Praha--Prague

We spent a wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Praha; Prague, Czech Republic. With a myriad of towers, steeples, domes, spires, battlements and bridges of numerous architectural styles, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, etc., the city has a magical and unique appearance. The turn of every corner on its narrow, winding streets results in another breathtaking image. Of course, after a world war, a world wide depression, another world war and decades of communist rule there are still a good number of buildings in Prague that are rundown and shabby but, in spite of that, Prague turned out to be a very special destination.

Because of its central location in Europe, Prague has played a pivotal role during its a 1100 year history. It has been the residence of two Holy Roman Emperors. The people of Prague precipitated the Thirty Year’s War (1618-1648) during a defenestration when Protestants threw Catholics out the third floor windows of the Prague Castle. For a significant period of its history, Prague was oppressively dominated by German influences in the form of Habsburg or Prussian forces to the point of Czech customs and language being declared unlawful. After WW I and the creation of Czechoslovakia, Prague became the new country’s capitol. Occupied again by the Germans in WW II, after the war, Prague and Czechoslovakia remained under communist control until the demise of the Soviet Union. After Czechoslovakia split in 1993 Prague became the capital again of a new county, the Czech Republic.

The following pictures are a look at the images and experiences of our trip to Praha. Most of the information about Prague came from our excellent city tour guide.

Nearing the Czech Republic border. Pretty cool autobahn intersection. From here you can go to Prague, Berlin or Munich.

After our arrival and hotel check-in, we needed some sustenance and here’s our first stop. U Medvidku, a very popular beer hall/restaurant/hotel. U Medvidku has a very typical history which dates back to 1466. After WW II the property was confiscated without compensation by the socialist Czechoslovakian government. The property greatly deteriorated until the inheritors of the original owners regained control of the business in the 1989 and were able to renovate the building. Today it’s a great place with many connecting rooms, the city’s smallest brewery, great food and beer.

U Medvidku serves Budweiser Budvar (the Czech Budweiser). These half-liter mugs cost 35 Koruna, about $2. Awesome price for quality beer. U Medvidku also serves their own beer, XBEER 33, produced in their little brewery, which they claim to be the world’s strongest beer with a 12.9% alcohol content.

Our next stop was U Vejvodu, another great, unique beer hall. U Medvidku serves Pilsner Urquell.

Before we went to the hotel we walked to the river to see the Prague Castle at night. Here we’re on the east bank of the Vitava River.

Throughout Europe, it’s common to see these concrete bumpers on the corners of buildings at the entrance to a narrow alleyway. These concrete bumpers are to protect the building from vehicles as they turn into the alley. Here, during the communist control of Prague, someone got a bit inventive and decided to enhance their concrete bumper to make a statement. Jeff helps to illustrate the basic theme.

On the Charles Bridge, looking west toward the Prague Castle and the part of Prague known as Mala Strana, Lesser Town. The Charles Bridge was begun in 1347 by the Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. The bridge would not be completed until the early 1400s and would remain the only bridge across the Vitava in Prague until 1841.

On the Charles Bridge looking back toward Stare Mesto, Old Town, and the Old Town Bridge Tower.

One of the 30 statues that sit on the balustrade of Charles Bridge. These statues were placed on the bridge in the late 1600s and early 1700s. They are statues of various saints and patron saints that were created by some of the most prominent Bohemian sculptors of the day. In 1965 the city began replacing the original statues with replicas. The originals are now exhibited in the National Museum.

The west side of the Charles Bridge and the Lesser Town Bridge Tower.

The largest and most expensive statue on Charles Bridge. The statues of St. John of Matha and Felix of Valois who were members of an order that bought back Christians who were in the captivity of Turks. The base shows three Christians chained in a cave praying to God for salvation.

