Solnice Restaurant
July 2019
another beer hajj
From Prague I wanted to travel to a "real" Czech city. České Budějovice was an obvious choice - home of the original Budvar (Budweiser) beer, it was about an hour and a half train ride from Prague. Alas, Budweis (the city's German name) was only "kind of" a Czech city.
The name Budějovice is derived from personal Slavic name Budivoj, meaning "the village of the people of Budivoj". The name first appeared as Budoywicz, then it appeared in various similar forms. The German name was created by transcribing and shortening the Czech name. When the royal city was founded in 1265, the name appeared as Budwoyz and then it was adapted to Budweis.
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The royal city was founded on its site in 1265 by King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1265. The siting and planning of the city was carried out by the king's knight Hirzo. The German-speaking settlers were coming from the Bohemian Forest and Upper Austria. The royal city was created as a platform of the king's power in South Bohemia and to counterbalance the powerful noble House of Rosenberg, which became extinct in 1611.
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The city remained a German-speaking enclave until 1880, after which Czechs became the majority. Until the end of World War II, the city contained a significant German minority (about 15.5% in 1930).
(Wikipedia)
The more I traveled in the Czech Republic, the more I realized that the Germans at some point in time had dominated all the urban areas. Cities were German-speaking and the countryside was Slavic. Budweis was German far longer than it had been Czech. Budweiser beer was, in fact, not originally "budvar" but Budweiser all along.
As for my trip to České Budějovice, it was a very rainy affair. The sun did peak out toward the end of the visit and later I found a fantastic restaurant, Solnice, where I downed some of the city's famous suds along with a plate of fabulous, hearty local fare. I really loved food in the Czech Republic and it was all reasonably priced. The town had a nice city square, a river, and a few old buildings. It had suffered from significant damage in the latter days of WWII, but a lot had been rebuilt. Plzeň, by comparison, was better actually. I am not sure if it was the rain or just that I was getting burnt out on medium-sized ex-German cities in the Czech Republic, but České Budějovice did not astound me. The name made me believe I was going to see something quite different - maybe a mini-Prague, but actually it was just a place that was famous for a brand of beer in the USA (and a poor one at that).
My lasting memory is really a nice coffee and cake on the main square waiting for the rain to stop and then a lovely lunch. Other than that, I walked all around the old town between showers in a semi-disappointed state. I wondered if my beer preference was influencing my opinion - Pilsner Urquell from Plzeň was one of my favorite beers while Budweiser (admittedly from St Louis these days) was my least favorite.
It was my last stop in the country. Having seen Brno on an earlier trip, I felt I could confidently scratch the Czech Republic off my list as "visited". I headed off to Slovakia the next day.
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