Castles, Beer and Wine Days

 Out of Prague and into the country. We made several plans to rent a car and go to Brno for wine and a couple castles then on to Plzen for BEER! Then back to Prague to train to Vienna. Afterthought, why don’t we drop the car in Brno, after checking it is cheaper than the train ticket to Brno so, about face we’re going to Plzen then to Brno.


Plzen is not as old and quaint as many other cities. The only real draw is the Pilsner Urquell brewery. I tour the brewery and Jane decides to take an underground tunnels where they town folk took refuge during the 30 year war in the 1600s.  They where not used during the WW as they where flooded and full of garbage. Interesting the plumbing pipes were initially made out of wood and then they moved up to sandstone.  



From Plzen to Cesky Kumlov to see the castle. This town is something else, right out of a fairytale. Old, quiet, beautiful and friendly. We stopped for a beer and, guess what, I had a Budweiser! I was told about this and we have stumbled across the Origional Budweiser, it is called Budvar Budweiser to distinguish from the putrid american swill.


The castle here is also incredible. It is in very good condition and spreads over the entire hilltop. Very beautiful inside and out. 

The tower
The bridge passage.


So after a nice quiet night we set of for Cesky Budejovice to see another local old castle, Hluboka Castle. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures inside so you’ll have to google it. Jane did get some pictures from the net.

I





Enough with the castles already, move on! So, WINE time! We head toward Brno, but not in 5he city, south into wine country. We got a tip from a wine guy in Prague that around Mikulov and Pavlov was the good wine area going toward Austria. That’s the place for us. A bit of a drive but on the really nice road system not to big a problem. They have limits from 50 kph to 130 kph and few people stray from those.

Anyway, Mikulov is small and quiet, not very rustic but quaint. We booked the usual and it was comfortable if you like ladders. The apartment was nice enough but you had to climb a very straight stair (insert ladder here) to get to the bed. It was well equipped but that bathroom was on the main level, you do the math (2 old people and beer and wine)…. Sorry we forgot to take any pictures.

Wine tasting was fun and different than other places but that is one reason why I do this type of travel. It is hard to explain, they have small barrels with taps that they taste out of and fill various size containers that you can supply yourself or they have 1.5, 2 and 3 litre versions you can buy.

The wine was very good, not what I expected, a lot of dry whites and some sweet reds. The do a lot of Gruner Veltliner and Zweigelt, in various forms. The Zweigelt was surprisingly robust and the Gruner nice and dry. All around great fun.



Ok that’s it it’s bedtime!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
 There is a lot to see at the southern most tip of North America. Christmas is big here, lots of decorations using pine bow garland but I haven’t seen any pine trees so it must just be tradition. Lots of churches too, quite a few have been repurposed though, like the one above. We did make a little faux pas at the Southernmost Point. We walked up, waited till the people there took their picture then we took our sand left. It was only then that we noticed the line up down the street waiting to take pictures. OOPS! Happened to watch a funeral as well. All the streets blocked off to the church and police everywhere. It was the wife of some newly elected politician so lots of pomp and security. It was reminiscent of a New Orleans funeral only fewer bands.  Last day in the Keys then onto the boat tomorrow!
Read more
Image
 We did another road trip on the 23rd. ( We are a little behind on our posts, busy few days). We decided to try to go to Punta Chame. We were told that the road was terrible but thought we could try it and turn around if it was too bad. It was slow, the road did have some large potholes(but what road here doesn’t) and some construction but otherwise a pretty easy drive. I could say ‘I could have driven a school bus through there’. Pretty little town, fairly isolated, lots of fishing boats. What else would you do here. A number of resorts with one very large one, Playa Caricol Residences and Beach Club. Really big and very new. Us, being plebeians hung at the Surf Shack for a bit. It’s right beside the resort and much more regular. Cold beer is cold beer! If you look hard you can see some kite surfers in the second pic. Instead of just heading home I decided to see where the road went. Not too long a track but it ended right at the tip of the point. It was completely deserted. You c...
Read more

A Bit About Irish Golf Courses

Image
 We have all heard about how wonderful the golf courses are in Ireland and Scotland. At this time I can only comment on Ireland but hope to be able to add Scotland soon. The first premise of this golf trip was to play smaller more local courses that cost €50 or less per person. Since our experience and research shows that rental clubs per round, if the have them and they are usable, tend to be as costly as the round itself. We have rented clubs long term in Portugal and found a service in Ireland that met our needs. We rented our clubs for the entire time in Ireland from a company called Clubstohire. The website is www.clubstohire.com   The clubs were delivered to us at the car rental station at Dublin airport by Billy, amiable young man with good information. The clubs were high quality and suited us well. I should have ordered a club between fairway 3 wood and 5 hybrid but that was my failure not theirs and I managed.  The first course was Roundwood Golf Club in county ...
Read more