Our city tour of Prague was on Segways; really great fun and a wonderful learning experience. Our first stop was the John Lennon Wall. John Lennon never visited Prague but upon his death, communist oppressed people of Prague came to this wall and painted graffiti wishes and comments about Lennon. Socialist police would paint over the wall each day until that chore became too tedious. Because the wall is directly across the street from the French Embassy, police chose not to pursue these graffiti artists and possibly have their strong arm tactics shown to the world. New graffiti appears almost daily even now with the overall look of the wall completely changed every few weeks.

Down at Vitava River level looking at the Charles Bridge. Prague had an extreme flood in 2002. At our present spot we would have been about 12 feet under water.

Baby statues created by David Cerny, a prominent Czech sculptor. These statues have no face, just a bar code. You figure it out.

Philip, our guide telling me about the history of the Prague National Theater there in the background. The theater is a national monument and a source of great pride. It was one of the first places that was allowed to accomplish performances in the Czech language and is seen as an important instrument in saving Czech culture and heritage. It originally opened in 1881 but shortly after the first performance was destroyed in a fire; a national catastrophe. Reconstruction of the present building began almost immediately.

An interesting building in Prague. Look at the top floor windows. The paint trim spells PRAHA.

Prague’s New Town or Winceslaus Square. The National Museum at the far end.

Powder Gate, one of the four remaining gates of the city wall. Named such because it was the storage point for the city’s supply of gun powder.

One of the many concert halls where Mozart performed in Prague. After Mozart fell from favor in Salzburg and Vienna he was still welcomed warmly in Prague where he would live for months at a time and performed repeatedly. Don Giovanni seems to be playing everywhere even today.

Charles University, founded in 1348, is one of the oldest universities in Europe.

Arriving in the Old Town square, the St. Nicholas Church.

The Old Town Hall clock tower and the double spired Tyn Cathedral.

The Astronomical Clock on the side of the Old Town Hall. The clock was originally built in 1410 and is the only such working clock in the world. It has a number of dials or rings that show present and Old Prague time, zodiac signs, position of the sun and the moon. A number of years ago the clock keeper asked Prague for a pay raise and was told no by the city. So he retired. However, because of the complexity of the clock no adequate replacement could be found. The solution, hire the old clock keeper back at three times his previous pay. He’s getting ready to retire again but now has trained his replacements.

In the old Jewish part of Prague, known as Josefov, is the oldest active synagogue in Europe, the Old New Synagogue; completed in 1217.

Until the mid-1700s the Jews of Prague were required to live in the Josefov ghetto area. When they died, they had to be buried in the small cemetery there. Over time, it’s believed that over 100,000 people were buried in this small plot of land and ,because space was so limited, bodies had to be buried one of top of another to the extent of 12 bodies deep.

Crossing back over the Vitava River to start our ride up to the Prague Castle.

The streets up to the Prague Castle are quite steep and cobbled stone so it made for an interesting ride on the Segway.

We made it. The large courtyard in front of the Prague Castle.

The entry gate to the Prague Castle is a little intimidating. Those statues sort of indicate that if you misbehave in the castle, they’ll beat the crap out of you.

Jeff and I on our Segways, high above Prague.

Prague Castle with St. Vitus Cathedral. Prague Castle is the largest castle in the world. St. Vitus is situated entirely within the walls of the castle.

While we were on our Segway tour our tour guide told us that there’s a tradition in Prague that says upon your first visit to the city, your one wish will be granted if you touch a specific spot on the Charles Bridge. He told us there’s a misconception that that point is one of the scenes at the base of the statue of St. John of Nepomuk. St. John was a priest who had taken the confession of the queen in 1393. The king wanted to know what she had confessed. When St. John refused to divulge that information the kings troops threw him from the Charles Bridge into the river where he drowned. (Apparently folks from Prague are fond of throwing others from high places, like windows and bridges.) Although it’s quite obvious where people have placed their hands at the base of the St. John statue, again, our tour guide said this is not the place to make your wish.

Here’s one of the scenes at the base of St. John of Nepomuk. It shows him being thrown from the Charles Bridge. According to our guide, this is not the place to make your wish.

