Author Kevin Revolinski with Tanner Brethorst of Port Huron Brewing and the secret behind his beer: a flux capacitor in the brewhouse.

New Wisconsin microbreweries appear all the time. Though I try to keep Wisconsin’s Best Beer Guide as up to date as possible, the new brewers keep coming in waves. Any Wisconsin brewery or brewpub that is NOT already inside Wisconsin’s Best Beer Guide will appear here on this page. I update it as I hear about them. If you know something I don’t, please add a comment below. If you are about to open a place, do the same.

Hoppy Travels!

Kevin

ZONE 1
Big Head Brewing Co., Wauwatosa, WI
Hillsboro Brewing Company, Hillsboro, WI
Third Street Brew Pub, Platteville, WI

ZONE 2
Fixture Brewing Co., Waukesha, WI

ZONE 3
Driftless Brewing Co., Excelsior, WI
Kinky Kabin Brewing, Bangor, WI
Pitchfork Brewing Co., Hudson, WI
Hillbilly Brewing, Maiden Rock, WI

ZONE 4
Kozy Yak Brewing, Rosholt, WI

ZONE 5
Badger State Brewing Co., Green Bay, WI SOON!
Door County Brewing Co., Bailey’s Harbor, WI
Plymouth Brewing, Plymouth, WI

ZONE 6
Hello? Zone 6? Can we get some more beer please?

Still in planning:
Big Dipper Brewing, New Richmond, WI
Brenner Brewing Co., Milwaukee (got the funding!)
Mill Street Brewhaus, Milwaukee, WI

(See the full Sedlec Bone Church photo gallery)

Many travelers know of a place in the Czech Republic called “The Bone Church.” While it is often said to be in Kutna Hora, it is actually in Sedlec, a small town that has merged into the edge of the slightly larger town of Kutna Hora. When I first visited here back in 1999, it was an off-the-beaten-path sort of quirky stop. Now it has become a common day trip from Prague.

Kutna Hora is listed with UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec and these are worthy the trip alone. But the unlikely show-stealer is often the macabre but fascinating “Bone Church.”

In fact, the Bone Church is the Kostnice or Charnel House of Sedlec. Sedlec is technically its own little community but abuts the slightly larger town of Kutna Hora which has its own local train station making it an easy hour ride from Prague.

This little Catholic church is surrounded by a cemetery. Inside is what ought to be under all the headstones. The total number of bodies stored down here is said to be more than 40,000 which is perhaps a tenth of how many warm bodies pass through here in a single year. What’s behind all this?

Just down the road about 200 meters is a former Cistercian monastery and its conjoined Philip Morris Tobacco Museum (and factory). Founded in 1158 it is the first monastery of that particular order to be built in Bohemia. In 1278 the abbot headed to the Holy Land and came back with a bit of holy souvenir: some soil from Golgotha or Skull Place (modern tradition has it that this is the same site where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is). This is where Jesus was said to be crucified. The soil was sprinkled in the abbey’s cemetery instantly making it a sort of pilgrimage site for the deceased: Everyone wanted to be buried there.

But cemetery space was at a premium and so the graves were recycled, you might say. (see a photo here of the first eco-coffin at the Melk Abbey along the Danube River. Not a big hit with the locals.) Bodies were dug up and bones were moved to the Sedlec ossuary (charnel house). Bones were piling up, quite literally, (40,000 dead, right?) and someone with a bit of power took notice.

The Schwarzenbergs, originally a Franconian artistocratic family which married into a lot of landholdings in Bohemia, commissioned a local wood carver, František Rint, to tidy up the place a bit out of respect for the dead. I don’t know how his woodcarving was, but his bone arranging surely had some inspiration.

There are four giant mounds of skulls and other bones in the corners of the chapel, each topped by a metal crown. In the fashion that others use to string popcorn for their Christmas trees, Rint strung skulls along the ceiling. He fashioned the Schwarzenberg’s coat of arms. He even signed his name in bones.

But the centerpiece is the chandelier of the dead. It is said to contain every bone in the human body. I’m betting at least the stapes was overlooked, but who knows? He certainly was thorough. And major plague outbreaks in the middle of the 14th century and some wars thereafter kept business booming for the cemetery.

If you are visiting Prague, Kutna Hora, Sedlec and the Ossuary are definitely worth a day trip.

When you arrive in Kutna Hora main station (Kutna Hora hlavní nádraží), look for the nice modern local train over on Track 1 closest to the station. Announcements are also in English. Take this to the next stop Kutna Hora-Sedlec to get off closer to the Bone Church and take local buses from that station. Or you can just walk from the main station – it is about 15 minutes on level sidewalks. There is left luggage storage at Kutna Hora main station.

