour started on time, and lasted about 90 minutes. It had a few short movies, and included a tasting at the end (which we all enjoyed). The tasting was actually done down in the dark cellar of the active fermentation tanks, and it was quite cool.
After we finished the tour, we headed back over the river again, and to a small restaurant near the museum. We all enjoyed a nice lunch, then off for Munich...
The drive to Munich was a little long (about 3 hours), and parts of it reminded me of the drive from Norcal to LA (lots of trucks passing other trucks). Problem is that large sections of this are Autobahn, and cars are doing well over 100mph when they come up on these passing trucks doing about 70mph... It was a little hairy at times, but we made it through just fine. A little rain on the way, but got the old Ford
S-Max up to 111, so that was fun. Also saw a lot of hop fields on the north east area before entering Munich (near Regensburg), so that was pretty cool for me.
We got to munich about 6:00pm, and hit a lot of traffic when we got on the surface streets. Managed to find the hotel and got checked in (Charlene's not crazy about it, but we'll be out doing things most of the time anyway). The kids are on the 4th floor, and we're on the 5th, but they don't seem to mind. Everyone was off to bed early as we need to get on the road by 8:00am to get to Neuschwanstein Castle tomorrow morning. We also hope to see a Luge park tomorrow, and perhaps try the sport a little ourselves...
Anyway, off to bed now, and hope to get a good update tomorrow after a full day....
Take care.
Doug
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Richard Elliott
non-member comment
Hello!
I guess you never got my last comment. It looks beautiful, the old buildings are something we're certainly not used to seeing back here in Sacramento. Sounds like you're having a great time. Did you mention to the Pilsner Urquell people what a mess that Budweiser makes of their recipe when they do it over here? I was rather disappointed that you did not include the Czech version of Laverne and Shirley with you photos. Can't wait to see you all and here more about your trip. Don't worry, I've already began the lobbying here at work for the beer vending machine. Take care.