A bit further east along the north side of the Charles Bridge is this plaque, also a commemoration of St. John of Nepomuk. Among the cobblestones in front of the plaque is a bronze disc. According to our guide, to have your wish granted, it must be your first trip to Prague, place your hand on the plaque while stepping on the bronze disc. With that, Jeff says he’s getting a Porsche 911.

Well, after that three-hour city Segway tour and all that intense wishing, we needed sustenance once again. Oh yeah, and Jeff wanted to celebrate his future Porsche 911. So we went to U Fleku, a wonderful beer hall in the Old Town. U Fleku is one of the oldest pubs in Prague, founded in 1499. It can seat 1200 in its eight rooms. While we were here we sat next to and talked with two couples from Poland and after they left, two couples from Holland. Great, fun conversation!!

U Fleku serves its own dark beer, Flekovsky Tmavy Lezak (The Flek Dark Double Lager) which is available no where else on earth. It was cold, smooth and light. One of the best things about the service at U Fleku was that a waiter came out with a tray full of beers and if you didn’t already have one, or your’s was almost empty, he just put a beer in front of you. It was pretty much perpetual beer.

Here’s a video we took in U Fleku. The accordion was playing, the beer was flowing, we were having a great time. Towards the end of the video you can see a guy carrying around a tray of shot glasses. These were filled with some type of local fire water. In the picture above you can see our empty glasses; good stuff but one was enough.

The food was great at U Fleku too. I had a marinated pork cutlet plate with red cabbage and Jeff had sausages, sauerkraut and baked potatoes. Yummy!

Next we walked down to see one of the quirkier sights in Prague. The Dancing House. This building was built in 1996. Other nicknames of the building were the Fred and Ginger house because it sort of looks like a couple dancing and the Drunk House.

Then we walked along the river and back into Old Town to visit U Zlateho tygra, the Golden Tiger. One of the unique things about this pub is that every seat in the beer hall is reserved for locals. It’s fine to sit at the tables here but once a local shows up and asks for their spot, it’s time for you to leave.

I asked these Czech gentlemen if we could sit with them and they seemed delighted to have our company; and the stories began. According to them, when Bill Clinton and Vaclav Havel shared a beer here, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell sat at the very table where we were now. Eventually the table was completely full with locals and although another tourist couple was asked to leave, Jeff and I were allowed to stay. Again, the conversation was fantastic!!!! An interesting sight was to watch when one of the folks on the far side of the table needed to go to the toilet. When they departed or returned, all the people around the table stood and lifted the table up so that person could exit or return under the table.

U Zlateho tygra serves unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell. That means no preservatives and that the beer temperature has never been elevated to eliminate micro-organisms which also can eliminate certain beer flavors and tastes. THIS WAS A WONDERFUL BEER!! The cranium on the beer was thick and creamy and the beer cold and extraordinarily tasty!!

The inside of the U Zlateho tygra.

Walking up the street to eat we spotted this bit of Czech art. It’s a statue of a guy hanging by one hand. It’s the creation of the same guy, David Cerny, that did the big babies.

Our meal for the evening, this huge pork knuckle on our own personal spit. Excellent!! And with that, the day was over and what a day it was. Awesome!!

Our third day in Prague we wandered over to the Old Town square which was very busy with various activities. This videos shows a Czech dancing groups putting on a display of their skills at the foot of the Tyn Cathedral.

We’re at U Pinkasu, the very first pub in Prague to serve Pilsner Urquell back in 1843. Pilsner Urquell, the very first pilsner beer, was first brewed in 1842 so these guys were really on the ball.

U Pinkasu also serves unpasteurized Pilsner Urquell. Pilsner Urquell is actually German for the beer that is known as Plzensky Prazdroj. Urquell and Prazdroj both mean “original” in their respective language, while Pilsner and Plzensky mean from Plzen, a city just west of Prague.

The beer garden at U Pinkasu was quite interesting. They built it between the back of their building and the exterior wall of a next door church. Must not be a Baptist church. They don't like beer that close.

