Day 3, from Ansbach to Plzen
Monday, May 25, 2015
After a good night sleep in this very comfortable hotel, we had a nice breakfast
and then checked out to start our ride to Plzen in the Czech Republic.
Getting ready to go
About half past eight, we left Hotel Grunwald and started our trip to the Czech
Republic. The weather was nice. Not sunny but dry and not cold.
We love to ride on these German roads
A little after nine o'clock we found a gasstation in Nurnberg. It was self
service with a credit card and fortunately, the machine accepted our Mastercards.
While riding through Asbach, I noticed a nice castle so I stopped to take a picture
and just when I was busy taking pictures, Dick came back to look what I was doing.
A castle in Asbach (and Dick on his BMW)
One of the city gates we came through
Because we were avoiding the Autobahn, we came through a lot of nice little villages.
Most of those villages are beautiful and clean
When we came through Roth, I saw a banner "Rotzer Heimatfest" and a few meters down the
road was a square with a terras of the nearby cafe. A good place to get a cappuccino and
piece of apple pie !
Banner "Rotzer Heimatfest"
Cappuccino and apple pie on a square in Roth
While we were having our cappuccino, a whole group of bikers arrived, all on big
BMW motorcycles, one almost the same as Dick his BMW K1100LT. After a chat, we
left Roth on our way to the Czech border.
We entered the Czech Republic just after half past twelve.
The border of the Czech Republic
You can see that is another country. The houses look a little different, the roads
are a little different but it is nice.
Little village in the Czech Republic
At a quarter pas one, we saw a Shell gas-station so we stopped to fill our tanks
again. The petrol is cheap in the Czech Republic, 1.22 Euro per liter regular 95
(in the Netherlands this would cost 1.73 Euro).
At SHELL Horsovsky Tyn
With our tanks full, we got on the road again, on our way to Plzen. It started to
rain so I had to get my rain trousers and as soon as I had them on, the rain
stopped......
On the road in the Czech Republic
A bus stop with a lot of waiting passengers
Plzen is the fourth biggest city in the Czech Republic with almost 163000 inhabitants
so obvious, it looks a lot different from the villages that we had came through.
One of the good things in Plzen (of course the first is the beer) is that their busses
run on electricity. A lot of roads have the electric lines for the busses above the road.
Entering Plzen
At half past two, we arrived at the "Hotel Victoria Parking" but we did not see
a Hotel Victoria. We asked some people who were working on the street and they
told us it was a hundred meters down the street.
I had to walk to the hotel to ask about the parking and then walk back. Then we
could park and lock our bikes and walk back to the hotel with all our luggage.
We could not leave valuable things in or on the bikes because there was no
security guard, just cameras.
Our bikes on the parking
Even the train stations are very nice buildings
This is were our bikes are parked for the night
The river Radbuza through Plzen
The gate to the Pilsner Urquell Brewery
In the Visitor center of Pilsner Urquell Brewery is a special build motorcycle
on display. It was designed and build in the style of Pilsner Urquell beer,
by Robert and karel Johanik in their workshop in Pilsen. They used a Yamaha
TR1 engine.
Pilsner Urquell beer styled motorcycle
The Pilsner Urquell Brewery
From the Brewery, we walked to the historic center of Plzen.
Art in the park
Doesn't this look nice !
While we walked to the historic center, it started to rain so we found
shelter and beer under the parasols of this outside cafe.
Shelter and beer under the parasol
When the rain finaly stopped we continued our walk to the center and
on the bridge to the center, I saw a beautiful statue.
Beautiful statue on a bridge
A street in the historic center
The renaissance Town Hall of Plzen
The cathedral of St. Bartholomew
The cathedral of St. Bartholomew (before 1993 the church of St. Bartholomew)
is a gothic style church, located on the "Namesti Republiky" Square. The first build on
this church started around 1295, when the city of Plzen was established.
Interieur of the cathedral
Plzen is a beautiful city and there are a lot of buildings that are worth being
on a photo but the pictures in this travel-log are just a few of the highlights.
Plzen has the second biggest Jewish Synagogue in the world
Before we went back to the hotel, we had a Big Mac and a Milshake at the McDonald's
on Americka, one of the main streets in Plzen.
After we arrived back at the hotel we booked a hotel for tomorrow and later that
evening we had a beer in the cafe in the basement before we went to our rooms for
the night.
The hotel that we booked rooms in for the next night is Penzion Gardena,
Kaplicka 21 in Cesky Krumlov.
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