A Busy End to 2011 Part I: Plzen

December flew by. I was so busy with classes ending, exams beginning, and weekend traveling, I never once sat down to write a new post about it all! So, I decided to divide the month into several retro-active posts, so you don't have to read them all at once :)

The last month (-ish) was full of great trips in the region, and I was lucky to have a good travel partner to join me in my adventures. In addition, for the holidays I had a friend come from Israel to join me for the week, which meant more great company. While it was hard to be away from family over the holidays, I feel very grateful for the wonderful people I have met here who made the month fly by and filled it with happy memories.

Plzen, Czech Republic (Nov. 20)

Plzen, through the window of the tower

I last wrote right before taking a trip to Plzen (Pilsen), the home of Pilsner Urquell brewing company. The town is small, but is known for a cathedral with a high tower, a beautiful old synagogue, an opera house, and, mostly, the brewery. We went to all of these places in a whirlwind day trip. The tower offered a beautiful view of the city, and the bells rang out while we were at the top, so we were able to see the massive machinery that worked to make them chime - loudly. The synagogue was closed, but even so it was a lovely building, as was the opera house.

Pilsner Urquell Brewery - if you have a bottle,
you can see this gate on the seal and imprinted on the side

Our primary reason for the trip was to check out the brewery. Despite being born and raised in Wisconsin, home to hundreds of microbreweries and the Brewers baseball team, I had never been on a brewery tour. Pilsner set a pretty high bar, too. From the moment we stepped into a bran-new glass and chrome elevator with a 70 person capacity, I knew we were in for quite a tour. First, we saw a video about the unique brewing process in a surround-sound and 180-degree screened theater.

Nazdravi! 

Next, we walked through a room with waterfalls and water under the glass floor to learn about the special water used, before going into a room with hops you could touch and with tvs to see the special yeast used. We moved on to the furnace rooms, and then down to a museum with famous stuff...But the best part came at the end. The last part of the tour goes through part of a massive underground maze of caves, where the beer ferments and is iced. It was very cool, especially when we got to try the unfiltered freshly brewed Pilsner at the end. It really was about 10 times better than the stuff you get from the bottle, and 5 times better than on tap.