With virtually zero sleep after 10 hours in the air and a layover in Frankfurt we rallied for an afternoon walking tour of Prague. Superlatives can't describe the beauty of the old architecture and we quickly gained an appreciation for history when looking at an old city gate (100 f' tall) built in the 14th century. I believe our comment was, "Wow, that was built before Columbus was born."
The city of Prague is the capitol of the Czech Republic and we became aware of this when passed by the Presidential motorcade and his palace guard escort. The city is split by the Vlatva river and has a population of about 1.3 million. In it's 1,100 year history economy and politics have ebbed and flowed. Today's economy is primarily driven by tourism and its restaurant industry of which there are over 2,000 choices in this city.
After walking through the oldest parts of the city and the old market square we found ourselves at the U zelene'ho stromu brewery. This brewery's made beer in the 19th century but stopped during communist occupation and after 1989 reopened as a Pilsner Urquel tied-house. Our second brewery stop was brewery U Medvi'dku. The building was named for one of its first owners, Mr. Jan Nedvi'dek, who founded the brewery in 1466. In the 1950's the premises was taken away from its owners, without compensation, by the socialist government. In 1989 after communism the building was returned to the inheritors of the original owners and began brewing beer again in 2004. The brewery is small, 2bbl with 4bbl open wood fermentation. The beer was fresh and the saaz hop aroma was amazing. The owner and brewer heard from the waitstaff that we we overly impressed by the beer and came to give us a VIP tour of the facility. We will go back Saturday before we leave Prague.
Our day ended with a tour of U Fleku brewery founded in 1499. With the exception of the period of the communist government the brewery had made the same dark lager for it's entire history. After the tour we had a dinner of roasted pork, potato dumplings, sour kraut and the house beer.
With little sleep from our 10 hour plane ride followed by the walking tour and a few beers we collapsed. This morning (Friday) we are heading on a bus to Zatec for the day. We will visit the Zatec brewery which is housed in an an old castle and boasts of hundreds of yards of beer cellars.
Prague is beautiful and we are blessed to have the opportunity to experience it.
More later - stay tuned.
Old city gate built in the 13th century
City square in old Prague
Gothic church outside square
U Fleku brewery founded in 1499
Amazing architecture in beautiful Prague
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