Now we’re up in Letenske Sady, a large park north of the Old Town area of the city. This is a huge metronome built high on this platform. What made this interesting to us is what was originally placed on this massive concrete pedestal.

This is an old picture of the original structure that stood on this pedestal, a huge statue honoring Joseph Stalin. The people of Prague never wanted this monument. The Soviets forced a local sculptor to create this piece of “art.” He received considerable hate mail for his efforts and committed suicide just weeks after his creation was dedicated in 1955. The Stalin monument was torn down in 1962. The metronome sculpture was built on the sight in 1991.

Stalin to Hooters. Yes, they have one in Prague. Damn, globalization. I guess we won.

An interesting aspect of addresses in Prague. Each building has two numbers associated with its location. One is the street address and the second is the building number. Here’s a picture of the door to the parking area at our hotel, The Red Chair. On the left, in blue, is the street address number, 4. On the right, in red, is the building number, 250. To get a map of our hotel location we had put the street address into Google Earth; Liliova 4, Prague, Czech Republic. What Google Earth displayed was Liliova 250/4, 11000 Praha-Stare Mesto, Czech Republic. We wondered what the 250 was about. Our Segway guide answered that question. Every building in Prague has a building number assigned to it, so in this case, our hotel is in Stare Mesto (Old Town), building 250. Simple.

A few stowaways we found in our car when we got home. Very strange, 13 different Czech beers. We told them they'd be safe with us. Kind of like Hansel and Gretel and the witch.

Prague was awesome and great fun!!

Deutschland Dust

Until a couple weeks ago are experiencing an annoying phenomenon here in west central Germany. I’m not sure how widespread it was but we drove two hours north to Cologne and they were having the same issue there. It’s what I call Deutschland Dust. This had been going on for over a month. Wash your car and within minutes a light dusting of yellow pollen would settle on the newly clean surface. Overnight it would develop into a serious yellow layer of dust and after a few days your car would look like it came out of a yellow dust storm. I’ve never seen this problem before here and neither have most people I’ve talked to.

This is not our car. Jeff would never allow our cars to look like this. This is in my parking lot at Landstuhl. Most of the cars are covered with this dust.

The cause appeared to be the result of two issues. I think most of this yellow pollen was coming from the rapeseed fields that are now a prominent crop here in Germany. The big yellow rapeseed fields really are pretty and a nice contrast to the various other green crops, pastures and woodlands. Rapeseed, or rape, is used for vegetable oil; in fact, it’s the source of canola seeds and canola oil. It’s also the preferred source of oil for the production of biodiesel, a huge initiative across Europe. Apparently, it’s a very profitable crop because these fields are so much more widespread across the German countryside than years ago.

A rapeseed field outside of Weilerbach.

What was probably exacerbating the volume of airborne pollen from the rape fields was the fact that we’d had very little precipitation here in central Europe, along with higher temperatures than normal. Without that rain the pollen wasn't knocked to the ground and allowed to float about and settle on any outside surface; cars, lawn furniture, windows, anything. Doesn’t matter if you were in the country or in the city, this Deutschland Dust was everywhere. Luckily, it was more of an annoyance than a real crisis. Of course, that's all speculation on my part.

Since I’m talking rapeseed, I thought I’d share something else with you that I found interesting about rapeseed. Last fall after all the crops were harvested and fields prepared for the winter we noticed that most of the farmer’s fields had been planted with some type of something. I’m certainly not a farmer and know nothing about the farming business. So, when these whatever plants sprouted up and grew to 3-4 inches and stopped we figured that the farmers had just planted some kind of ground cover to reduce erosion. Through the winter all these fields had a nice green covering, some with a grass type cover and others a broadleaf cover. Well, when spring arrived, at least four months after these covering crops had been planted, with the warmer temperatures and additional sun light, these grass and broadleaf plants started growing again. Jeff and I were quite surprised. The grass plants are growing to be, we think, wheat but it could be some other type of grain too. The broadleaf plants have grown to be rapeseed. So that’s the interesting part, these crops sprouted then lay dormant for months, then kicked it back on when it got warm and sunny again. Like I said, I’m not a farmer. I'm sure this has been going on for centuries but it’s still pretty cool.

