Easter in Upper Austria & Southern Bohemia

[Portia_Smith]

Apart from the obvious - the Budvar Brewery.

We're taking advantage of cheap ryanair flights to Linz over Easter and there is so much we want to do - but if there are any must taste/drink experiences that we might miss, we'd love to know about it.

Sadly, we won't have any significant time in Linz as we are heading north into Southern Bohemia to visit Ceske Budejovice for a few nights. We're planning on doing day trips to Cesky Krumlov & Trebon. The Eggenberg and Bohemia Regent breweries are also on our list of things to visit.

Hopefully - we'll even get a chance to spend an evening at the Castle Brewery in Kefermarkt on our way back to Linz. There is accommodation in the stables for only 16 euros per person and regional cooking too!

We know we have to try Linzertorte - and have been told that only this konditerei is acceptable. I was hoping that there would be a concession in the airport - but neither the airport website, nor the bakeries gives me any indication that this is so. I'll just have to rush from the railway station into town I suppose.

We love Czech/Austrian food. Give us dumplings, smoked and cured pork products, kraut, dorte.. but we've only really spent time in Moravia - so.. what's Bohemian and rhapsodic??

Let us know! We promise to post pictures...

[archestratus]

Apart from the obvious - the Budvar Brewery.

We're taking advantage of cheap ryanair flights to Linz over Easter and there is so much we want to do - but if there are any must taste/drink experiences that we might miss, we'd love to know about it.

Sadly, we won't have any significant time in Linz as we are heading north into Southern Bohemia to visit Ceske Budejovice for a few nights.  We're planning on doing day trips to Cesky Krumlov & Trebon.  The Eggenberg and Bohemia Regent breweries are also on our list of things to visit. 

Hopefully - we'll even get a chance to spend an evening at the Castle Brewery in Kefermarkt on our way back to Linz.  There is accommodation in the stables for only 16 euros per person and regional cooking too! 

We know we have to try Linzertorte - and have been told that only this konditerei is acceptable.  I was hoping that there would be a concession in the airport - but neither the airport website, nor the bakeries gives me any indication that this is so.  I'll just have to rush from the railway station into town I suppose. 

We love Czech/Austrian food.  Give us dumplings, smoked and cured pork products, kraut, dorte..  but we've only really spent time in Moravia - so.. what's Bohemian and rhapsodic??

Let us know!  We promise to post pictures...

←

It certainly sounds like you know what you're doing, so I won't say the obvious. Anybody who knows about Eggenberg beer probably doesn't need much advice. Anyway here's few tips. My daughter and i were in Southern Bohemia this past January (very cold!, hence the emphasis on coziness and warmth in the comments below).

KUTNA HORA

Pivnice/Restaurant

Pivnice Dačický

Rakova 8

Kutna Hora

Tel: 327-512-248

This totally cozy place was on a narrow lane just past the church and once you enter it was a square room of uneven stone floor, rich stained wood on the bottom portion of the wall, beige-yellow white wash on top, wooden tables, and benches, a roaring fireplace with heating tiles so the heat radiated into the medieval like manor house room. There were chivalric heraldry emblems and plaques about, iron work and a Dačický, Budweiser and Pilsner Urquell array on tap.

TŘEBON

A good eating town, especially fish.

Restaurants

Restaurace Malá Bašta

Masarykovo Namesti 87

A fine little seafood restaurant right in the middle of the town square.

Pivnice/Brewery

Schwarzenberská Pivnice

This is the pub of the Regent Brewery in operation since 1349 and taken over by the Schwarzenberg family in 1698. It has vaulted ceilings and a sweet middle aged waitress. It’s a real beerhall and wonderful variety of Regent beers including the yeast beer.

ČESKY KRUMLOV

Pivnice/Restaurants

Na Louzi

Kajovska 6

Cesky Krumlov

Tel./Fax. 337-711-280

e-mail: hotel@nalouzi.cz

http://www.nalouzi.cz/en/index.html

This is an Eggenberg beer pivnice. The beer is dark and light and very smooth. It’s a little place with dark wood, benches and 5 tables with antique metal advertizing plaques along the upper part of the walls above the dark wood.

Restaurants

Restaurace Jakuba Krčina

Široká St.

Jakuba Krčina (1535-1604) was the chief-manager of the Rosenberg dominion. The restaurant is in his 16th century house. The restaurant is a small and very cozy place, the left side having only 4 wooden booths with an inset faux brick top. The wooden ceiling beams are low and one bored but efficient waitress served us with rock and roll music playing in the background. The booths are divided by arty wooden sculptures. The right side of the restaurant was closed for the winter.

[Portia_Smith]

Wow - thank you for all the tips. Given that they are expecting -17 celcius temperatures in Linz tomorrow night and my cousins in Munich have reported a meter of snow dumped at their house yesterday I might need to head for the cosy places that you've mentioned!

The place you mention in Kutna Hora sounds fabulous and makes me want to go and visit - we were debating about whether we had the time to include that in our trip. Your description makes me want to go there for the pivnice alone.

I'm intrigued by the fish restaurant in Trebon. I normally avoid fish like the plague when I go to the Czech Republic - but I know this area is famous for all the fish ponds stuffed with carp and trout to feed the townsfolk - so fishy should be tasty. Will I overcome my carp-phobia? Possibly - although I need to balance that decision with the fact that eating fish will mean a meal without dumplings..and pork..

I looked at the Eggenberg restaurant brewery website, they have a menu with the fabulous sounding 'pork iron maiden'. I know it's probably a fillet with lardons or something to make it resemble the torture instrument. But I keep humming 'run to the hills' and imagining it garnished with a leather bomber jacket and with a pile of sauerkraut artfully arranged in a mullet shape.

I've just made a reservation by phone at the brewery/gasthof in Kefermarkt. The woman had a command of english similar to mine of german. But we muddled through - she had the most fabulous accent and told me 'you can eat zeee gut foood.. drink zee gut beer and zen go to bed - ja'

You can't say fairer than that really....

Edited March 10, 2006 by Portia_Smith (log)