Plzen

For Calan's birthday we went to Plzen, Czech Republic.  For me, Plzen is about a 4 hour train ride away.  It takes about 1.45 minutes to get to Prague, where Calan and I met up, and then took a 2 hour train ride to Plzen.  We got there around 11 in the morning.  The sun was shinning and it was going to be a perfect day.  We walked around the city and checked out the world's third largest Synagogue.  Unfortunately it was closed the day we were there but it was still amazing to see from the outside .

  After the Synagogue, we went to the Square of the Republic.  This was the largest Gothic square in Bohemia.  The church sat in the middle with the large watch tower.  We could have climbed it but my knee was hurting and I didn't think climbing a bunch of stairs would do it much good.












Me outside the brewery center

After we toured the city (and I hurt my shin pretty bad on a park toy) we took a tour of the Pilsner Brewery.  Pilsner Beer is what the Czech Republic is famous for.

We got to tour inside the actual working brewery and tour the old brewery that is no longer in use.  It was very interesting to see how the process actually works.

We bought ourselves some souvenirs...and of course we always like to look like twins.

 The arches, the entrance gate, is the symbol for Pilsner Beer.  This gate is on every bottle of Pilsner.  The first brew master created Pilsner around 1890's sometime.

After our tour, we had a FABULOUS lunch at Na Spilce which is the restaurant inside the brewery compound.  Calan and I both had goulash and it was soooo good.  Of course, I had to wash it down with a glass of Pilsner....mmmmm....goood.

This picture was taken in the cellars of the brewery.  We got to taste some of the fresh made beer during our tour.  I like it but as you can see, Calan is not a fan of beer.

Around 3pm we took the train back to Prague to finish up our day with a little shopping.  I can never turn down an afternoon of shopping.  We took a break during our window shopping to have some cake for Calan's birthday and then I took the 8pm train home.  It was a wonderful day.

 On Sunday I had a cooking lesson with one of my 4D students, Lenka.  She was sooo sweet to bring over the necessary ingredients so that she could teach me how to make these small Czech "cakes".  She did a great job being a teacher and the proof was in the pudding, since the cakes turned out deliciously!!!

She taught me how to make the dough from scratch, roll it out and cut into small rectangles.  Inside you put a small dollop of poppy seed, custard, or plum marmalade.  You pull up the opposite corners and pinch together until you have a small little basket.

You cook them in the oven for about 3 minutes or so and then paint them with a little butter and sprinkle with powder sugar.  This definitely has to be my best lesson yet.  I took a bunch of the cookies to school the next day and I got rave compliments from my co-workers.  I am glad that I took most of them to school because if I had kept them at home, I would have definitely ate them all myself and that would not have been good for my diet :)