Plzen, Home of the Pilsner Beer

As if our 10 day road trip was not enough, since Greg and Nicole were still here, we decided it was best to check one more country off the list and have a few more good beers.  So off to Czech Republic we went!

The town of Plzen is only 1.5 hours from Grafenwohr, so it really wasn't a bad drive.  Plus, as we have already learned, driving through Europe is beautiful.  So Greg, Nicole, and I drove to Plzen to see the town a bit and to go on a brewery tour of the Pilsner Urquell Brewery.

First stop, the brewery.

Jubilee Gate to Pilsner Urquell
Oh, we fancy now!

Jubilee Gate was added to the brewery for its 50th anniversary way back in 1892.  Beyond the gate there is a whole little brew town, or that's how it feels anyways.  Needless to say, it was definitely a great atmosphere.

Nicole and me in front of Jubilee Gate

Pilsner glass and free parking!

The bridge with the new brewery on the left (the glass building)
and the old brewery on the right (the yellow building)

Greg in the beer garden waiting for us to be done in the gift shop

Greg and Nicole in the beer garden

After enjoying the gift shop, beer garden, and just walking around we headed to our tour of the brewery.  This was by far the best brewery tour I have been on (sorry New Belgium).  We started by learning a bit of the history of the brewery, then we got on the Pilsner Urquell bus to head to the bottling plant.

Pilsner Urquell bus

Map of bottling plant

Actual bottling plant
FYI: 60,000 bottles an hour go through this place

After the bottling plant, we went back on the bus to the old malt house.

Nicole in the malt house

Then we watched a really neat video about how the beer is made on about 4 big screens combined together.  We also rode in the largest elevator in Czech to get there.  It was probably the slowest elevator in Czech, but still cool.  Next, we went to the Hall of Fame where we learned a little more about the history.  The original brew master was actually from Bavaria, Germany!  His name is Josef Groll.

The first batch of beer was brewed in this

Then we headed down to the original fermenting cellars which were extremely cold and a bit wet too.  The beer used to sit in large barrels within the tunnels down here to ferment.

One of many tunnels with old barrels

While in the cellar, we had beer from a barrel
that hadn't been filtered yet

The tour was very informative and really fun.  After the tour we took some more pictures and then headed to the brewery's restaurant for lunch.  We had some Bohemian food that was really yummy.

Pilsner Urquell train

The brewery delivers beer once a month to the town of Plzen
on horse drawn carriages with carts like this

Back to liters ;)

After lunch we walked around downtown Plzen for awhile just exploring the area a bit.

We saw some Czech rock climbing

And the Plzen soccer arena

Such a great day

Cathedral of St. Bartholomew

Main Square area of Plzen

Great Synagogue

Plzen, home of the pilsner beer, you are a fun little town!

Koln: Kolsch Beer and More

Day 9 of our Euro Road Trip: Koln
Leaving France was not too difficult, since the drive through Belgium back to Germany was just as beautiful.  The tiny towns along the way and the green fields were just breathtaking.  There were also fields of yellow "flowers" that were pretty, even though they are actually fields of weeds, they still look great with the greenery everywhere.

When we finally made it to Germany we stopped in Koln, or known to Americans as Cologne, to spend some time enjoying one of Germany's famous cities.  Finding our hotel and parking was a cake walk compared to the trouble we had in Marseille and Paris.  It felt like we were back home (I guess for Justin and me we kind of were).

Koln is absolutely GORGEOUS!  I love everything about the city so much!  Unfortunately, my camera was about to die, so my pictures are sparse :(

Our first stop was Koln's landmark.

Kolner Dom

This cathedral was amazing!  It was by far the most impressive cathedral we saw during our road trip (and believe me, we saw a LOT of cathedrals).  It was just so tall and incredibly intricate.  It took over 600 years to build this bad boy.  The inside was just as spectacular as the outside.  Pictures do not do it justice.

Stain glass windows and extremely high ceilings

Shrine of the Three Magi

After visiting the Kolner Dom, we walked down a super crowded shopping street, Hohn Strasse.  Nicole and I found some really cute German stores while the boys decided to drink a bit.

We had dinner at the Fruh am Dom.  This restaurant and brewery is know for its kolsch beer.  I guess the whole city is known for its kolsch beer since it originated in Koln (hence the name).  The Fruh was such a fun restaurant because it only serves kolsch beer in small 0.2 liter glasses.  The waiters have a cute little carrying case for all the tiny glass of beer and are constantly walking around handing out new glasses.  It was quite a unique experience!  After being used to drinking liters of beer in Germany this was also quite a change.

0.2 liters of goodness

The waiter would put taller marks on Greg's coaster for every glass of beer we ordered at our table.  The beers were small and cheap (1.80 euro a glass), so by the end of dinner, playing some card games, and just enjoying our company, we ended up filling the entire outside circle of the coaster with 56 beers total!  We were quite proud, and our waiter was impressed, too!

Then we went to the Gaffel am Dom to watch a soccer game on the big screen with the locals and to check out a new kolsch beer.  We were lucky to find a table, so we started new tally marks and had some pretzels and cheese (very German).  Here we only racked up 20 tallies.  It sounds like a lot, but really it wasn't as bad as the high number might suggest.  76 beers for the night, divided between 4 people, so 19 beers each.  But remember those beers are 0.2 liters, so really.....

