Just after breakfast, we boarded our bus and headed for a town famous for its beer (Ceske Budejovice). William took us directly to the primary attraction - Budweiser Budvar Brewery. One of the most detailed beer tastings I've ever been treated to, we toured the plant as they prepared to bring it in to full operation around noon.
Finally, we descended into the cellar where 70 large tanks held the unfermented, unpasteurized new beer. Without a long shelf-life, this beer would begin to lose flavor in ten days, but it tasted great to all of us straight from the tank. I learned later that this facility produces 1 million eight hundred thousand hectoliters of beer annually. Worldwide, 258 million hectoliters of beer, 1.5 billion hectoliters of wine, and 3.5 billion hectoliters of tea are produced.
Visiting the ancient walled town of Trebon, and devouring a delicious lunch of local Carp and mashed potato, with raspberry lemonade, we drove on to the House of the Apocalypse. Don't bother trying to find what I'm going to describe. It's a private house, known to OAT, where after 1550 a group of Lutheran-like folks decided to meet often in the upper floor and paint panels with scenes of the Book of Revelations. Fourteen vivid depictions imagining what it will be like when the end comes. No photos unfortunately.
We end our day at
Slavonice, (
website) a small old town on the border of Austria, in the province of Moravia. It reached its peak in the 16th century when it was an important stop on the trade routes between Vienna and Prague. Our hotel (Dum U Ruze) is a 12-room B&B with a extensive wine cellar, and an owner who features wine everywhere. Another stay without air conditioning, but the weather is cooperating, an we'll leave the windows open.
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