In addition to the challenge of limited time allowed in Europe, and the challenge of avoiding green zones in our old campervan, there’s yet another challenge: paying for toll roads where there are no toll booths. Lots of RV travelers advocate avoiding toll roads altogether because in some countries it can get quite expensive. While backroads are beautiful, sometimes we just want to get somewhere.
Most of the countries we’re visiting have replaced tolls booths with cameras to read either your vehicle registration or an account barcode. And every country has its own scheme for payment. Luckily you can buy a ‘vignette’ or toll tag for each country. This used to be an actual physical sticker but now you just pay online for a set amount of time and your vehicle registration is read and recognized by the cameras. If you don’t have a vignette and end up on a toll road, you can be sure that at some point — maybe months later — you’ll receive a citation in the mail for the toll and a fine for nonpayment.
Before we entered the Czech Republic we bought a vignette valid for 10 days at a cost of 13 Euros and covering any toll road across the country. Lots of travelers don’t like paying for a vignette but we consider it a temporary road tax and we’re happy to contribute to the maintenance of the highways wherever we go. I think the system is genius, and I wish the US would come up with something like this. The last time we were in the US I spent many hours and more dollars than I should have just to pay the toll on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. They don’t make it easy. A one-day digital pass would make so much more sense.
Vignette secured, we made a last stop at a German supermarket where I took advantage of the wide selection of vegetarian and vegan products, including vegan braunschweiger.
Finally we crossed into the Czech Republic. I was here forty years ago when it was Czechoslovakia and as far as I can remember, it looks the same.
Our first stop was Plzeň, famous of course as the birthplace of the pale lager known as Pilsner. We enjoy the occasional Pilsner Urquel so of course we had to visit the brewery. We booked our tour for midafternoon and set off on a walk about the city.
Plzeň is Czechia’s fourth largest city, yet it’s human in scale and ringed by green space. We began by orienting ourselves with a walk around the park surrounding the old town.
One of our primary goals was a visit to the 19th century Great Synagogue. It’s the second largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. The interior is stunning, and despite the size the space feels intimate.
At the huge Republic Square we circled the gothic cathedral of St. Bartholomew but didn’t go in. We did find the gate decorated with angels where legend has it rubbing the head of a particular one brings good fortune. I never pass up an opportunity for luck.
These puppets caught our eye as we passed an art gallery.
At the appointed time we walked to the brewery for our tour. They’ve been making beer here since 1307 but in a method called top-fermented. In 1842 the Plzeň brewery recruited a Bavarian brewer who used local ingredients and a cool fermenting process to produce the first pale lager, what’s now called pilsner.
The tour is a well-orchestrated journey through the history of the brewery and the process of brewing this particular beverage.
A bus took us to the bottling plant, which I thought an odd place to start — at the end of the process — but it soon became clear that the stops were organized for dramatic effect rather than linear storytelling.
Our only beef with the tour was that the group was large and the spaces echo-y so we often struggled to hear the guide. Nevertheless, we enjoyed seeing the process, especially since for much of our work life we both spent a lot of time filming how things are made.
They saved the best for last, or course, the caves where the beer is fermented.
Then we all grabbed a glass and filed past one of the barrels for a sample of the not-quite-ready product.
On the way back to the van we saw a number of these critters as we crossed the bridge. We determined they are nutria, not something we see every day.
