Marble Arch - Manchester

Time for a look at somewhere nearer home.

The Marble Arch was built at the end of the 19th Century and is now a Grade II listed building, mainly because of the glazed ceiling and the ceramic walls that can still be seen through beer sodden eyes. Anyway, enough of the boring shit.
There is a brewery at the back of the pub which brews some fantasic organic ale, namely Manchester Bitter which has been known to get John H shitfaced and the best ginger beer you'll ever taste. Probably - The Ginger Marble. Another of their favourites is Lagonda IPA and there are lalways a few beers from local breweries. Food is good but quite expensive but the main reason is to go for the beer. Unless you're a Laurel and Hardy fan. Then you can go to the Sons of the Desert film show every 3rd Wednesday of the month, courtesy of Norm.

U Fleku - Prague

This pub was founded in 1499 and the brew found there will not be found anywhere else. However I think what you have to remember is that U Fleku's legendary dark lager os simply that. A lager. The original recipe was changed over 100 years ago but the one they sell is still an excellent brew. The dark chocolaty brew almost makes it worthwhile to brave the hordes of Russians, brash Americans and false "oompah" band in the pub. Not to mention the money grabbing waiters who are permanently trying to force feed you with expensive Becherovka schnapps. Believe me though the Flekovske pivo is probably the greatest black lager style drink in the world.

Unmissable.

Pivovarsky Klub

Right. I may be a bit harsh here. But. When I've visited Prague in the past I've always visited the Pivovarsky Dum and loved the experience, although John H got the shits through eating green curry on the last visit. This time we decided to try to Klub, the sister of Dum after reading loads of good write ups. We were promised 50 brews from Belgium and Germany and the Pivovarský klub already offers great stuff: Samichlaus, the world's strongest lager, a once-discontinued Swiss legend of 14 percent alcohol now made in Austria. Dark-beer fans can find Ireland's Beamish, fruit beer fans can taste Belgium's Floris, and microbrew hunters can pick up U Medvídků's Oldgott Barrique and X30, the strongest Czech lager, weighing in at 11.8 percent alcohol.
Not only is Pivovarský klub a bar and "beer boutique" with refrigerated bottles available for take-out upstairs, but would-be brewers can even make their own lagers on site. The menu apparently includes a roasted pork koleno (knuckle) — the best-seller at Pivovarský dům — the new place also offers grilled pork, chicken and turkey steaks, all served in spacious rooms with a feel somewhere between a typical Czech pub and a high-end cocktail bar. The downstairs dining room includes a second set of taps, some surprisingly modern recessed lighting, light-wood banquettes and exposed brick arches, as well as what looks like display cases for the bottled beers. In fact, the framed beers along the walls hide reach-in refrigerators with those same bottles inside, making selection a snap — I want this one.

Unfortunately we didn't see any of this. I went for a dump, the rest had a piss and none of us had a drink because they couldn't find room for us. Wank. As it is so far away from anywhere else we wanted to be and was in a shit-hole area (Karlin in Prague 8) I doubt that I'll be back.

Kutna Hora - Czech Republic

The principal reason for visiting Kutna Hora was to see the Bone Ossuary in Sedlec but six of the party just couldn't be arsed getting their heads into gear so it was left to Norm, myself and an under the weather Chappie to venture onto the great unknown.

Another worthwhile day out because we found a beer we hadn't sampled before.

The train only took about 50 minutes although we had to change trains at Kolin. Kutna Hora is a UNESCO listed town featuring medieval streets, a museum of mining, the bone church at Sedlec, a gothic cathedral and most importantly of all, a brewery.

We couldnt; actually find the brewery although we visited the brewery tap "Dacicky". This was named after a local hero Mikulas Dacicky z Heslova who apparently loved masturbating (I've no idea why he was a local hero). This was an excellent little boozer with an extensive food menu. Norm had the Goulash and voted it the best of the trip. Yet again I settled for the meat platter. Mmmm.

Anyway back to the beer. We had the Dacicke svetle a 4.1% deep golden brew that was superb and also had the Dacicke tmave which was a deep amber malty brew. Fabulous. After the beer and food, we took a taxi to the wierd Ossuary church. Well worth a visit but we were a bit concenred about the scores of Hells Angels who seemed to be their worshipping the bones rather than realising they were visiting a church. The same could be said for the proprietors who asked all to respect the dead yet allowed thousands of visitors a year to take photographs of them.

All in all a great day trip from Prague. Go for it.

Pivovarsky Dvur -Chyne - Czech Republic

The Pivovarsky Dvur can be found 13 km to the south west from Prague. The easiest way to get there from Prague is to get the tram to Zlicin and then get a number 347 bus to the brewery. A three day transport pass cost about a tenner and this trip is covered by it.

The brewery is excellent and the beer was easily the best we tasted in the five days in the Czech Republic. They had four different ales on the day we were there so naturally we had to try them all.

The building is a reasonably large beer hall type restaurant although not in the same league as Munich for size. The beers we tried were a 10% light draught beer, a 12% half-dark lager type beer and a 14% special dark lager. The other beer was a guest from Vienna and Norm, Derek, John H and myself think we tried it in 2005 on our Slovakia trip.

The restaurant offered the normal Czech fare, pigs knees, knuckles, bollocks etc as weel as the meat and cheese platter that I took a fancy to this year.

If you're in Prague, get a ticket to Chyne, you won't regret it.

U Medvidku - Budvar Bar - Prague

We last visited this place in 2004 when it was just a bar that sold different types of Budvar and nothing else. Well it's all changed. Since then brewery, hotel and restaurant have been added to the building and very good it is too.

Not only does the U Medvidku (At the Little Bears) have a spacious beer hall to serve Budvar only (although 5 different types) it also has a brand new brewery, surprisingly next to the toilets, serving a couple of excellent new beers "Oldgott" which is a semi -dark lager and is pretty good with a thick head and a bitter sweet finish. It was a tad expensive at 48 koruna for 40cl. The price of the Bud was around 31 (just over £1). The other was called "x beer" and is allegedly the strongest beer in the world. We didn't have one of those because Towey was moaning about spending too much time in there so we left. We managed three visits and if I'm in Prague again I'll be back.

There is also a brew shop where you can buy ale and t shirts etc but I didn't bother.

Three of us sampled a meal in the restaurant next door, all of us having venison meatballs and roast potatoes. Very good value at 95 korunas. Well worth a visit and it's easy to find as it's about 50 yards from Tesco's at 7 Na Perstyne.