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Oktoberfest Trip - Day 10 - Day trip to Pilsen

Thursday, October 9, 2025 @ 7:27 PM in 2025 Oktoberfest Trip

The main focus of today was getting to the town of Plzen (Pilsen) for a tour of the world famous Pilsner Urquell brewery. The town of Pilsen is about an hour and a half train ride away, and the train we booked was set to depart the station at 10am. Since we had some time, we went out and got a cup of coffee from a place called "onesip". They had some really nice coffee, even though the place was extremely small, with only two spots to sit.

We made it to the train station with plenty of time and saw our train on the board. The problem was, there wasn't a platform number assigned to it. As it got closer and closer to our departure time, we were starting to worry about what was going on. There was another American couple next to us that were supposed to be on the same train. When the departure time passed and no train ever showed up, we thought maybe there was another bus reroute but couldn't find anything. We finally went to the information booth and they told us we can get on the next train that was set to leave at 10:35. This was cutting it a little close because our planned tour at Pilsner Urquell was for 12:15 and the new train was supposed to arrive in Pilsen at 11:58. Google was telling us it would be a 14 minute walk to get between the station and the brewery.

In talking to the American couple a little more while we were waiting for the new train, it turns out they live in Carmel, IN, the same town I grew up in and the woman went to the same school as my mom and also went to Purdue. Extremely small world. They were also set to do the Pilsner Urquell tour but had booked a 12:30 slot instead, so had a little more time to work with.

The ride was uneventful and the train got to the station on time. Fortunately it was a really easy walk over to the brewery and we got to the visitor center with plenty of time to spare. I really had to pee and all of the bathrooms on the train were locked or broken, so having a little time to go before the tour was great. The only problem was the guide who spoke English was out sick so the replacement was someone who didn't speak English. Instead of getting the info first hand, we had to download an app that acted as a virtual tourguide. It worked but would have been more fun to have the info given to us in person. Unfortunately the 12:30 tour was full or we would have switched to that one.

The first 3/4 of the tour was pretty normal with fancy marketing and some views of the bottling facility. Where it got really interesting was when we went down into the cellars and got to see where they used to ferment the beer where it was cold. They had some original barrels that they still ferment some of the beer in for quality purposes, to make sure it tastes the same as it did back in the 1800s when the brewery was founded.

The tour concluded with being served a glass of beer directly from one of the fermentation vats in the cellar. We got to drink Pilsner Urquell in its unfiltered form which is pretty unique. It was a lot more bitter and had more yeast taste, but was really good. After the tour, we were starving because it was about 1:45 and we hadn't had lunch yet. We made our way into town and found a Vietnamese place to get some food. We wanted another break from meat and dumplings and this sounded like the best choice. The food was not as good as it is back in the US, but it was vegetables and light and tasted good enough.

After that, we walked around the town of Pilsen for a little while before making our way back to the train station to catch our train back to Prague. Fortunately there weren't any issues and we were able to get in our train car with our assigned seats. Back in Prague, the sun had come out so we walked to the Astronomical Clock again. There were huge crowds of soccer fans chanting and chugging beer. There was quite a bit of police presence, so I guess those may get rowdy. We made our way over to the Charles Bridge, through some packed touristy areas, and then took some photos of the bridge from the banks of the river.

Rather than walk back through the crowds, we walked along some paths that followed the river basically back to our AirBnb. We got back here and I showered before we plan to go get dinner and meet with another brewing friend of ours who gets in late tonight from Berlin. For dinner, we're going to a meat shop around the corner that is supposed to make some fantastic sandwiches.

Teaser photos:

Pilsner Urquell brewing facility

Beer straight from the barrel

Charles Bridge at sunset

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Tags: prague, pilsen

Posted from: Czech Republic

Hiking the Cinque Terre

Wednesday, October 9, 2013 @ 4:55 PM in 2013 Europe

Day 105

It was overcast when I woke up which I was fine with. It meant that I wouldn't be burning up like I would have been yesterday in the full sun. The train I was waiting on to take me to the next town of Manarola didn't leave until around 10:20am so I wasn't really in a rush.

When I got to Manarola I walked to the start of the coastal trail but saw that it was closed for whatever reason. Since that trail was closed I had to take the much more elevation intense #6 trail up to Volastra and then cut over to Corniglia. What should have been a 30 minute hike had the coastal trail been open turned into a 2 hour adventure to go to the same place.

It was a pretty intense hike up the steep side of vineyards but awarded me with some spectacular views that I wouldn't have seen if I was closer to the coast. I passed through the small town of Volastra and then cut down to Corniglia.

During this part of the hike I started to run into a lot of other hikers. There were huge groups of people slowly hiking and trying to pass them on the extremely narrow trails was a challenge. It also made for slow going when you came across people going the other direction because you had to find a spot wide enough for both groups to pass. At one point I ended up getting stuck behind a group of about 30-40 french people who weren't the fastest hikers. Of course it was also on one of the steepest parts of the hike so I really upped my heart rate jogging past them when I had the opportunity.

Eventually I got down to Corniglia which is situated at the top of a cliff and is the one town that doesn't really connect directly to the water. I had a pressed sandwich here for lunch and took a little break before continuing on.

When I got to the start of the next part of the trail there were a bunch of people all lined up. It was a bit frustrating being stuck behind these huge groups or chunks of groups because all you feel like you're doing is passing slow people or moving over for oncoming hikers. The weather was also turning a bit for the worse here and some light rain started to come in and out the rest of the hike.

After Corniglia was Vernazza. This is where I spent some time yesterday and seeing the town from the south side was really nice. The town was packed with tour groups from cruises who take up the entirety of the tiny streets when the tour guide stops to say something. It's a bit frustrating when all you want to do is get around them and they seem to have complete disregard for anyone other than themselves or the group.

The views around Vernazza were the best of the whole hike though in my opinion. The town is very picturesque and there are some great viewing areas on the hiking trails around the city. All of the towns sell these little spice mixtures that are great for pasta, fish, meat, bruscetta, etc so I bought a couple packets and I'll try to recreate them when I'm back home. I'm going to try one of them with my pasta tonight.

Continuing on, next up was the final town in the Cinque Terre of Monterosso. It took about an hour to get between the towns, mostly because of the huge amount of people also on the trail and the trail being at its narrowest and least passing-friendly. Monterosso is definitely the most resorty of the five towns. It's the only one with a true beach and everything built up around it is geared more toward vacationers it seemed like.

I was planning on hanging out at the beach with a beer but didn't really want to deal with all the tourists. I saw there was a train due to arrive in about 10 minutes so I went to the train station and waited for it. While waiting, two giant tour groups also came up and were waiting to board which is a pain since the age demographic of the tour groups means it takes each person a bit of a struggle to get on the train.

I was also overhearing a group of ladies talking about similar experiences to mine hiking today. Very few people at the beginning but the farther north you got the more people were out.

I'm back at the hostel now and I'll probably have a beer before showering and having dinner. The hike was good but didn't really wear me out the same way hiking in Snowdonia or Breckon Beacons did. That being said, I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight.

Unfortunately for my last day in the Cinque Terre tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day. Depending on what the weather forecast says in the morning I might try to get out for some more hiking. If not, I'll just hang out here and enjoy Riomaggiore.

All in all aside from the massive amounts of people on the trails, the views of the cities and coastline were fantastic. This is one of the most beautiful areas I've been to the entire trip (tossed up between the Cliffs of Moher, Snowdonia and the Breckon Beacons). The photos for today are amazing and once I have a true wifi signal again I'll upload them all for everyone to see.