The Czech Republic recently decided they wanted to be known by their shortened name... Czechia. But I still like calling them the Czech Republic! A few days ago, the weekend weather looked awful. We had plans to just stick close to home and get things done around the house. But then... voila! The weather changed and with only a small chance of rain and thunderstorms, we decided to go to Pilsen for the weekend!
Pilsen is a great little town, only about 90 minutes away from where we live, but since it's the birthplace of Pilsner beer, we knew we wanted to spend the night there to be able to fully enjoy our visit! Pilsen is the 4th most populous city in the Czech Republic with close to 170,000 residents.
I have to be very clear about this picture once again: NO. That is not beer that Natalie is drinking. It's apfelsoft. Her favorite drink. We found a nice little restaurant on Roosevelt and had lunch... and of course, a couple of Pilsner Urquell's! This trip was, naturally, all about the beer! I'm not a huge beer fan (everyone knows I love my bourbon) but I would have to say Pilsner Urquell is one of my favorite generic light beers!
We might already be two beers in here.
Koh-I-Noor pencils! This sign was right above our heads as we ate lunch.
This sign was also above our heads. The original Pilsner!
The gothic Cathedral of St. Bartholomew sports the tallest tower in all of the Czech Republic at 102 meters (335 feet). It was founded in 1295, but has been renovated since. However, a large part of the church pre-dates the Middle Ages. It sits in the middle of Republic Square, one of the largest squares in all of Europe!
The Maßhaus (Town Hall) in Pilsen, built in 1558. The carvings on the façade depict former Czech rulers as well as the coat of arms.
Oh Happy Day for sure! Pretty buildings in Republic Square. The House By the Red Heart is on the left (you can see the red heart near the top beneath three windows, as well as one above the door). It was built in 1894.
Here is a close up of the above buildings.
It was actually VERY humid and quite warm and we were all melting, so we decided to get some Eis! Please note the dead pigeon behind Grant!
Todd standing tall by the Plague Column. This column was built in 1681 (with a gold replica of the Madonna of Pilsen at the top of the column) as an expression of thanks since the city was mostly spared from the terrible Plague.
I couldn't get enough of the House By the Red Heart. This scene depicts a tournament they had in Pilsen for King Ferdinand II of Tyrol.
We went into the beautiful Cathedral of St. Bartholomew and there was a wedding in progress! You can see above the alter the original Madonna of Pilsen. It's considered one of Pilsen's most valuable treasures.
You KNOW we like to climb towers, so let's go! Grant, lead the way!
There are five bells in the tower above St. Bartholomew, and most of these bells date from 2013 or 2014, but this bell, the Prokop, dates back to 1835.
It was an incredibly tough hike (mostly due to the heat and humidity!) but wow! The views were totally worth it! This is facing the south side of Republic Square.
Facing southwest.
Interesting that someone left their scratch off ticket here! I wonder if they won!?
West side of the square and my favorite buildings.
The lower tower on the east side of the Cathedral.
A close-up of the Great Synagogue.
Tower shadows above the Plague Column.
After we strolled around Republic Square, we headed back to our hotel so we could check in. We were staying in the Roudna area, just north of the Mze River, and in order to get there, we had to cross this bridge, which had many statues on it, including a golden one of Jesus. There's also a plaque to commemorate the May 5, 1945 uprising against the German's in which nearly 1,700 Czech's lost their lives.
After we checked in (Czeched in... get it? Get it!?!), we had to book it to get to our 2:45 pm tour of the Pilsner Urquell factory!
It was a little hectic getting us in there, even though we had tickets. We thought we had to leave backpacks in lockers and we didn't have 10 cents (we only had 20 cent pieces) and it was hot and we were all so sweaty and there is literally no air conditioning in all of Czechia (ok, I exaggerate a bit on that one, but it sure felt like it!) but finally, we just decided to take the backpack with us and booked it to join our English speaking tour guide! In the picture above, you can see the water tower that was built in 1907.
Here we are in the largest elevator in ALL of Czech Republic! I don't know why, but this was really funny to me!
Our first stop was the Central Packaging Hall where the kids thought it was really neat to see them cleaning the trademark green bottles. They had three sections to this massive room: The first was for cans (which wasn't anything to see). The second was for brand new green bottles, and the third was for recycled green bottles! Sometimes, you could see the remnants of the paper label from the previous time it had been used.
I felt like Laverne and Shirley here!
The massive bottling area. About 120,000 bottles come through here every HOUR!
We give Pilsner Urquell two thumbs up!
The water that is used for the Pilsner Urquell beer is taken from a reservoir that is 100 meters deep. To show you how deep this is, that's roughly the same depth as the height of the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew! A very interesting story about the water... they have an area where they put the water in a fish tank, and if the fish die, then they know the water isn't good!
Here is the barley used for the beer making.
The copper holding tanks where they used to mash and make wort.
Todd WISHES he had all of these cool toys!
The boiler room. It was over 100 degrees F in there! We didn't stay long!
Josef Groll, the original Brewmaster at Pilsner Urquell and the inventor of Pilsner beer. Interestingly, he was Bavarian and was from a small town near Passau.
Todd, Natalie and Grant with the original copper tank that Josef Groll used to brew the first ever batch of Pilsner Urquell! It's 173 years old! From the Pilsner Urquell website, "One interesting story: during World War II, copper was in high demand and many breweries were decommissioned and taken apart. The brewers in Plzen wouldn’t let this happen to Groll’s first copper tank and so they hid it where no one could find it. In fact, no one in the brewery today even knows how they managed to hide it or where they put it. Wherever they took it, they definitely hid it very well, so to that we say: tanks a lot!"
The entire tour was EXCELLENT, but it was so darn hot, we couldn't WAIT to get down to the chilly cellar where they do the fermenting in the oak barrels.
