Day 24 - Crystal Factory and Pilsner Brewery

Today was the day we decided to take a tour. There were several to choose from but we wanted to get out of town and do something inside because of the weather (it was snowing again, of course). This helped narrow our options. We settled on a combined all-day glass factory and brewery tour (which included lunch). The only downside to this tour was that we had to get up at 7:30am.

Perhaps because of the weather, and the low tourist season, there were only four of us on the tour. Karl, me and a British mother and daughter (Linda and Lizzie). It was quite nice actually. It felt like a private tour. We were able to go at our own pace for the most part.

Our first stop was the Ruckl glass factory in Nizbor, about 25 miles outside of Prague. This was the closest factory to Prague and we really wanted to see how glass/crystal was made. The Ruckl factory is very “old school.” Everything is still done by hand.

Inside the production plant it was really warm. There are a series of ovens that run 24 hours a day at temperatures above 1000 degrees C. The workers wore limited clothing despite the risk of burn. Inside the ovens was a mixture of sand and lead, which was melted to form the molten glass (we learned that the main difference between crystal and glass is that crystal has lead in it…they make mostly crystal here with 20%+ lead content). It was really cool to watch the process. Basically a guy sticks a long metal “blowing” stick into the molten material and swirls on a glob of the glass goop (the size depends on what he is making). He then rotates the stick and uses a shaping tool to form the basic shape before it is put into a mold where he blows the material to form its final shape. The shaping tool is either made of pear tree wood or steel. From there some fine tuning and chipping of excess material takes place before it is set to cool. It then moves on to quality control, design and polishing and then quality control again. Up to 15% of the products are rejected along the way due to defects, from small bubbles in the crystal to imperfections in the shape. The good news is that the crystal can simply be tossed back into the ovens and recycled. When we walked through the quality control section we were surprised whenever a piece was deemed poor quality and unceremoniously thrown into a huge bin with an enormous crash.

We couldn’t help but notice nobody wore protective clothing, masks or safety glasses. It makes you wonder about the injury rate and life expectancy of a glass worker. After our tour finished we had some time to look around the factory retail store before leaving.

From the glass factory we headed to Plzen to visit the Pilsner Urquell brewery. The beer type “pilsner” originates from this area. Plzen is a historic town that was occupied by the German Nazis leading up to and during WWII. During the build up to WWI and WWII it was an industrial area that manufactured, among other things, weapons for the German army. There were some pretty cool looking buildings in the town center, but we only saw them from the van and didn't have an opportunity to take pictures (damn tinted windows). Also near the town center were two memorial columns from the end of WWII that literally said “thank you America” for liberating the town in 1945 (one was written in English, the other in Czech). Apparently they also celebrate their liberation each May.

The brewery site is massive. It is the largest one in Europe, and is now owned by SAB Miller (some South African company and Miller Brewing of the US). It produces about 8 different brands (mostly Czech) from this location. The brewing history in Czech dates way back to the 1200s. Originally it was done by common citizens of Plzen but as brewing standards improved outside the regionin the mid 1800s, people were no longer happy with low quality of local beer. The individual brewers decided to form one larger brewery that used new and better methods for brewing better beer. The current facility was built on the original Pilsner site and many of the old pieces of equipment still existed, including a huge old copper mixing pan that was actually buried during the war to prevent it from being destroyed during the bombing or from being melted down to make bullets (it is important to have priorities).

All of the mixing and boiling of the ingredients is still done in large copper “kettles” just like the early days but the fermentation now takes place in large stainless steel tanks for both efficiency and quality control. Some interesting tid bits we learned along the way….a bottling operation can fill up to 60,000 bottles per hour…canning about 35,000 cans an hour….bottles make up only 4% of total output, cans less than 1%, the rest is all in keg form (apparently this it typical for Europe with all the pubs…not sure about the US).

Probably the coolest part of the tour (other than sampling the beer) was going down into the original cellars where the beer was once stored during the fermentation process (up to 12 weeks). The cellars comprised of nearly 5 miles of hand-dug tunnels and caverns filled with old wooden barrels. It was in the cellar where we sampled some brew. Drawn from a large wooden barrel, we were served raw beer (it hadn't been through the final filtration after the fermentation). It was a bit cloudy but tasted good. We stood around a small table chatting a little bit, sharing stories of life, travel and career with our tour mates and guide.

After the tour we went to a local restaurant in Plzen for lunch (at 3pm). There we had a good chat and got to know Linda and Lizzie a bit more, and, of course, enjoyed some more fine Pilsner beer. We were served local food of pork and dumplings that wasn't very good, but we weren't expecting it to be. Not a great day of eating, but at least we filled our bellies with beer.

Around 4:30 we headed back to Prague. It was snowing even more now and we got stuck in the “traffic hour” as we approached the city. It took less than an hour to get there…more than 2 hours to get back. Oh well.

Absolutely starving by now (since we barely ate any lunch) we were fortunate enough to have been dropped off near our favorite Mexican restaurant. We grabbed a quick meal then headed back to the apartment for some quality tv time before calling it a day.

