RAGBRAI 2012: A toast to the Czech Village

Cedar Rapids — If RAGBRAI riders wanted a reason to celebrate this morning, there were plenty of good reasons. They could take their pick: perfect weather, a shorter ride ahead (just 42 miles) or, more impressive, the spectacular recovery of a city that four years ago had been submerged in muddy floodwater.

Unlike in most overnight towns, where riders are usually antsy to hit the road, they lingered awhile in the city’s historic Czech Village to sample the area’s Czech kolaches and pretty much anything made with beer.

Douglas Smith, the retail director at the newly relocated National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, was selling a line of Czech-made spa products made with beer yeast and hops extracts. Beer shampoo? Check. Beer shower gel? Check. Beer bath salts? Check, check, Czech.

“The shampoo is wonderful,” Smith said. “I have very dry skin and my dermatologist cannot get over how much the stuff has helped.” He was thrilled with the turnout. “We gotta find a way to do this more often,” he said.

Under a tent nearby, other museum staffers were selling a concoction they called a Bohemian Breakfast Cocktail, made with 4 ounces of ginger beer, a bottle of (Belgian) Hoegaarden beer and a wedge of lime.

“It’s actually really refreshing,” Michael Metcalf of San Francisco said, adding a little flourish for the reporter’s benefit. “It’s like a nice Bohemian breeze.”

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