Something about Prague seems to be wearing us out. It was another late start after a late night. We checked out of the hostel and went to find some breakfast or lunch and one last souvenir before heading back to Germany. In nearly every store we would see glass flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Each time we passed a store with these flowers the desire kept growing until last night we finally decided to get one. By the time we made the commitment of purchase, most of the souvenir stores were closed.
After parking the car we began the search. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the main shopping area where we window shopped until finding the perfect store, which happened to be the first store we saw flowers in. There were too many options. Flowers were blue, red, pink, yellow, orange, white, and every combination of color. My initial thought was to get a red rose, but it was much taller than some of the other flowers and I suspected it would be difficult to find the right place for it in my apartment. I soon found a shorter red flower with a yellow center which solved the height problem. I have a tall mason jar where it would fit perfectly on my night stand. We had decided on the flower, or so I thought. Before making it to the cash register we spotted a yellow flower with red lining the petals. I was back to square one and didn't know which one I liked better. After going back and forth for what seemed like ten minutes, my mom said to get both. They were both beautiful and looked great together, and I caved. It's a good thing souvenirs here are so inexpensive. We were hoping to find more cherries like yesterday, but with limited stores on our way out of town we settled with a cheese and sandwich shop. The poor man working was attempting to run both stores at the same time and had to bounce back and forth to get both cheese and sandwiches. We finally settled with a slice of cheese to eat on the road and a a crab sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. We sat in the park to enjoy our sandwich and dwell on the excitement of our glass flower purchase.
Our parking meter was running out and we were soon leaving Prague. I could have spent two weeks there let alone two days, but it was time to continue our journey back to Germany. We had one more stop before leaving the Czech Republic.
We decided to break up our three hour drive by stopping at the Chodovar brewery to take a tour. With original beer cellars from the 12th century hollowed out in granite rock, the Chodovar brewery is a popular attraction for beer lovers. Reading on the website this morning it looked like there was a brewery, restaurant, hotel, and beer spa. Unsure what a beer spa is, I read on to discover that you take a beer bath for 20 minutes followed by 20 minutes of relaxation. We half joked about taking a beer bath, but it wasn't until the drive over that we made the decision to give it a try. A beer bath is exactly how is sounds, you climb into a tub full of beer.
When we first got to the town we arrived at the restaurant and walked around until realizing it was the wrong place. It was a beautiful landscape with the restaurant built into the mountainside. The brewery was bigger than expected, so we drove to the opposite side where the spa entrance was. We checked in with the woman at the front desk who told us there was an opening at 3pm. Still unsure what we were getting ourselves into, we went back outside to kill 20 minutes.
Walking back towards where we parked the car, we entered a courtyard with a playground and blacktop. The blacktop had wooden bowling balls and wooden pins. The balls were completely deformed and hardly circle, but I couldn't resist giving the bowling set a try. My first try I completely missed and the ball went three feet from any of the pins. The second try was much better and I hit probably three or four pins. By the end of the day I was doing significantly better, but still couldn't get all the pins knocked over.
My mom seemed to think she had a better technique. I was rolling the ball between my legs, granny style, and my mom wanted to try a more traditional way of rolling a bowling ball. I'm happy to say my way was better and she completely missed two times in a row. If I didn't know any better it looked like she was aiming for my toes.
It was nearly 3pm, so it was time to walk back to the spa. We were instructed to walk down the stairs and ring the bell where someone would meet us at the door. We went back and forth over who should go first down the stairs and who should ring the bell. You would have thought we were walking through a haunted house, afraid of the next ghost ready to jump out at us.
A nice woman answered the door and said something to us in a different language. After realizing that we didn't understand, she asked if we spoke German. After saying "no, English," she laughed and said "no." That was it, just "no." We still didn't know what to expect, and now we had no one to explain it to us in English. Here goes nothing.
We managed to understand that we should take off out shoes and leave them in the cubbies. Then using hang motions and pointing, the woman told us to undress and wrap a towel around ourselves. I figured this was part of taking a bath, so we quickly complied. The woman then brought us around the corner and pointed to a bathtub full of beer and told us to get in. I guess I should have seen this coming, but something about the smell of beer filling the air, seeing the foam filling the bathtub, and seeing two beers sitting at the edge of the tub made me laugh uncontroably. Everything about this situation was silly and I had never heard of or done anything like it.
The bath contained mineral water, unique dark Bath beer, a mixture of hops, curative herbs, and beer yeast with rejuvenation effects. Climbing in the beer water made your skin feel slimy. You couldn't see more than two inches below the surface. And the foam on the surface had almost a gummy-like texture. The foam and water looked dirty because of the hops and other herbs, but it was all part of the experience. We sat in a tub of beer while sipping on beer, not many people can say they've done that.
The procedure is aimed to harmonize organism functions as well as to provide mental relaxation. I can't speak for the biological component of organism functions, but pumping us full of beer sure created mental relaxation. My skin did feel soft and smooth afterwards, so that must count for something. After I felt like I was beginning to ferment, we were instructed to climb out of the tub and lay for 20 minutes in a dimly lit room with lounge chairs. All the health benefits soaked into our skin for those 20 minutes, but apparently that wasn't enough. We were then told to put out clothes back on and not shower for the next four hours. The woman who translated this must have been trying to play a sick joke on us, but sure enough this was correct. We had to leave the beer water on our skin for the next four hours. Surprisingly we didn't smell of beer, but we did smell like minerals. I would rather smell like minerals rather than beer, but I was still reluctant. 
For dinner we had Tom-Kha-Gai soup with coconut milk, lemon grass, tomatoes, lime, and chicken, baked bread with tomato, mozzarella, wild garlic pesto, and fresh basil, and a salad with feta cheese, tuna, artichoke hearts, peppers, olives, onions, and boiled egg. We figured three appetizers would be a perfect amount to share, but it was way more food than we expected. The general consensus was that the soup was our favorite, but everything was so scrumptious that it was difficult to decide. We practically licked the bowl of soup, but left one piece of the baked bread. In retrospect we probably could have eaten it, but we decided it would be better to take home and save it for a midnight snack.
I'm convinced the European style of dining is meant to trick you into losing more money and gain more weight. Most restaurants are very relaxed and take their time ordering food, preparing the meal, clearing the plates, and bringing the check. I've really enjoyed the slower pace and it has enabled me to take in the moment. I think this style of eating tricks you because by the time you've been sitting for a half hour after finishing your meal you've made room for coffee and then maybe another glass of wine and then maybe some dessert. In this instance we just settled for a banana and chocolate waffle for dessert.
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