Girls on tour in Prague!...

History, castles, cathedrals, and old town... Here we come. Armed with
tour books and sensible walking shows, we set off on the tram from our
hotel to tour the Prague castle first, then head into old town.

Made it to the hotel, and settled in!

Car parked, checked into the hostel in Prague. Lovely hotel converted
partially to private hostel rooms. We have a nice sized clean room to
ourselves, and share a bathroom with two other female double rooms...
Pretty nice set-up.

Made our way around the neighborhood here to get some local currency
(czeck crowns), and found a quaint little place to linger over dinner
a few blocks from the hostel. Shutting down for the evening... And
looking forward to a big day of touring old town Prague tomorrow!

Big moon rising as we drove into Prague

Hazy in the fermenting cellar

"let the beer linger in your eyes for a moment, swirl it around and
take in the aroma, "na zdravi"... And enjoy!"

Did I mention excited??

:D

Someone was VERY excited for the exclusive tasting from the brewers stock!

Hall of the original copper cook tanks...

Meticulously preserved and maintained, these tanks only went out of
production in the last decade....

Trying to crack into the "yeast vault"

Super top secret yeast strand... Under high security, stored in
Pilsen, Prague and London!

Locally grown barley that is cooked three times into a premium mash

Peek into the brand new, super high tech bottling plant

Our resident german was happy to learn that the new top of the line
manufacturing machines were all german made (and the best in the world)!

Ticket to gold (beer that is!)

Ok... So upon arriving at the brewery, us ladies needed a restroom, so
proceeded directly to the restaurant. Road weary (ok, we had only been
driving for lees than 2 hours), we needed some sustenance. A few
beers, and soup and snacks... We were revived, and headed over to the
visitors center to get on a tour.... Only we managed to miss the last
on of the day! Ugh! A little sweet talking, and a quick phone call,
and the agreed to let us catch up. Sigh of releif, only to get yelled
at (with hands waving in the air) by the Czech lady the we only had
euros, not Czech crowns! Oh the injustice!

Long story short, they took our filthy euros... And we gained
admittance to the birthplace of pilsner! :)

Enterance to the castle.... Or rather the pilsner urquell brewery!

After a little creatinw navigation, we found our destination!

Quick photo opp on Pilsen's main square

Czech it out!

Our GPS can't keep up...

Girls night out part 2

Another night in the town with Jana's lovely lady friends in Nurenberg!

More fascinating conversation... And I even received the answer to why
people from holland (or the Netherlands) are called Dutch! Dig back to
comments from girls night our part 1 if you are curious.

Same time, 2 weeks from now ladies? Good fun, let's keep it going.... :)

Off to a refershing start with a couple mojotos!

Hello again Nuremberg!

Back to Jana & Noah's to reset for the next leg.

Bye, bye Hamburg

Sent from the wonder phone...

Upward and onward...

After 4 very relaxing days on the Baltic sea in pletzerhaken, I am
excited for the next chapter of "Oktoberfest 2008".

I finished book 1 last night as I fell asleep. Kinda saw where it was
going (minus a few twists and turns) but overall a fun vacation read.
Especially so because it had such a turn of the century European
flair, putting me in the mood to immerse in old-world arts and culture.

Had a quick visit with Jana's bother this am, and hit the road. He was
suited up, and aching to get his kite in the air, and feet on the
water! I programmed a bit of a round-about route to the airport into
the GPS, and enjoyed the drive. not really knowing how long it would
take... Gave myself plenty of time.

Arrived at the airport in hamburg, returned the car, and had time to
buy a new book and get a bite to eat.

Meeting Jana at the Nuremberg airport on the tail end to rent a car
for the next leg of the journey. We will be going out tonight with her
girlfriends in Nuremberg, then leaving for Pilsen and Prague in the am!

Hope I have time for a little laundry tonight!!!