Franconian Beer Message Board
OT: Visit to Czechia 1 |
| Posted by barry on 2017-10-07 09:16:03 |
| Having wiped my first report off my tablet, as I'm now home, I'll try again on my more civilised PC! After a lovely 10 days in the Nord Oberpfalz, journeyed on to Ceske Budjovice. Interesting that my German friends didn't have a clue where this was but immediately realised when I said the German name of the town: Budweis! Easy and cheap train from Schwandorf and I had plenty of time when changing at Plzn to nip into Club Myloch for a seidel - could have made it two actually. Nice place with an interesting selection of beers; chose an 11% but can't remember what it was but it was good. Met Andy H in the hotel in Bud (Tri Sedlaku: I wouldn't recommend it; ok, it was only €30/night and very central but my room was really poor). We tried the unfiltered Urquell, which was only so-so before starting a little exploration of the central area. Andy was well prepared with a list of places to try: first was a brewpub that specialised in sewing machines - I kid you not, the tables in the bar were converted sewing machine tables, still complete with machines! Anyway, the beer wasn't great, so we didn't stay past one. Then we tried a new, smart (I'd call it posh and pretentious) brewpub - the beer was ok but not special - before moving onto the pub that Andy said was Budvar in-town tap. Ditto the last for house style and similar for the Budvar beer. So far, Budkovice not up to much.. At this stage, I was really just following Andy and not taking notes, so the following is not in order of visiting! 1. Short bus ride to Brewery Knezinek, which involved a pleasant (perhaps a mile?) walk around a large carp pond. This is a essentially a leisure centre with sauna, swimming pool, massage, etc. and a sizeable restaurant (they were roasting a hog outside while we were there but I kept my back to proceedings). However, the beer was excellent and the service friendly and pleasant. Recommended. 2. Regent Brewery, Trebon: a lovely little town with massive and beautiful old brewery buildings but the 'brewery tap', what an ill conceived and badly managed mess! And the beer was little better, a real disappointment. Not recommended. 3.Managed to drag Andy into a 'down and dirty dive' - literally, it was in a cellar. Can't remember the name but it had pictures of Wild West heroes on the walls and a clientele that matched the pictures! But, it was friendly, the beer was good enough (cheapest yet at 30Kor) but Andy found it smoky, so we only had a couple of beers. The landlady was friendly - she ran down the street to return my hat, which I had forgotten. 4. Ceske Krumlov: day began badly when Andy realised that it was a public holiday (King Wencelas Day!) but we managed to get on a bus eventually. Krumlov is an almighty beautiful place but stuffed with tourists. However, we managed to find a pub that was ok (the Traveller's Hotel) and reminded us both of Schlenkerla. After a bit of wandering, we came to the Eggenberg Brewery, which is a pretty sizeable establishment. Andy was not keen on the light lager, so I gave him my dark to try: one taste and he exclaimed 'Rauchbier'! And so it was and quite Schlenklerish as well, though not quite as rauchy. The brewery tap was the exact opposite to Trebon, to use Andy's favourite expression, quite 'down and dirty! But we sat outside and enjoyed several more dark lagers, which were simply lovely! 5. Final visit was to Hluboka - Andy, having looking at the castle on the web, I can see why people go but we didn't, we went to a brewpub instead. I wasn't mad on the beer, so I had a couple and left Andy to it, meeting him later in the Tri Sedlaku for a few nightcaps. So that was stage one of my trip: Ceske Budjovice was a pleasant enough place but the beer, in general, was disappointing and i won't be going back anytime soon Stage two next! |
| Followups: |
 OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by Nick B. on 2017-10-08 04:51:53 |
| OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by Barry on 2017-10-08 05:17:52 |
| OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by Nick B. on 2017-10-08 05:25:26 |
| OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by barry on 2017-10-08 08:33:49 |
| OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by Nick B. on 2017-10-09 01:14:27 |
| OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by Mosquit on 2017-10-09 02:28:01 |
| OT: Visit to Czechia 1 by Andrew H on 2017-10-09 03:09:39 |