Here's what the rapeseed fields looked like all winter long. Just a short, broadleaf plant. Well, now we know.

Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest

On Sunday, Mothers Day, Jeff treated me to a beer festival. How thoughtful. After visiting the Porsche Museum and Burg Hohenzollern the day before, we finally made it to the Stuttgart Frühlingsfest (Spring Fest). The festival takes place on the same grounds as the bigger, fall Cannstatter Volksfest. The two-week Spring Fest has a huge midway, carnival ride area which takes up most of the festival grounds. During the fall festival there are around eight large beer tents; in the Spring Fest, just three. We had reserved tables with a group of twenty people, right up front, just below the band. It was pretty much the same atmosphere as Oktoberfest or the Cannstatter Volksfest, loud music, singing, glass mugs clanking together, Prosting; everything. However, because of Mothers Day our tent was only half full but, of course, it was the half in front of the band.

Spring festivals like this are quite fun because they signal to people that summer is almost here and the wine and beer fest season has begun.

Part of the Frühlingsfest was a car rally that ran through the city. We watched for a bit and saw some great cars whiz by. Here's an old one . . .

. . . and a new one.

Finally on the festival grounds. First time we've seen one of these at a German fetival; Der Riesen Hamburger (The Giant Hamburger). It doesn't look like it in this picture but they were doing a pretty good business.

A brat and a beer. Almost everything a guy needs.

We were in the Grandl Hofbrau Zelt (Tent) which sells one of the local beers, Stuttgarter Hofbrau. Doesn't that first letter of Stuttgarter look like a G? Must be some Gothic S.

If you've ever been to a German wine or beer festival you're familiar with the tables and benches they use; very efficient and sturdy. Here at the Stuttgart Spring Fest we saw something we'd never seen before. They bolted the table and benchs to the floor. Makes it a lot safer when you're standing on top of them which is always inevitable. Plus, look at the room between the benches. At Oktoberfest those benches are backed up to each other, no room between. This was nice for extra festing room and allowed you to move about much more easily.

Here Jeff and I are with our long-time friends Gloria and Mike Ryan, who now live in Stuttgart.

Did I say we were right in front of the band? This is how close we were.

These big, heavy glass beer mugs aren't indestructable. Here's a dead soldier.

There's all kinds of Lederhosen but you're just nobody unless you've got a shiney, bright green pair. Pretty cool!

We had a great weekend!! Porsche Museum, Burg Hohenzollern and all topped off with a nice, tune-up beer festival. PROST!!

Hohenzollern

Our Saturday afternoon destination, after the mornings visit to the Porsche Museum, was Burg Hohenzollern. The castle is a half hour south of Stuttgart in the foothills of the Swabian Alb. The Burg sits on the peak of Mount Hohenzollern almost 800 feet above the valley floor. The present castle is the actually the third such structure on this sight, the original dating back to the 11th Century. That Medieval castle was completely destroyed In 1423 by enemy forces. A second castle was begun in 1454 and was occupied at various times by French and Habsburg Austrians until it was essentially abandoned in 1798 and left to ruins. The present castle was an almost complete renovation that began in 1850 and completed in 1867.

The family owners of Burg Hohenzollern can trace their lineage back to the early 1200s. Eventually, that family would split into two lines, the Swabian and the Brandenburg branches, who still share ownership of the castle today; one-third to the Swabian line and two-thirds to the Brandenburg. The Brandenburg branch of the family would eventually achieve imperial status as kings of Prussia and finally, the three Emperors of Germany. Because one family is Protestant and the other Catholic Burg Hohenzollern has two chapels, one for each denomination; the Catholic chapel being the only structure that remains of the second castle.