Sedlec Ossuary / “The Bone Church”
Zámecká, 284 03 Kutná Hora-Sedlec, Czech Republic
+420 326 551 049

Open daily (except December 24-25):
April-September 8am-6pm (open at 9am Sunday)
March and October 9am-5pm
November-February 9am-4pm

Tickets are 90 koruna for adults, but if you plan to see the other sites in Kutna Hora, you have discounts by buying a ticket for some or all of them together. Students 26 years old or younger pay 60 koruna.

I first visited this little church in Sedlec (next to Kutna Hora) on a Czech Republic trip back in 1999. I had a Pentax K-1000 and a limited amount of film. The first shot is from that trip. The rest here are from May 2013. The “residents” haven’t changed much, but the number of tourists has gone up significantly. It was lonely and quiet in there back in 1999. Now I even see large groups of school children parading through. It’s still worth visiting. (Read more about it in my Bone Church article)

It’s a rather unassuming little Roman Catholic church in the center of a cemetery. There are two main sections: the upper front section where you buy your ticket, and then the lower area down the stairs where you will find most of the bones and a small chapel.

The skulls in four corners are stacked in a bell shape and a metal crown hangs above each.

It’s a bit like something out of a surreal movie or nightmare.

You can get right up in the faces of the dead, many of whom were sent here by the Plague or 15th century wars. The disturbing fact is you can see the polished areas where curious visitors just felt compelled to touch the skulls.

The man who arranged these bones many years later is František Rint. He put his name on it… “written” in bones.

The family that paid for this work is the Schwarzenbergs and Rint fashioned their family crest.

Skull designs have been worked into the grounds outside, a sort of “skull and crossbones” marks the spot.

Visitors still light candles or say prayers here, so it is not a complete circus sideshow. I’m not sentimental, but it is weird to see cheery tourists in shorts making themselves look pretty next to a pile of skulls before a photo.

But the star of the show is the central chandelier of bones, using at least one of every bone in the human body.

You can read more about Sedlec Ossuary and get directions on how to get there here on The Mad Traveler.

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Many travelers will come to Kutna Hora to see its UNESCO celebrated town center and churches (and many more will likely first hear about the Bone Church or Sedlec Ossuary). But for those still traveling with bags or big backpacks, you may decide to leave your bags at the Kutna Hora Train Station.

There are no self-service luggage lockers here. However, there is a luggage storage room in the station. There isn’t always an attendant in the room, so you would need to go to the train information and ticket office. Ask at the window and they will take care of you. The cost is 40 Czech koruna for 24 hours.

When I asked what it cost for another 24 hours, they seemed baffled. Who would leave bags here that long? At any rate, you can do it if you so choose, and you will be charged the same price for another 24 hours. You may or may not encounter someone who speaks English here. For directions to the Bone Church from here, see my Sedlec Ossuary post (linked above).

Be aware that this is a bit of a sleepy little station and there is not always an attendant on site. See the hours posted in the lobby window (above) to determine if this train station baggage storage is going to fit your schedule. And always ask the clerk personally in case what is posted is old, recently changed or leaving out the fact that tomorrow is a public holiday/strike or the like.

Other European train station luggage storage information

Depending on how much time you have, Györ, Hungary can make a pleasant small city stop on a train or car trip from Vienna to Budapest. Especially with a Eurail pass or the like, it is easy to hop off the train for a few hours and stroll this laid-back and beautiful little town. The city center is a short walk from Györ Train Station. (alternatively, Gyeor when a website isn’t using umlauts)

Luggage storage at Györ Train Station is limited, but so are the number of people using it here.

The station is a bit rough around the edges, maybe could use some paint. The arrival/departure boards have the old-school flip boards that flutter as the new information goes up. A sign in the lobby shows the regularly scheduled departure and arrival times with train numbers, key stops, and the platform it will stop at. There are 7 platforms all connected by an underpass with steps – no elevators. Train announcements are also given in English, which is not always the case here in Hungary.

The lockers are located at the center of the station just inside the lobby from the first platform. As you come up the steps from under the tracks turn right and look behind the staircase along the wall in the corner. Sizes are quite ample and fees are 500 Forint and 400 Forint for the smaller one **** confirm. We had three soft bags, one duffel and two backpacks, which fit in the 500 Ft locker with room to spare. The lockers require 50-, 100-, or 200-Ft coins. They don’t give change or refunds. There is no change machine here, but you may try to annoy the convenience store vendors for coins. There is also no money changing here. But the central square is a short walk north of the station and you can find on in the heart of the city.

See also Storing Bags at the Train Station in Budapest

Melk Abbey in the Town of Melk in Austria, sits on a hill overlooking the town and the Danube River nearby. This Benedictine Abbey has been on this site since 1089, but fell to fire in 1297. What we see today is an 18th century rebuild in the Baroque style. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is famous for its frescoes and its extensive library. (If you’ve read Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose (excellent book) you may remember the apprentice character’s name was Adson von Melk.)

