More Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad

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You may think that living in the middle of the city about three blocks from a tram stop and a Metro (underground) station that we get tired of the same urban scene.  You would be wrong because in many ways we see variations every time.

The major differences are as we walk through our local square, Jiriho z Podebrad.  We are frequently surprised by events that we had not heard about and sprang into existence while we slept.  Other times we enjoy watching the preparations days in advance of a major festival.

Below is a video (slide show) of a recent regional food fair; just a typical walk through our local square.

More about daily life around the square:  https://parosparadise.com/CzechMates/2013/05/19/a-day-in-the-life/ and

https://parosparadise.com/CzechMates/2015/03/29/prague-festival/

Pilsen: Second Time is a Charm

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This post is mainly an update to the previous post on the city and brewery at Pilsen.  So you may want to go there first.

Two big differences between our visit in October 2011 and October 2015:

1) We were allowed unlimited photos on the brewery tour so I made this video:

 

2)  We went in to the Great Synagogue.  Here are a couple photos:

Great Synagogue, Pilsen, Czech       Synagoge Glass. Pilsen, Czech

Also they were holding an excellent exhibition of WW II photos including the real nitty-gritty of soldiers and citizens reactions to liberation.  As history (or movie) buffs know Pilsen was taken from the Germans by the Americans under Patton while Prague had to wait for the Russians to do the honors.

One element that was the same as previously was our lunch at the brewery pub; it was good authentic Czech food at good non-touristy prices–despite being billed as the highest capacity pub in Czech Republic.

Cheers to good beer being brewed by a giant multi-national corporation   🙂

Historical Tram Parade

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Prague contains countless museums.  We have enjoyed most of the major ones and many of the lesser known such as the Postal Museum.  Our favourite is the Czech Museum of Music.  This year Prague Transport has been celebrating their 140th year of operation.  We did not attend any of the previous events but could not miss the tram parade.

Such fun that we will now add the Public Transport Museum to our To Do list.

Burčák season & festival

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Burčák is slightly fermented grape juice, usually sold at about 4 to 7 % alcohol but can reach 10% or more if not consumed in a few days.  It is known as Federweisser or young wine in Germany and other names through out the world.

It is said to be more popular in the Czech Republic than other countries and you certainly see it everywhere here between late August and early November.  There are many folk stories about its effects from exploding bottles to thoroughly purged intestines. It does contain large amounts of vitamins B1 and B2.

Since we are red wine drinkers in past years we enjoyed a glass or two of red burcak but this year at the festival I saw one made from Müller-Thurgau.  It was so good that I bought a litre bottle that has to be drunk within three days or who knows what will happen.

Below is a short video of the autumn season wine festival held at our local square. When we dropped by after 8 PM. I was very impressed by the great quantities of burcak and wine that were being consumed by the crowd.  The booth I bought mine from earlier was sold out.  All these people had no worries about what to do with leftover wine.