In addition to being open to the public, now the castle is used for concerts, a Christmas festival, family owners functions and a children’s charity. The current head of the Brandenburg side of the family is 34 year-old Prince Georg Friedrich. If things had gone differently he would be the King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany.

Burg Hohenzollern can be seen from miles around.

The castle wall and gate tower.

Burg Hohenzollern courtyard. They do a very nice tour, in English, of the main castle. Most of the tour they have you wear woolen slippers that your shoes right into. That's to protect the stone mosaic and wooden parquet floors.

Catholic Chapel, the only remaining part of the second castel.

The Hohenzollern gate tower.

I'm checking out the drawbridge weights.

Now I'm checking out the small guard turret outside the main walls. You can see the valley below.

On the way down the hill we stopped at one of the rest points. Kind of an interesting solid-piece-of-wood bench.

All the sight seeing today; Porsche Museum, Burg Hohenzollern. Time for a little liquid reinvigoration and refreshment. Fürstenberg Export brewed in Stuttgart.

One of those arms length shots to prove that we were there.

Really fun day at the Porsche Museum and Burg Hohenzollern. Tomorrow the Stuttgart Frühlingsfest. Pricelss!

Porsche Museum

We spent last weekend in the Stuttgart area. We’d been invited to join a group of people on Sunday at the city’s Frühlingsfest (Spring festival). Rather than drive down for just the festival Jeff and I decided to leave Saturday morning to go the Porsche Museum located in Zuffenhausen, a northwest suburb of Stuttgart, and then visit Burg Hohenzollern about a half hour south of the city that same afternoon.

We left our house early to make the two hour drive so that we could be at the Porsche Museum when it opened at 0900. That proved to be a good idea since we were able to leisurely stroll through the museum in mostly quiet isolation but by the time we left at 1100 the place was packed.

Porsche was founded by Ferdinand Porsche, an innovative Austrian engineer in 1931. His impact on the automobile industry is significant having invented the electric hub motor, which was the very first hybrid gasoline-electric engine, a line of Mercedes-Benz cars and in 1934 he received a contract from Adolph Hitler to build a people’s car which would become the Volkswagen Beetle. Although Ferdinand Porsche became an engineer officer in the Nazi party he rarely wore his uniform. During WW II he was instrumental in tank development and the transition of his Volkswagen works to wartime use. He was jailed for 20 months in a French prison after the war while his son, Ferry, directed the Porsche company and began the development of the distinctive Porsche lines that would first be seen in the 356. That 356 shape would evolve into the 911 and its numerous versions and much, much more, turning Porsche into a name that’s synonymous with quality, speed and expensive.

The Porsche Museum is in the middle of the company’s production, design and manufacturing center. Although its address is Porscheplatz 1, from the A81 autobahn you drive down Schwieberdinger Straße which is a pretty funny thing to hear the GPS say as it repeatedly tells you to turn onto that street.

The Porsche Museum is a beautiful, modern, glass building. Entry is only 8 Euro with another 2 Euro for the audio tour. They do a factory tour that also starts from here. They do those Monday through Thursday, it's free but it's booked through November.

The Porsche Museum is a big, wide open place, very well laid out. With a great audio tour that follows Porsche from its beginnings, even before the war, to its first production Porsche vehicle built after the war, all the way to today and its most recent addition to the Porsche line, the Panamera.

A lot of people are not aware that Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of Porsche automobiles, was also the developer of the Volkswagen Beetle, the people’s car. Interestingly, Porsche and Wolkswagen are merging into a single autombile entity this year.

In 1948, after Ferdinand Porsche’s release from a French prison the previous year, he and his son, Ferry, built the 49, all completely by hand, of their new innovatively shaped 356 Coupe. The lines of this car would become the signature of Porsche automobiles; even today.