A statue in the town square in the shadow of the Abbey.

A local cheesemonger in Melk.

A view of the Abbey of Melk from the steps up to it. The monastery school inside was founded in 1160 and today is a co-ed facility of more than 900 students in secondary and preparatory school.

Pictured here is one of the Abbey church’s “catacomb saints.” Relics were important and brought prestige to churches and wealth to their inventors, er, discoverers. In the 16th century the Roman catacombs were being plundered for good skeletons, especially those found with or nearby Christian imagery. What else could they be but early martyrs? They were given names and back stories and moved into churches throughout Europe, often displayed in glass cases. This one, named St. Clemens, was given to the abbey in 1722 by a cardinal from Vienna.

The ornate ceiling of the abbey church.

An example of High Baroque, the abbey church is very impressive.

The spiral staircase connecting the library to two upper floor reading rooms.

The west side of the Melk Abbey.

The view from the abbey’s terrace on its west side.

This is the marble hall, a gorgeous room with a 1731 fresco by Paul Troger and an optical illusion framing it. The architectural painting, done by Gaetano Fant, gives the impression that the ceiling rises up and curves higher than it does. It is, in fact, flat.

The Marble Hall served as a dining room for guests and for festivals.

A museum guide demonstrates a very complicated lock box that operated with this single key. There was quite a clanging of metal when all the parts moved together into the locked position.

One of the first attempts at green burials. Too broke to afford your own casket? Use this recyclable one. The dead were lowered into the ground and then dropped out of the bottom as the coffin was retrieved for another use. Not very popular, from what I understand.

The abbey has a nice museum chronicling the ages of the abbey, and each room is lit up with a symbolic color. I had to color correct like crazy to get this tiny monk prayer book to look relatively normal as it was in a room completely filled with blue light.

One of the hallways in the abbey.

The clock in the abbey courtyard on the east side. A mural is painted on each of the four sides of the courtyard.

Melk Abbey is not just an historical relic. The church and monastery school are still quite active. These murals in the courtyard are modern additions but blend in well with the look of the place. Each is a representation of the four virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.

If you’re traveling by train in Eastern Europe and only stopping for a day in Budapest (which would be a pity!) then you might want to choose the Budapest-Keleti Train Station (Keleti Pályaudvar) as your luggage storage. The station is on the Pest side of Budapest and right upstairs from the M2 Metro line (Red Line) which can take you into the city center or even all the way across to Buda and the Southern Railway Station (Déli pályaudvar).

As you walk in the front doors of the station (on the south side of the train terminal) approach the tracks and turn left.

Storage lockers in Budapest-Keleti Station come in a variety of sizes.

All are coin operated, with sizes to accommodate small soft bags, through medium- and large-sized suitcases and even a proper tall locker like you had in high school maybe. Prices are 400, 600, and 800 forint. Machines accept 50-, 100-, and 200-forint coins.

One nice bonus is that some of the lockers even take Euro coins (price is €3). There is a change machine at the entry, and an ATM nearby as well if you have nothing to change.

Pack your bags into an open locker, close the door, deposit the coins, turn the key to lock it, and keep that key carefully on your person. You now have 24 hours to explore Budapest. If you go over 24 hours (up to 72 hours, though I don’t think they are policing that like they do in say Munich) you will need to add money, according to the digitally displayed balance, in order to open the locker with that key.

From Budapest-Keleti train station you can walk outside and head down into the Metro system at Red Line Metro Station Keleti Pályaudvar.

Reminder about the Metro: Whatever you do, be sure that you purchase the correct ticket for the Metro and VALIDATE it before you descend to the platform. Warren Beatty, in Budapest once for filming a movie, famously failed to do so and was smacked with a fine. So fat chance you’ll be talking your way out of one.

Be aware that if you are going 3 stops or less on the same line, you can get a slightly reduced ticket at the ticket window.

Tickets also come in 10 packs making them equally lower in price as the 3-stop Metro ticket. There are also some day passes if you plan to use the Metro system and buses numerous times in a day. Buy them at the station ticket offices or at a newsstand.

See also Leaving Bags at Gyor Train Station in Hungary

Perched on two continents and built on layers of empires and history, Istanbul invites travelers to exploration. The city once known as Constantinople harbors a mystique that combines the traditions of the East and the West and offers up sights, sounds, and smells that are certain to leave a lasting impression. And the bonus is that many of the many of the most important historical sites are all within walking distance of each other.

