Novosedly - Hluboka - Cesky Budejovice - Novosedly

Hluboka Castle

There's a town called Hluboka about half an hour from here which has a nice looking castle so we thought we go and have a look at that today.

The castle was built in the 13th century but it's current form was after a rebuild in the mid 1800's.  We bought tickets for the tour and had a coffee and cake in the castle restaurant while we waited for that to start.  When it was time to go out for the start of the tour we found ourselves to be the only people there so effectively we got our own private tour. 

Industrial building full of beery goodness

The tour itself was OK but there was no real interesting history behind it as it was more a chateau than a military stronghold. Judging by the 300 or so deer skulls and antlers on every wall as well as the same number of hunting rifles we're thinking that the owners fancied a bit of shooting when the opportunity presented itself.

One interesting thing about the castle was that the owners bolted to America to escape the Nazis at the beginning of WWII and it was seized by the Gestapo.  After the war it became the property of the Czech state.

Wort vats

On the way back home we stopped at a town called Cesky Budejovice which is home to the original and best Budweiser beer.  (Not the knock off watered down American version.)  What better way to spend an hour with your children than to go on a brewery tour so we signed up to that.

On the tour with us there were a couple from Poland and just like my wife she looked thrilled to be there.

When in Czech do as the Czechs do.

The tour was pretty good and the fellow who took us was excellent considering they must say the same thing over and over again every time they take a group of people.

I asked him if the workers were allowed to take beer home and he must have misunderstood me a bit and he said "of course you are not allowed to drink when you are working but everybody does."

Brilliant, what a work ethic. 

The tour took us around the various stages of beer production and we saw the pipes that bring the water up from 300m underground.  The water is so pure that it needs no treatment at all prior to use in the beer.

Packaging - it's exciting

We went through the factory and ended up in the beer cellars where the beer matures before filtering and pasteurizing where it was time for a taste test.  As the country where beer is a national obsession and with the highest consumption of beer in the world it wasn't too surprising to see the kids get offered a small sample.  

How special did they think that was?  

You couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces until they had the first couple of sips.  (The reality of beery bitterness trumping the fantasy for them.)  Fortunately I was there to take one for the team and I managed to finish off their beers for them.

Tour guide Jan

We left the brewery and drove into the centre of town to sober up and walked around the central square of Cesky Budejovice.  After an hour or so we drove back to our accommodation and had dinner at home.

Stray observations:  Beer drinking here is not like in Australia which seems to be a means to an end.  Here it seems to be seen as a drink to enjoy and if you enjoy it then have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The real deal