They dug these cellars by hand! They have a little model of how it was done in the entrance to the cellars.
Fermenting large barrels of Pilsner Urquell beer (and our nice tour guide who spoke great English!)
As you can see, it's not much above freezing down here!
And now, the moment we had been waiting for... this man poured us delicious unfiltered and unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell, straight from the barrel!
Baileys and beers and barrels.
It is legal in parts of Europe to let your child drink beer with you (not even kidding about this!) so we decided to let Natalie have a taste of the beer. (Just a sip, don't worry). This is EXACTLY the reaction we had been hoping for. "How do you drink this stuff???"
Big boy wanted to take the truck and make some beer deliveries. The cart that it carried behind it had insulated walls that were filled with ice in the summer to keep the beer temperature down.
Three Bailey's and three barrels.
Pilsner Urquell brewery (that large elevator is just to the left behind the glass!)
Leaving the brewery, you cross over the Radbuza river. A nice little floodplain and a levee to the left.
One of Todd's favorites is going to be in Pilsen the following week!
Natalie: What is this thing? Me: It's a phone booth. You make phone calls from here.
So, so perty.
Buildings along the east side of Republic Square.
We went to dinner, and you can tell we were pretty tired. Todd made an airplane-police car-Jeep tower.
Todd was tired enough to order a coffee... but it was so pretty when it arrived!
We think this guy lost a bet. He ran around Republic Square in this... thing.
Finally after a long day, we put the kiddos to bed and enjoyed our favorite pastttime... a drink on the balcony! The sunset was so beautiful this evening!
Since Pilsen was only an hour and a half away, we weren't in a rush to get home on Sunday. We went to see the Great Synagogue - the second largest Synagogue in Europe (only second to Dohany Synagogue in Budapest, where we will be going in a few weeks!) and is the third largest in the world! This Synagogue was built in 1892 for the city's 2,000 Jews, which sadly now number fewer than 70. This is the ceiling in the entrance area. You can see it's not in the best shape, but it really is pretty!
The Bimah area of the Great Synagogue. Interestingly, you can see where the ceiling needs to be repaired here.
The stained glass is beautiful here.
We went up to the women's seating area, and I took this pic of Todd with his Yarmulke.
Above the Bimah, you can see the Ten Commandments. If you were to look closely, you can still (apparently) see bullet holes in them from World War II.
There was a fantastic American picture exhibition here, called the Exhibition Farm Security Administration 1935-1942. It was a series of black and white photographs from that time frame showing life in poor, rural America.
The outside of the Great Synagogue in Pilsen.
After we managed to find some coffee, we headed over to the Patton Memorial Museum. If you're ever in Pilsen, and you're an American (or not!) you MUST check this out! It's a small, but EXTREMELY fascinating museum! The people of Pilsen are still very grateful to the American's for liberating them from the Nazi's in 1945. (Of course, the Russians took over, so... sorry about that). But they have never forgotten what our good soldiers did for them! It really humbled me to think that they still are so grateful for that.
As we were walking into the museum, we found this car with two missing wheels. Because... Czech Republic!
Once we got inside (which is somewhat of an adventure because you need to ring the bell for them to answer the door and the guy who answers is a Czech man in a full U.S. military outfit, leaving us VERY confused), you get to explore the fantastic museum. There's a ton of great World War II memorabilia here!
One of Todd's favorite was the Pocket History of the United States. Exactly who WERE these strange people coming to rescue the folks of Pilsen from the Germans?
The New Testament, some cigarettes, some canned coffee and some massive bullets.
Hey Carole! Is this what you did when you were with the USO?!?
For those of you who have to eat MREs, you should probably count your lucky stars that you're not eating dinner (or supper!) from a can!
There was a fascinating story about the day that Pilsen was liberated by the Americans. General Georj von Majewski of the Nazi Army was forced to surrender by Lt. Colonel Percy Perkins. General Majewski initially refused to surrender, saying he would only surrender to the American Commanding General. LTC Perkins told him that wasn't going to happen since Perkins was the only one to authorize the surrender. Perkins drew up this surrender note, Majewski signed it, and then Majewski immediately took an American Made Caliber 45 pistol and shot himself in the head, with his wife standing by. Unbelievable!
Our commanding general, George Patten, Jr.
FUN! Pipe tobacco, cigars, Beech Nut gum, Chiclets, gummed papers, sugar and cigarettes!
Old school money. Natalie declared that the dollar still pretty much looked the same! And it does! Notice the Deutsch Marks and Italian Lire, as well.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this wasn't as good as the Makers Mark and Coke I'm drinking right now.
Some lucky soldiers got to eat delicious Horse Meat with Gravy! (Rolls eyes).
"We Will Always Remember." And we thank you for that! This picture of some of the American soldiers who were there on liberation day was taken many years later.
Remember the time we got locked in the Patton Memorial Museum!? Our friendly Czech man in American military garb had disappeared, leaving us locked in the museum! (No worries, he came by a minute or two later and let us out!)
The General George Patton Monument.
Coincidentally (perhaps!), the George Patton monument stands in front of the Great Synagogue.
Natalie in the square where the General Patton memorial stands (behind me, the photographer). Just to her right, but not in the photograph is the J.K. Tyl Theater.
Anyone? Bueller? Natalie described this little quiz as such: "This is my interepretation of this... 1. Beer. 2. Yes. 3. Beer on tree trunks. 4. Does not come from boobs. 5. Airplanes save the day. 6. Jack-o-Lantern beer. 7. Drunk skiing down the mountain." Yup.
We ate lunch at this great little place right on the Patton Memorial park called Lokal Pod Divadlem. They were so funny though... they brought us a box of tissues. For lunch!? It was strange. Interesting art on the tissue box too!
Until next time, Pilsen!
