A walk among trees and the home of Pils

Fearless on the tree top walk.

So on Thursday, Donnie left and picked up a rental car for us to use for the remainder of our stay here. We planned a small loop in Bavaria and Czech Republic; a small road trip to finish up the weekend. Unfortunately, shortly after we got on the road we got caught in a horrible stau, which lasted 30 minutes. We didn't move on the highway for a full 30 minutes, after that torture, we headed out to a place Donnie had read about long before we came to Munich, The Tree Top Walk.

The tower.

It was a winding drive through stunning countryside, but just as we arrived Paul threw up all over him and myself. We had underestimated the amount of winding car rides he could handle, poor kiddo. After a serious clean up, we headed in to grab lunch.

After having a scrumptious lunch, we headed out on the walk. This is a raised platform in the Bavarian forest that culminates with a tower 44 meters above the forest. Donnie is afraid of heights, so it was made him a little bit dizzy, but Paul was fearless. He did most of the walk himself, except for up the tower.

On top of the world.

From the top, the view was fantastic, but there were threatening clouds, so we wandered back down and found our way back to the car. It was well worth the drive and was an incredible experience.

You can see why Donnie was dizzy.

Back in the car, we drove across the Czech-German border and wound our way through to Plzen. We arrived just before 5 and checked into our hotel. Our hotel is directly across the street from the Pilsner-Urquell brewery, which is why Donnie picked this hotel.

We were too late for a tour, so we decided to scope out the old town/downtown area. Plzen is a pretty small town, but very picturesque. Our hotel is filled with black and white photos, so it inspired me to do some black and white pics of my own. Downtown isn't very big, so we wandered for about an hour before heading to the brewery for dinner.

Downtown Plzen.

Paul in b&w.

The nice thing about the Czech is the currency. They are not on the Euro, they are on Koruna (Crowns), which trade at 20 for the dollar. So everything is so much cheaper!! I was joking with Donnie that we should have done our whole stay here. Would've been way less expensive. For example, we had a really delicious meal at the brewery for less than 20 dollars. Crazy right? That meal in the States would've been at least $50. Oh well, next time. :)

The Pilsner Urquell Brewery

After dinner, there happened to be a concert going on in the courtyard of the brewery, so we stayed for a couple of songs until it was too cold, and Paul was tired. Luckily, all we had to do was cross the street and we were back at our hotel.

Donnie's dream.

Paul played for a while, refusing sleep until finally he went down. Donnie and I watched a movie and decided to stay in Plzen for one more day instead of going to Regensburg as planned. So we have an extra day!

 Today we're hoping to tour the brewery, then a few museums and maybe the zoo. We'll see. :)