Prague...

... holy shit.

Why have you forsaken me?

So I’m planning my trip to the Czech Republic. I decide that I will stay a couple of days in Prague and a couple of days in Plzen. Plzen can also be written Pilsen, and is the birthplace of Pilsner Beer. And yes I do plan to tour the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. I am also going to send a day in Leipzig, Germany before heading to Prague. Leipzig is home to Gose. Gose is a not very well known style of beer, a wheat beer, somewhat sour. It’s difficult to find, I’ve never tried it and don’t know if I’ll like it, but since it’s on the way…

I’ll be out of the office for the next four weeks. This month will be book-ended by trips to Czech and to Italy. The middle will be two weeks in Nuremberg. I will be working for three of those four weeks. Although I may try to steal some vacation time in Italy.

So I’ve got my train tickets booked, hotels reserved, everything is ready to go. Then I read Thursday’s Stars & Stripes online. Thursday has a travel section with stories about different destinations in Europe. Ta the end of the travel section is a small column that lists festivals and events being held around Europe. I glance down at the Czech Republic listing, under the “Prague” subheading is where I see it. It says Prague Beer Fest and it lasts a full week. I’m only booked at the hotel for three days, but that should be good enough.

Shouldn’t it?

I don’t need to be there from beginning to end, do I?

I am rechecking the dates when I begin to question the existence of God.

How could this happen?

Me and the Lord, I thought we had an understanding…

As you’ve probably already guessed, I will not be in Prague for the beer fest. I will be in Plzen the day the Prague Beer Fest starts. I will be back at work during the week of the Prague Beer Fest.


… shit.




In other news, I picked up this neat, hand painted, piece of Polish Pottery.



What is it? A cookie jar?



Not with that water seal trough around the lid…



What’s in there?



Why, it’s home made sauerkraut!

And here it is in an old pretzel container in the fridge with my second batch of Kimchi.



It’s a little salty, but I think if I rinse it off really well, it’ll be OK.

I showed it to my landlord, and the next day she gave me this other pickling crock…



Now I’ll have to figure out something to make in it.

Anyone up for some pickled pigs feet? Maybe some pickled tongue?

Right Place, Right Time? Or is it all just part of God's Plan?

I arrived in Amberg at approximately 15:45 on a Thursday. It had been lightly raining for a while. A couple of other guys and me had driven to Hohenfels early in the morning for a meeting. When we were finished there we ate lunch and drove to Amberg where I was going to spend the night. The others dropped me off at the hotel and headed back to Wiesbaden. I was supposed to meet Eric there that afternoon. We had a meeting scheduled for Friday morning and then we would both head back to Wiesbaden.

The need for this meeting had just come up two days prior. I didn’t think I’d be able to go because the trip to Hohenfels was supposed to stretch into Friday. It turned out that one of the people we were supposed to meet was not able to make it on Friday, so that meeting was rescheduled.

I asked the girl at the check in about Eric, but he had not arrived yet. I was running a little later than I expected, and I thought that he would arrive before me.
I went up to my room and put my things away. I tried to call him but he did not answer.

I had never seen Amberg during the day, so I decided to take a walk around the city. The hotel was a couple hundred meters outside of the walled part of the city. I grabbed my umbrella and headed out of the hotel to the left, toward the town center.

The streets inside of the walled part of town are very narrow, and the sidewalks are narrow as well. There is automobile traffic in the town, but thankfully not too much. When walking along these roads, you are constantly stopping or ducking into little alcoves to let cars pass. The town also has a small stream that flows through the middle, effectively bisecting the city.

The rain picked up a little bit. I stopped at a few store windows to see if there was anything interesting inside, and for the most part there wasn’t. There are quite a few bookstores in this little town, but I was not in the mood for that. I knew that there were a few breweries in this town because I had been to three of them over the past couple of trips I’ve made here. I was trying to orient myself to where they were and to see if any of them had interesting items on their posted menus. Every restaurant in Germany has the menu posted outside, complete with prices.

I must have been on the wrong side of town because I couldn’t seem to find the brewery that I was really looking for (the Brauerei Bruckmüller). The rain was coming down in a steady drizzle. Nothing too strong, but it was steady, and constant. I was thinking about walking to the other side of the town and looking for the Bruckmüller, but was getting a little wet and was feeling a little tired as a result of rising at 04:00 that morning. So I turned down a street and was proceeding back toward the hotel.

When I came out of a side street into the center square of the town I saw a couple of booths with farmers that were selling produce. A lot of towns in Europe have these types of markets downtown. Usually near the town hall and the main church, which are pretty much nalways collocated. There was also quite a few empty beer cases of various colors stacked by a mobile drink stand. The beer cases formed a sort of temporary wall about 3 or 4 cases high. The wall was about 15-20 meters long but did not enclosing anything. The different colored cases were from different breweries (6 in all). The wall had a few small wooden or plastic barrels, with no markings, sitting on top of it.

I walked over to the booth and saw a couple of people with some very dark beers. I ordered one for myself, and paid the man 2 Euros for it. As I was drinking it I noticed a couple of tables that were set up behind the booth. The tables had (very wet) brochures, coasters, and bottles on display. There was a display for each of the 6 breweries, some with several very nice and old bottles; however, it didn’t seem like anything of these were for sale.

There were not too many people around, and I guessed that it must just be part of the farmer’s market that they setup here on Fridays. It is not at all uncommon to see beer or wine booths at a farmers’ market. I began to hear what sounded like a fife and drum band from somewhere around the corner.

Then, sure enough, a bunch of folks dressed in strange looking band uniforms began to come into view from around the side of the building. There were women playing the fifes, and behind them were men playing the drums. The band was followed by a few women in medieval garb, and men with helmets and long pikes. The whole crew marched out into the city square and turned to face us from the other side of the wall of beer cases.

There was a photographer and a reporter there also. When the band was finished playing some gentleman stood out front with a microphone, and made some type of proclamation. I imagine he was the mayor or some sort of dignitary. Being that this was all in German, aside from what I am describing to you, I was clueless as to what was going on. When the gentleman was finished with whatever it was that he was proclaiming, they tapped one of the barrels. A few other, official looking, people came over and drew off beers.

I asked someone who was standing near me what was going on. He said it was part of the 975th anniversary of the town of Amberg, which was being celebrated later this year. Then I looked over at the wall again and everyone who was involved in the tapping of the barrel was gone. I saw other people, whom I recognized from being in the crowd with me, tapping beers off of the keg.

Well … I was almost finished my beer … so I inched my way over to the barrel … and tapped myself a beer. The crowd was polite, and there was no pushing or shoving. When that first barrel was empty, someone came out and tapped the next one.

Each colored section of this wall of beer cases was made up of cases from an individual brewery … and on top of each section sat a barrel that from that individual brewery … six in all … and they were going to tap every barrel one at a time … and they were giving this beer away for free … and did I ever tell you how much I like living in Germany?

I called Eric, but he was stuck in traffic (poor bastard).
After I tapped a beer from another barrel, the reporter asked me a question (in German).

“Ich spreche nicht Deutsch”, I replied.

“Oh, then I shall ask you in English” he said, “How do you like the beer?”

“Very much” I replied, “I’m really enjoying this, thank you.”

I don’t know if I made it to air, but I did really enjoy that beer. I believe that it was from the Brauerei Bruckmüller. After another free beer I went back to the hotel, ate at the restaurant there, and went upstairs to bed. Eric called when I was in the restaurant, and I wished him luck, but told him that I was not going back out. He went by the town square, but everything had broken up by that point.