District 23 Travel Tips & Hints for Members by Members
Contact the webmaster if you have any suggestions for travel. Dianne Fair
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Barcelona
My wife, Lynda and I sailed into Barcelona from the Caribbean 9 years
ago and have walked, biked and bused ourselves around this grand city.
Lynda and I would be willing to help you get acquainted with our
favorite city in the world. Just send us an e mail and we will try to
help you in any way we can.
Don and Lynda Stewart ~
svglenfarr@yahoo.com
I travelled to Barcelona in the fall of 2008 and would be willing to
share tips.
Dianne Fair: ~
diannefair@rogers.com
Tasting beer where they invented Pilsener
by Mike Keenan
Why fly over eight hours and a distance of 6,844 kilometres? To drink beer, of course! Not just any beer, but Czech beer, often judged the world’s best. What’s their big secret? Prized yeast and Bohemian hops, I discover, so cherished that the former is hermetically sealed and kept safe in three major European cities in case of a local disaster and the latter – would you believe that the Czechs celebrate an annual hops festival and that they built an over-sized museum referred to as the Temple of Hops and Beer!
Yes, Czechs are serious about their suds. They lead rivals in per capita beer consumption at 160 litres per year, far ahead of such slackers as Ireland, Germany, Austria and Australia next in line in the pecking order. (Canada is ranked 20th)
The majority of Czech beers (97%) are deliciously light, bottom-fermented beers in the Pilsner style, invented in Plzen. In Prague, beer is served almost everywhere, even in breakfast cafés! Most Czech beers are lagers, and Czechs like their beer best at cellar temperature with a creamy, tall head. When ordering draught beer, I learn to ask for the “male pivo” (10 ounces) or “pivo” (17 ounces), enjoying the smooth taste of the original Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen, Budweiser and many other Czech beers.
The Czech Republic consists of three major regions – Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the middle (which favours wine) and much smaller Silesia in the north-east. Bohemia, enclosed by mountains, boasts ideal weather and fertile agricultural conditions, making it a superb area to grow the treasured hops, traced back as early as 859 A.D. Bohemian hops are so prized that King Wenceslas ordered the death penalty for anyone caught exporting cuttings. Czech Saaz hops are the international standard for hops of highest quality.
I visit several mini-breweries in Bohemia, and in each case, the brew master explains the local process and leads me on a tour through cooking kettles and vats and myriad equipment that ferments and produces tasty beer.
In
Krusovice, 60 km from Prague, I visit the Krusovice Brewery, amongst the
oldest traditional Czech beer brands, surviving today. Then, I journey
to Zatec, 32 km away. Zatec is the centre of a famous hop-producing area
where I explore the Temple of Hops and Beer, an amusement and
educational complex that portrays the history of brewing beer.
Here,
I consume the best known Czech beer, the original Pils beer or Pilsner
Urquell, brewed in one of the largest breweries I have ever explored, so
big that I am ferried around to the many buildings in a bus. The
bottling plant reminds me of college days when I worked at Molson’s
Brewery in Toronto.
In
Plzen, I explore the Historical Underground, a labyrinth almost 800
metres long, featuring a host of archaeological finds unveiling the
history and life in the medieval city. Provided with a plastic hard hat
because of the low ceilings, I easily score seven “hits” that would each
stop the likes of Sidney Crosby.
In
Chodova Plana, 65 km away, I stay in the “Wellness Hotel U Sladka,” the
first Brewery Spa in the Czech Republic. My “treatment” is essentially a
beer bath. After discarding my clothes, I am wrapped in sheet-like
material and led to one of six tubs, each filled with dark beer and
ample froth to hide my private parts. Beside me on a table sits a
welcome glass of Czech beer, refilled when empty. I am separated from
others by curtains. A lovely rendition of Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust
emerges from acoustical speakers. I rest amidst shiny copper plumbing
and warm beer and dream that I might be in heaven. Too soon, a burly
female attendant (who speaks no English), pulls the plug and beckons me
out, whereupon I am wrapped in a towel and led to a “recovery” room
where I am cocooned in a blanket and left to relax supine in dim light,
listening to more pleasant music. I can get used to this. Surprisingly,
the next day, my legs feel stronger, and I walk with more spring in my
step.
Hmm, this might well be worth another eight hours and a 6,844 kilometres flight!
Back home, in an effort to help raise Canada above the per capita rank of 20, I lift a brew with fond memories, and as the Czechs say, “Na zdravi” or “to your health!”
Mike Keenan can be reached at his website: www.whattravelwriterssay.com; visit the Niagara Blog at http://www.whattravelwriterssay.com/wtwsblog2.html for more suggestions and Mike's St. Catharines Standard humour column at: http://www.whattravelwriterssay.com/indexseniorhumour.html