We hauled ourselves out of our beds at 4:45am to walk up a hill outside town to watch the sunrise. Our tour guide from yesterday had said this was a good vantage from which to see the whole city.

No one else seemed aware of this though and we had the streets almost to ourselves on the way there and back, providing great opportunities for photography.

The chapel sits on top of a hill with no paved roads leading to it. The last few hundred metres were boggy mud and grass. Sadly the sunrise was clouded but the view was nice and the walk uphill was a good bit of exercise.

We came back to the hostel for some toasted cheese rolls and got talking to Ryan, one of the other guests and a fellow Australian. He told us about some amazing places he’s been and made us want to visit Lake Bled in Slovenia. Maybe we’ll make it in September after Italy.

We told Ryan about the Eggenberg Brewery Tour which we were doing this morning. It was 130 Kroner for one person with two half litre beers to taste at the end. That’s $6.50 – the tour without beer was 100 Kroner so the beer was effectively $1.50 per litre. Very cheap!

The tour was good – fairly short and the lady who showed us around had good English and was very enthusiastic. I think the most interesting thing was seeing the old equipment (that they still use) and the smells of the malt and the yeast. I grew up in pubs so it was very familiar. Eggenberg is a small brewery on a site of historical significance and they are constrained by many rules when it comes to the upkeep of their buildings etc. The whole town of Cesky is a UNESCO listed.

Also on the tour was Nancy, a Canadian, and Ivan, her tour guide from Intrepid. We all chatted over the beers after the tour and Luke and I decided to meet up with them at dinner at the brewery restaurant that evening.

Foolishly, I only thought to take a photo after all the beer had been drunk.

We took Ivan’s suggestion and went to the Barbican Restaurant for lunch. They serve an arctic fish that is a specialty.

I proceeded to then sleep most of the afternoon away and got up in time for dinner. We went back to the brewery and had a lovely evening of conversation with Nancy and Ivan and the two other people on the tour, Alex and Melissa.

Meeting people is always one of the highlights of travel and Cesky has been no exception. I think the fact that we’ve gotten on really well with Brennan, the American who manages our hostel, is part of the reason we’ve stayed on an extra night here. That and the lovely quiet pace here. On to bigger things soon though – Vienna and then Budapest!