Our tour guide for the crystal factory. She gave us a quick explanation of the process before we started the tour.

One of the glass blowers scooping molten glass out of the oven.

And now shaping it with a wooden mold.

Again.

Some of the discarded glass pieces.

Blowing glass.

he is blowing the glass while his co-worker helps to shape the glass in the final mold.

Same thing, different guy.

ditto.

Quality control.

You may have to click to enlarge this picture. A shipment to Bagdad.

Now cutting the glass. This was the part of the tour that surprised us the most about health standards (or lack there of). The workers would grind patterns into the crystal after it had been marked with a design.

This man was the only one who was wearing a mask while he worked.

We were all impressed with how quickly and accurately they cut designs.

This was on display in the shop. Thought those of you who are hockey fans might get a kick out of it.

The outside of the Pilsner Brewery.

An original form of distribution of the beer.

This is a (water?) tower that is said to have been modeled after a Dutch lighthouse...although no one can prove it. A bit of a joke I think.

We were able to go into the facility where the beer is bottled - however we were looking at everything through plexi-glass so my shots of this part are limited.

The 50 million dollar facility.

Beer getting canned. This part was fun to watch. Unfortunately they were having some technical difficulties and the section that bottled the beer wasn't working while we were there.

Barley malt.

The retired copper kettles for making the mash (boiling the barley malt).

Copper spigots for sampling by the brewer.

More retired copper kettles.

The new ones! That were currently mixing hops.

The stainless steel fermenting tanks.

Into the cellars... all hand dug...and stinky.

Some old barrels.

Over 9 km of cellars. This is the map.

Barrels.

Me and K

Day 23 - Ballet at State Theatre

It was another late morning for us. I guess we never really did fully acclimate to the new time zone. We just hung around for a bit in the morning, caught up on some blogging (sorry for the delayed posts!) and tried to make a plan for our final week. I really wanted to go to a glass factory and we had also talked about seeing some sort of performance as well. Karl dug through the many brochures that we have collected while being here and found a couple that offered various tour bundles. He called a tour company and they told him that he had to book it through a hotel. So while he headed out into the snow (yes, again!) I stayed in the apartment and continued to process photos. He was gone for a while but when he finally came back he told me that we were booked for a tour of a glass factory and of the Pilsner Urquel beer factory for Thursday. We also talked about the different performances that were happening in the next couple days and I chose to see Sleeping Beauty - tonight. By this time we were both starving to death so we headed out to the Cafe Lounge, this time for lunch. We both had quiche (apparently real men DO eat quiche) and then a chicken breast with grilled tomatoes and zucchini with a yogurt sauce. Healthy and delicious. Karl then had a piece of chocolate cake while I resisted (again).

After lunch we headed back to the apartment, where he left me to go back to the hotel and book the tickets for the ballet. The performance started at 7pm, so we decided to just hang out and get ready for the rest of the afternoon and plan to be out the door by 5. The State Theatre is just beyond Wenceslas Square - about a 25-minute walk. For once we were actually on time! The wind had picked up and it was snowing lightly to boot. (So much for curling my hair!) We got to Wenceslas Square and headed up the hill towards the theatre, looking for someplace to eat as we went. We ended up at Como again. The whole restaurant is non-smoking, one of the reasons we chose it the first time we ate there. Part way through our meal a man at the next table lit up a cig. We complained to the waiter and he said, "Yes it is non-smoking, but you see, he is the owner." Oops. Oh well. It was a good meal anyway!

Out into the wind and cold again and on to the theatre. The building is very beautiful inside. Very gaudy, but that is traditional for theatre halls. We were sitting on the floor 9 rows back. I have no complaints about the seats, and fortunately the man sitting in front of me happened to be very short.

This version of Sleeping Beauty is not the fairy tale Disney version (although one of the songs from the movie is worked in during one of the dance pieces). It is the story of Anna Anderson/Anastasia - The last daughter of the Imperial Russian family. I was very excited when I discovered this because I have an interest in European royal families and this is one of the most famous stories. (If you want to true story go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson . I know it is a wiki page but it has a very good explanation!) Unfortunately, I could not take any photos of the performance so this is another photo-less post. Sorry!

Day 22 - The National Museum

Today was actually sunny when we woke up so we wanted to get out and explore a bit. We didn't have a plan...we just sort of wondered out the door and started walking.

Our first stop was Cukrkavalimonada (no I am actually not kidding), a cafe in our neighborhood that we have passed several times but never checked out. The inside was cozy and sophisticated (seems to be the theme we keep choosing) and the menu included both breakfast and lunch items. Fresh baked goods kept arriving on the counter from the pastry chef as we settled in...yum. The ceiling was probably the most interesting feature though. It was made of exposed wood that had been hand stenciled with a floral type design (I have pointed this out before, but the detail and workmanship throughout this city is never ending). I grabbed breakfast. Karl had lunch. We skipped dessert (not that we didn't strongly consider it) because we really wanted to get out and explore while the sun was out. No worries...we will go back for the sweets.

