Photo of the Week- Pilsner Urquell Brewery

Plzeň is only a one hour bus ride from Prague, and with a Brewery like Pilsner Urquell it is well worth the trip. If you want to try "Pilsner from the original source" or Plzeňský Prazdroj as it is called in Czech then Plzen is the place to go. The brewery tour is available in English 3 times per day and only costs 80 CZK for students (roughly 4 USD). The tour lasts 1.5 hours and includes a tour of the packing plant, exhibition, beautiful brewhouse, "hall of fame", and the cellars. The cellars were my favorite part. The sweet scent of hops, barley, and water fermenting in wooden barrels is enough to make your mouth water. We were served a large cup of open air fermented, unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell directly from the barrel. It doesn't get fresher than that. Even the head was delicious (Czech beer is meant to be served with a thick head of foam). On the way out of the cellars, there is a dummy beer barrel top. Why? To see if you're small enough to be a beer-barrel cleaner. This involves fitting through a tiny oval in the front of the barrel. Everyone shied away except for me. I stripped out of my coat layer and shimmied my way through that hole. If teaching doesn't work out for me, at least I know of one alternative.