Inspired by the 356 the American Roadster was built specifically for the U.S. market. One of Ferdinand Porsche’s specification was that his sports cars must be able to hold within its trunk two small bags and a set of golf clubs. (Certainly not the massive set of clubs you see today.) The American Roadster was not sold in Europe except to U.S. servicemen. It became a favorite of American fighter pilots stationed in Europe and highly desired by European Porsche lovers. In 1955, this was the type of car that James Dean was killed in.

The 356 Carrera originally sold for around $4000. Today they sell at auction for about $300,000. The Carrera name comes from Porsche’s victories at the Mexican races at Carrera Panamericana.

The 911 was first introduced in 1963 and versions of it are still built today. Originally, Porsche planned to designate the car as the 901. However, the French car manufacturer Peugeot had exclusive rights to name cars in France by three numbers with zero being the middle. Rather than name to car something else in France, Porsche just changed the designation to 911.


The Porsche 911 Carrera was introduced in 1973. It had a bigger engine, more horsepower, wider wheels and fenders and the distinctive “ducktail” rear spoiler. This car also has what would be the 911 Carrera characteristic Fuchs wheels.

The 911 Turbo came out in 1974 with its unique “whale tail.” In the U.S. market it would be designated the Porsche 930.

This picture is no joke. During our last assignment here in Germany we say Porsche 911 police cars more than once.

Danger!! Danger!! Not surprisingly, there’s a large Porsche dealership across the street from the museum. Jeff and I owned a Porsche 928S which we purchased in Germany in 1984 and brought back to the states. We kept it until 1995. I’m getting the feeling that the fire may be rekindled after this visit.

Walking back to our parked car, back in the world of drab, everyday cars, we saw this Smart Car parked smartly. Kind of makes you want to go push it over.

Who knows, this could be the most expensive visit of our time here in Germany. That's yet to be seen. We usually get something from wherever we go, even if it's just something very small that can go in our printers box on the wall. We didn't get anything Porsche . . . yet.

At Home Beer Fest

Last weekend we had a party at our house to select the world’s greatest beer. We had 17 bier meister judges sample 13 different beers. Of the 13 beers, six were German, Kloster Andechs Doppelbock Dunkel, Bitburger, Kloster Scheyern, Augustiner Helles, Früh Kölsch, Weihenstephan Original; two American, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Old English 800; one Belgium, Chimay Grand Reserve; one French, Kronenbourg 1664; one Czech, Budweiser Budvar; one Mexican, Modello Dark, and one Brit, Newcastel Brown Ale.

Judging beer is serious business, as you can see here.

The tasting process we used was to provide each judge with 2 ounces of each beer, one at a time. Only Jeff and I, with help from two friends, knew which beer was being sampled. After all 13 beers were tasted each judge wrote down their top three favorite beers. For a first place vote we gave that beer three points, second place two and third place one. So the beer with the highest points was our world’s greatest. Here are the results.

1. Samuel Adams Boston Lager—24 pts.
2. (Tie) Chimay Grand Reserve and Newcastle Brown Ale—16 pts
4. Kloster Andech Doppelbock Dunkel—14 pts
5. Modello Dark—11 pts
6. Kronenbourg 1664—9 pts
7. Old English 800—7 pts (We always throw in one ringer)
8. Weihenstephan Original—5 pts
9. Früh Kölsch—4 pts
10. (Tie) Kloster Scheyern and Augustiner Helles—1 pt
12. (Tie) Budweiser Budvar and Bitburger—0 pts

Samuel Adams Boston Lager was selected as our world’s greatest beer. An interesting fact is that this is the sixth time we’ve done this beer sampling/judging event. Each and every time we’ve done this Samuel Adams Boston Lager has won. That’s really quite amazing. Of course, our process is not scientific and our judges are just regular beer lovers but after six times there’s got to be something to it.