The best place to start is the old section of the city on the European side, Old Istanbul. Sultanahmet or the Blue Mosque, features a large central dome surrounded by smaller half domes, and the finely detailed blue-tile interior is suffused with the light from stained glass windows. Surrounded by six towering minarets, this architectural masterpiece was completed in 1616 by the order of Sultan Ahmet I. Though open to tourists, it is still an active mosque drawing the faithful and the curious alike.

Sultanahmet sits on one end of a green space with a fountain in its center opposite the structure that inspired the mosque’s construction: Hagia Sophia or Aya Sofya. Commissioned by Byzantine Emperor Justinian and completed in 537 A.D, this church with its 184-foot high dome was the largest in the world before St. Peter’s was built in Rome. Rather than destroying the many Christian mosaics, the Turks had them covered with plaster and converted the church into a mosque in 1453 when they took the city from the Byzantines. Consequently, all were not lost and some of these glittering gold mosaics have been restored.

Just behind Aya Sofia is Top Kapi Palace. From 1465 to 1853 this collection of halls surrounding a large inner courtyard served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire. Within are several museums featuring displays of weapons and armor, fine ceramics, and daily objects from the age of the Sultans. The treasury exhibits many of the riches of the Ottoman rulers—gold, precious stones and, notably, a magnificent bejeweled dagger. This is a nice place to have lunch or take tea looking out over the waters of the Bosphorus below.

And no walking tour of Istanbul would be complete without getting lost inside the labyrinthine passageways of the nearby Grand Bazaar. Haggle with vendors as they try to sell you Turkish crafts such as ceramics and carpets as well as metalware and fine jewelry.

The treasures of Turkey are many and food is no exception. The best way to end a long day of walking? Settle in at one of the many fine seafood restaurants for a feast worthy of the Sultan himself. Find seafood under the Galata bridge, share some of the potent anise-flavored raki and roasted hazelnuts with a few friends.

For lunch I’ll either get a cheap döner sandwich (I prefer the chicken to the lamb) plus a glass of ayran for a couple of lira. Or better yet, buy a loaf of fresh bread and a slab of beyaz penir and some olives (zeytin) at a deli, and take them into a courtyard, perhaps the sometimes-overlooked Süleyman Mosque, and have a picnic. (Don’t do this with alcohol though.)

End the day with a promenade along Istiklal Caddesi and perhaps some Turkish ice cream. This is a pretty good day in Istanbul, especially for first timers. But remember: you are just scratching the surface now!

This post is part of the initiative “100 cities to home swap before you die” from Knok.com.

I liked Munich (see my Munich photos here) and feel it merits at least a couple of days, and you might even use it as base camp for a visit to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. But if you are doing the run-go-see or are otherwise pressed for time, you can leave your bags at the Munich main train station, or Munich Hauptbahnhof right west of the city center where all the best attractions and popular beer gardens are.

Storing luggage in Munich train station is a snap. There is a serious abundance of luggage lockers in the station easily found by looking for the luggage symbol on the signage above. I stored mine near the north exit right near the platforms.

The cost is 3 Euro per day for the standard locker, or 5 Euro per day for the rather large suitcase-sized lockers. There is a 72-hour limit. You pay for the first 24 hours to get the key to turn in the lock. If you return later than a day, you’ll have to insert money to unlock it. After 72 hours and the management may take your bags.

I fit all of what you see here – two backpacks with laptops and the big black duffel bag – into the lowest 3-Euro storage locker.

Tip: if all your luggage doesn’t quite fit in one of the 3-Euro luggage lockers, be sure to try the lockers in the bottom row, closest to the floor. These are just a wee bit bigger than the other 3-Euro lockers, but the same price. Otherwise, go around the corner to the 5-Euro lockers.

So, luggage lockers? Not a problem. Public restrooms? Good luck. Go before you get to the train station or get on your train and use that one.

Have a great day in Munich!

As you may have noticed from my post on Frankfurt’s free airport wifi, free wireless internet in German airports and Germany in general, is hard to come by.

You can get on the internet at Munich Airport (MUC) in Terminal 2 at a kiosk of four computers offering free internet. These have German keyboards so a few keys may give you pause. (The Z and the Y are swapped, and to get the @ sign you need to do Alt-Gr + Q)

To get to these computers, pass through security, turn left toward Gates G 1-17, and you will see it on your right as you come to the first moving walkways.

Telekom offers 30 minutes of free WiFi. When you connect, the login page comes up and you need to enter a cell phone number to receive the pin number. I entered mine but never got it. I was using a Thai cell number, so that may have had something to do with it (though I had received text messages before using it in the airport and the options for Thailand and many others are listed in the menu of country codes for pin section.

Outside the security area there is a Starbucks in Terminal 2. This is worth a try as well, but be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get back through security for your flight; I found security a bit slow and Germans didn’t seem to be in a big rush.