September 2014 - I finished my studies and we bought an old VW Campervan to drive around Europe. So we switched to vanlife for  few weeks.

Starting our journey, we headed south via Dresden to Czechia. Our first Twhs was Zatec. Since I am a brewing scientist, I was happy to see finally a beer spot on the list. I was quite disappointed, when Mechtild Rössler read out on the Whs meeting the deferal of the "town of hope". Obviously she did not even know what hops is and that it is a fundamental ingredient for beer.

Zatec is the home for Saazer Hops. Around the town are numerous hop fields and along the road to Prague you can spot here and there some wires and in september the are  filled with winding hop plants. It is not only the destinct ingredient for czech pilsner but exported to the US for floral IPAs or to add bitterness to beers around the world. The town itself is related to hops only. We visited the hops Museum and took a creepy elevator ride on a hop tower showing a movie with a small hope cone flying above Zatec and singing "huii" and "ahoj". However, on top of the tower there was quite a nice view to the hop tens, where hops is being dried after harvest, you could see the brewery and all hop related buildings of Zatec.

With at least 10 grape sites, wine is overrepresented in the whs list. Beer and Spirits are important factors and part of human cultur. Therefore I want to see way more alcohol sites on that list. This is just the beginning and could become a serial nomination of hop growing areas, of breweries, maltsteries, Keg production etc. We bought a selection of beers and drove further to Pilsen. So a very hoppy first day of our roadtrip.