Splish! Splash! We were takin' a beer bath!

Just like the Germans, and pretty much every other European, the Czechs take their beer seriously. We knew about how Czech's naturally hard water was conducive to brewing some of the best "pivo" from our tour of Pilsen, but this weekend we found out that the best pivo is not only for drinking, but also for bathing!

That's right, this weekend we indulged in a bath of mineral water, dark beer, hops, herbs, and beer yeast at the Pravé Pivní Lázně Beer Spa in Chodovar, Czech Republic. The 20-minute beer bath is supposedly good for your skin, muscles, and joints. The spa offers single and double tubs for about $33/person, which also includes two unfiltered home-grown Chodovar beers.





Patrick's flaming dinner at
Stará Sladovna restaurant

Though I don't know that my skin is significantly better off, this trip was a blast. We stayed in the Hotel U Sládka which was perfect. The hotel, spa, brewery, and two restaurants are all connected through the gated square which functions as the parking lot and features a tempting putt-putt course. This made it easy to dash back to our room with wet hair in the freezing April temperatures. The hotel also offers free breakfast and a shockingly reasonable mini-bar with large beers priced at just over $1.



Beer barrel in the
Ve Skále restaurant

The two restaurants were delicious and also incredibly reasonable. Though they have similar menus, the Ve Skále was our favorite solely due to the atmosphere created by eating in an 800 year old beer cellar and drinking the natural beer from the neighboring lager barrels. You can also tour the brewery and cellars, but we opted not to when we found they were given in Czech or German with an English handout.

Walking out of the tunnel with our newly purchased,
incredibly reasonably priced Chodovar beer

For our unique getaway, including one night in the hotel, the couple's beer bath, lunch and dinner at the restaurants, breakfast at the hotel, a case of Chodovar beers for later enjoyment, and moderate use of the mini-bar, we spent under €175. We booked the hotel and beer bath online through the Chodovar website, which didn't even require a credit card to secure the reservation. The Chodovar channel also highlighted some of the festivals over the summer which looked amazing (beer barrel rolling competition?? Chugging contest?? Count me in!). It was the perfect weekend escape from a so-far dreary and cold April!





Pils, Pils, everywhere, and lots of it to drink!

Just an hour and a half east of us over the Czech border lies a very important place: the birthplace of Pils beer!! That's right - Heineken, Amstel, Stella, AND Beck's would not exist if Josef Groll had not brewed the first batch of clear, delicious lager in the city of Pilsen 170 years ago.

Highlights of the trip:

1) The beer: isn't that the reason you travel to Pilsen?

2) The prices: the Pilsner Urquell brewery tour was less than €4 a person, our meals were incredibly cheap (especially given the amount of beer we consumed!). We also stayed in a great hotel (Hotel Rango) right in the city center for a great price.

3) The world's largest elevator: included on the Pilsner Urquell tour is a trip in the world's largest elevator, which holds 72 people! We only had 30 on our tour but Patrick's fanny somehow was too large for the doors to close... 

4) Experiencing unfiltered Pilsner Urquell: included in the  €4 admission fee, and professionally poured straight from a wooden barrel, is a taste of the unfiltered product in the brewery's basement.  At first I was a little wary about "unfiltered" beer, but then we learned that the water they use for Pils is higher quality than that for infants, so we gladly drank it all. 

5) The history: pictured here is Josef  Groll, the father of Pils beer. The Pilsner Urquell brewery was not only the first brewery to have its own railroad system, but because of that it was the first globally exported beer. Who knew? 

6) The Pilsner Urquell bottling facility: Watching the incredibly efficient brewery wash, sort, and recycle bottles. The factory needs only 27 employees to run at full capacity. We saw one employee and millions of bottles! 



When you decide to go to Pilsen, look for the lighthouse in the center of the extensive Pilsner Urquell brewery property. It marks the "sea of beer" in the middle of the city, and will help you find your way to the amazing brewery tour! 

Czech-ing out Prague

Is there any better way to relax on a Friday afternoon than putting your feet up and enjoying a cold German beer? Thankfully, the fabulous train system here allows you to do just that en route to any European destination. This Friday, Patrick and I packed our dinner and drinks and hopped over to Prague for a quick getaway to see the the largest city in the Czech Republic.

There is so much to see in the city that it is a bit overwhelming for a weekend trip. Patrick and I decided to take a walking tour to soak in as much as we could and revisit the highlights the next day. The mood in the city  was a little down since the Czech Republic had just been eliminated by Portugal in the EuroCup, but the weather was fabulous for walking and taking in the picturesque city. 

Below are 8 facts about Prague we found particularly interesting: 

#1: This city is old. The oldest building in the humongous Prague Castle (above) was built in 870. The country had its own university in 1348 - before Columbus even discovered the US!

#2: Prague still shows signs of its roots in astronomy, magic, and alchemy. The Prague Orloj is the world's 3rd oldest astronomical clock and it still works 602 years later. At the top of every hour, the clock comes to life with a automated figures, which brings me to...

#3: Puppets are huge in Prague - I expected to see several musicians on the streets of Prague, but I was pleasantly surprised by the puppet street performers and marvelous puppet shops with intricate, wooden puppets that looked like they came out of a child's dream.

#4: There is a sign on the Vlata river warning people of sharks. Patrick pointed it out - interesting since the river is only 9ft deep?? It turns out one of the tour boat captains found a small dead shark in the river, and though he believes it was a carcass thrown out by a restaurant, he put the sign up anyway.

#5: St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle was actually not completed until 1929, though construction began in 1344 (almost 600 years!!).

#6: You can buy Absinthe fro-yo in Prague (although I'm sure this is true of other European cities, this was our first encounter). 

#7: The real Iron Man lives in Prague - he is a ghost that haunts the city every 100 years looking for someone to kiss him to free him from his spell (he killed his wife when he thought she cheated on him while he was at war). There is a statue of him in the Old Town.

#8: The Beatles inspired students in the 1980s to rebel against the communist regime by writing Beatles lyrics on a certain wall in Prague. Now, the "Lennon Wall" changes every day as citizens and tourists write all sorts of messages on it, painting over those of the people before them. I like to think that this "(I wanna) hold your hand" written on the cobblestones has been there since the beginning!