An average of 3.8 liters each
Ok, kind of a lot ;)

The night was still young, so we decided to cross the Hohenzollernbrucke (bridge) to see the Kolner Dom lit up at night.  It was quite an adventure because there was construction on the bridge and on the streets in the area near the bridge, but we eventually found a good spot to enjoy the view of the Kolner Dom, the bridge, and the Rhine River.

View of the Kolner Dom before crossing the bridge

View of the Kolner Dom and the Hohenzollernbrucke

View from the other side of the bridge
And then our camera died :(

After finally finding the views we were looking for we headed back to the hotel for the night.  Though we just got a very brief taste of Koln, we already fell in love.

Day 10: Koln
The next day we walked around the downtown area a bit, but since it was Sunday not much was open.  We saw the Rathaus, Gross St. Martin, Deutzer Brucke (bridge), Severinsbrucke, the Rhine Port, and many cute German buildings and streets.  I'm sad and sorry I don't have pictures, but the memory of the morning was a good one.  We even saw an old German man pull off to the side of the sidewalk in the middle of his morning run to pee on the wall.  Sunday morning fun.  We had breakfast at a local cafe before heading out for our trek back home to Grafenwohr.  

The End
Germany, Austria (briefly), Switzerland, France, Belgium (for a few hours), and back to Germany made for quite a fun Euro road trip!  My husband, brother, and sister-in-law made the laughs, memories, and long hours in the car so much more enjoyable!  What a great way to start our summer months here in Europe!  Prosit!

Paris Take 2

Day 7 of our Euro Road Trip: Paris
The drive through the French countryside was once again beautiful.  The beauty was a bit more difficult to see though, because there was lots of rain.  Needless to say, this made our first day in Paris a bit more gloomy than we would have wished.  That didn't stop us.  Checking into our hotel, finding a parking spot near our hotel, and making sure we were given a room that wasn't already occupied by a creepy French man that invited me in, did however, try to stop us, but even with those obstacles we made it to our first stop.

Arc de Triomphe

Tomb of the unknown soldier under the arc with fresh flowers

The rain was so intense that the escalators to the metro were starting to flood.  Combine that with getting into Paris late and our hotel/parking adventures, it was time for some food.  We ate just down the street from the arch and mostly enjoyed being out of the rain for a bit.  The French wine was delicious.  After dinner we headed back to our hotel so we could have an early start the next day. 

Day 8: Paris
Guess what our first stop of the day was?

Did you guess the Eiffel Tower?
It was a bit cloudy, but you can still see it back there!

We walked a bit closer, and along the way Greg found a friend.

Greg's long lost buffalo capturing buddy

I love this picture

We missed Paris

After starting the day off right, we decided it was best to walk to all the main attractions Paris has to offer.  Spoiler alert: by the end of the day all of our legs were extremely sore from all the walking.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!

Along our walk we came across some buildings and places that were new for Justin and me too, so it was a fun little adventure!

Palais de la Decouverte

Pont Alexandre III

Musee de L'armee

Concorde Square
(Arc de Triomphe in the background)

Jardin des Tuileries

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Greg and Nicole photo bombing Justin and the Louvre

Lock Bridge
People in love put locks on here with their names
on the lock so their love will last forever

Notre Dame Cathedral
It is the 850 year anniversary of the cathedral being built

Walking from the Eiffel Tower to the Notre Dame caused us all to work up an appetite, so we decided to look for some traditional French cuisine.  We found a cute little restaurant with lots of yummy French dishes.  The front of the restaurant attracted lots of passers to take a picture of its lovely meat display. 

I had the duck, and it was delicious

We decided to keep going down our walking trail.  Our afternoon adventures led us to more new places.

Pantheon with Justin's eyes closed

Palais du Luxembourg

Jardin du Luxembourg

We decided to rest our feet, so we bought some French
wine and beer and enjoyed the view of the Jardin

After our rest break at the garden it was off for more adventures.  This time we took the metro across town (you're welcome legs), but we didn't make it to our final destination before walking up a significant number of steps (sorry legs).  The end view was once again worth the work (and sweat).

Sacre Coeur

View of Paris from the top of the many steps we climbed to the Sacre Coeur

After the walk down the steps it was time for another rest break.

More French wine and an entertaining time watching the trash man
block traffic (honking and hazard lights once again). 
Added bonus: he emptied the trash in a blazer.

The it was a short walk to our next stop.

Moulin Rouge

We were trying to wait for dark so we could end where we started and watch the magic of the Eiffel Tower sparkle.  In order to make it in time we needed a metro (you're welcome hurting feet and legs).

I loved the fancy colors and of course the sparkling
that happened right at 10:00 p.m.

But I love this guy even more!

Nicole and I wanted to walk closer to the Eiffel Tower, and we got a crazy idea.

Carousel ride?
Yes, please!

Can you see us waving and the Eiffel Tower in the background?

It was actually one of the most fun carousel rides I've ever been on.  I think the view had something to do with it.  The boys were too cool to ride with us, but we had a great time!  

We had one last stop to walk to before we said au revoir to Paris.

Baby Statue of Liberty

"Au revoir, Paris!"  Take 2 of you was oh so grand!