After the cafe we headed to the Lennon Wall, a popular tourist spot that was just around the corner. It featured a large image of John Lennon and lots of graffiti and written messages. The story behind the wall goes like this...."In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation for the communist regime of Gustav Husak. Young Czechs would write grievances on the wall and in a report of the time this led to a clash between hundreds of students and security police on the nearby Charles Bridge. The movement these students followed was described ironically as "Lennonism" and Czech authorities described these people variously as alcoholics, mentally deranged, sociopathic, and agents of Western capitalism. The wall continuously undergoes change and the original portrait of Lennon is long lost under layers of new paint. Even when the wall was repainted by some authorities, on the second day it was again full of poems and flowers. Today, the wall represents a symbol of youth ideals such as love and peace."

Just beyond the Lennon wall we crossed a small bridge. The bridge had an iron fence on one side covered in hundreds of locks...it was a "Love Lock" bridge. “Love Locks” is a custom in which lovers fasten padlocks to a fence or similar public fixture to symbolize their love for each other (locking the padlock and throwing away the key).

After checking out the locks for a few minutes we noticed the weather was changing fast. The sun had disappeared, and the wind had begun to pick up and some snow flakes started to fall. We moved on and soon meet up with a few tourists on segways (people riding around on segways have been a great source of entertainment for us since we have been here). The woman rode over a pile of slush and completely wiped out. It was pretty hysterical; their tour guide had to stop and call it in...we snuck a couple pictures again. In no time we were freezing our you-know-whats-off so we hurried across the Charles Bridge searching for some warmth. Once across, we ducked into several of little shops (tourist traps) to take advantage of their heat...pretending to be interested in the stuff they were selling. From there we made it as far as Old Town Square before we broke down from the cold and entered a café for some hot tea…and a raspberry croissant.

After we had warmed up a bit, we set out toward Wenceslas Square in search of a DHL location. Our purchases here have WAY exceeded our luggage capacity and somebody told us there was a shipping office in this area. After about 20 minutes of searching with no luck we gave up and decided that what we really needed more than anything was to be indoors for the rest of the day. We could see the National Museum off in the distance at end of the square and decided that’s where we would go (ok, it was more me, K hates museums).

On our way there we came across Como, a restaurant that we had heard about (it was part of the Kampa Group…we previously ate at the Kampa Park restaurant, one of Prague’s top restaurants, and read about it there). K thought he would be a much better museum companion if we grabbed a small bite there, and I wasn’t going to complain about the chance to get out of the cold. Inside we had bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, and an antipasto "mixto" with several different meats and cheeses.

We finally got to the museum around 4pm. The lighting inside was not great (interior lighting is dim and the dark skies outside were not letting any light in) and the museum did not allow the use of a flash. Also, I had to pay 50 Czech Krowns to purchase a license to take pictures. Anyway, there are a couple of museums in Prague, this is the oldest one and it features sections on mineralogy, anthropology, paleontology and zoology. We took time to go through ALL the exhibits. The mineralogy was probably the most interesting, as it had every mineral known to man on display. After the museum we scurried back to the apartment to get out of the cold, again.

For dinner we went to Safran (“saffron”), a nice little restaurant at the end of Kampa Park along the river. We have been trying as many neighborhood restaurants as possible and the cold made staying local an easy choice. The menu focused on the finest fresh ingredients and, of course, included a handful of dishes that used saffron. We both had delicious minestrone soup to start. For the meal, I had grilled shrimp with a tarragon spice mixture and K had grilled duck breast with apples and ginger. And for dessert, I had raspberry au gratin (with a cream cheese base…yum) and K had a pear boiled in saffron wine (the waiter poured more wine over the pear and lit it when he served it).

All in all…a very good day. It was great to have some light early in the day to get a few outside shots.

The ceiling in the cafe where we ate breakfast/lunch.

Some of the goodies they had out on the counter...

...that Karl checked out on the way out!

Two ladies walking past the Lennon wall.

Himself.

More of the wall.

Me and Mr. Lennon.

And me again. We realized that I am in hardly any pictures (as I have been taking them all) so we made an effort to take some.

All you need is...

Love (locks).

Just another one of me.

Locks.

The segway inccident (post accident).

Freezing his tush off.

There are puppets everywhere in the tourist shops. This one sported our very own President. Great.

I included this picture because you can't walk ten feet in this city (at least the most touristy parts) without bumping into a jewelry shop selling garnets. It is apparently a very popular stone.

"karl" appears in WAY too many things here. And he's noticed.

Horses in Old Town Square.

I couldn't resist.

Nice coat...

The (g)astrological clock. This is one of the main attractions in Prague. We have changed it's name. Every hour on the hour two doors open at the top, a wheel of people spin past the windows and a skeleton rings a bell and appears to read names off a paper. It is really not as exciting as it sounds.

These are a few shots from the inside of the National Museum.

A ceiling in one of the exhibit halls.

Another view of the room.

One of the many display cases in the mineralogy halls.

Looking down from the third floor.

Karl v. Wooly Mammoth.

Looking down on Wenceslas Square from the museum.

One more shot of the Charles Bridge at night.