You’ve certainly noticed one of the beers sampled was Old English 800. If you’re not familiar with this particular beer it’s probably because you don’t normally drink your beer from a paper bag. Old English 800 is sold in clear quart bottles for about a $1.80. Why it’s sold here in the base shoppette, especially with a selection of over a dozen German beers right there, I have no idea. But OE 800 was our ringer beer which we always throw into each one of these beer judging events. You’ll notice that OE 800 got 7 points. That’s the result of two people selecting it as their number one beer and one person selecting it as her third best beer. Of course, we won’t publicly humiliate those individuals by singling them out here on the world wide web. Although it’s always fun to see someone pick the cheap swill beer as their favorite of the bunch and then ridicule and belittle them. Here in Germany that’s called Schadenfreude; pleasure in the misery of others. Good grief, in the past, we had a good friend of ours pick Colt .45 as his number one and the only reason I point that out here is a bit more Schadenfreude; you know who you are.

I certainly wouldn't want to embarrass the three folks that voted Old English 800 as one of their favorite beers by identifying them here, so I won't.

"What do you think Torch? This number six tastes like the best!"

Warthog friends comparing notes; Crater, Magneto and Zero.

Crater explains how the beer feels so good when it touches his lips. Zero seems to agree.

Beyond the beer judging we also had a ten question beer knowledge test and a little scavenger hunt. Lots of food, good beer, fun people, great time.

Jeff reading off the results of the beer judging and awarding prizes.

Party prizes. Left is 2-Balls with his bottle of absinthe for quessing the closest to the number of Neuschwanstein images there are in our house. Jeff, the Supreme Grand Poobah Bier Mester. On the right is Torch with his two-liter bottle of beer won for being the bier miester to most closely select the top three beers.

No matter how much fun the party is, you still gotta clean up. 17 judges times 13 beers equals 221 little plastic cups.

Samuel Adams Boston Lager; world's greatest beer!!

Important Advice

Here’s a hypothetical situation. Suppose you’re driving with your husband, on the way home from a weekend trip. You both decide to take a minor detour to stop and see a major tourist attraction with some historical and geographical significance. Oh yeah, hypothetically, you’re in Germany and you’re stopping in Koblenz to see a very large statue at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine rivers. Hypothetically, it’s a very nice Easter Sunday, there are large crowds of Germans out doing the same thing you’re doing and because of that there’s just no where to park. Finally, after hypothetically driving around for twenty minutes or so, you find yourself on a side street and your husband hypothetically says, “just pull over there.” You’re response to this hypothetical statement is, “That’s not a legal parking spot, we could get towed.” Your husband hypothetically responds, “Don’t worry, it’s Easter Sunday, there won’t be any German police around here.” So what would you do in this hypothetical situation?

So let’s say you hypothetically go ahead and park in the illegal parking spot. You enjoy a couple of hypothetical touristy hours. Upon return to the hypothetically illegally parked car you discover that the car is indeed gone. Should you ever find yourself in a hypothetical situation like this, while you’re husband is swearing and ranting about how screwed “we” are, here’s what I recommend. Take out your iPhone 4, tap in Koblenz police, call that number and tell them you think your car has been towed. They’ll give you the number of the folks in charge of towing. Those people will tell you where the car has been moved. Then walk across the street to a taxi and give them the address where the car is located. Follow these recommended procedures and it will only take 15 minutes from the discovery of the missing car to unlocking the missing car’s doors and driving away. Apparently, in a hypothetical situation like this, the German police would have a car towed to a non-descript parking lot, left there with the ticket under the wipers. No impound; just waiting for the hypothetical law breaker and his wife who told him not to do it in the first place.

Of course, since this is a hypothetical situation this is not a picture of our car. But I imagine that this would be the type of system they would use in just such a situation since if you left the electric emergency brake engaged and found it still engaged they would have to lift the vehicle by some means. Hypothetically speaking.

Hypothetically, the fine for a situation like this would be only €15 for illegally parking. Of course, hypothetically, you probably have to wait for the towing bill to show up in the mail.

So here's my final bit of advice should you find yourself in a situation like this. Always have your iPhone with you and don't listen to your husband; one is always smart, the other just once in a while.