I am up early again and out the door by five to cross the river and climb Letenske Hill. I end up by this cool building , the Hanavsky Pavilion, built for the 1891 world exhibition (it is a café now). This is the most marvelous view yet over Prague, the river and bridges. There is also this giant, slowly moving metronome, marking time. It is built on the site of where the tallest statue of Lenin ever stood. It is a symbol that, in time, everything must go. I am just shooting photo after photo of the river, the spires, the bridges and city.
Had I known about this view, I would have come here the first day.
Later over breakfast I am having trouble choosing what to eat. This hotel has the best breakfast of the trip, a huge buffet that includes everything: nine kinds of bread plus pastries, eggs any way you want, five meats, ten cheeses, grapefruits, other fruits, cereals, yogurts, vegetables, pesto and spreads and juices and coffee of every kind. Today I build an omelet out of scrambled eggs, sautéed mushrooms, smoked salmon, pesto, emmentaler and parmesan and blue cheese. A side of bacon, a side of the house muesli, orange juice, cappuccino, and croissant. Fortified, I am ready to go.
Gail heads off for a massage and facial. I drop a load of clothes off at the laundry (last load, bittersweet) and head out on another hike up Petrin Hill, another hill across town. On top is a miniature Eiffel Tower, built in 1891 also. I climb it for the highest view over Prague, the river and castle below.
After Gail returns we walk over the river to the castle district. Along the way I want to stop for some "liquid gold" carbohydrate liquid nourishment.
While this is great fun; drinking beer, relaxing and people watching, I will later curse this decision.
Fortified, we march (slog? trudge? everything, every damn thing in Europe is up hill) NO! We FLY on light feet! Up, up to the castle. It is big, huge in fact, like a whole city, yet it is just one castle complex. An entire cathedral sits within, and it has some of the prettiest stained glass I have ever seen, all original (i.e.: not destroyed in the war. You'd be surprised how much was, and how much was saved.) and the interior is really high. Also, something I have heard about but not really seen until now: you always hear about how the cathedrals were lit by the sun through the stain glass, creating rainbows of color inside... well, today for the first time ever, I saw it, really saw it and it is spectacular. Spectacular, as in a sight burned into the memory forever. That alone was worth the climb up to the castle.
Anyway we walked the castle, then headed (uphill) above it another kilometer to Strahov Monastery. A good question you could ask me is, "why?" and I would say, "Because, silly, monks are known for two thing: wine and beer!"
And sure enough, we, The Faithful and Believing, are rewarded. Inside the monastery walls is St. Norbert (patron saint of ???) Klášterní Pivovar Strahoy! A rough translation is St. Norbert cloister beer brewery, and they brew four beers, all unfiltered: amber ale, IPA, wheat beer and a special dark beer. Now this is the part where I regret my earlier beer indiscretion. You see, I can only handle so many BU (beer units) per day, and that is somewhere under a litre. The whole area smells like hot, brewing beer. I am just salivating sitting at the table.
The spirit is willing, the body is weak. (Seems an appropriate quote.) I launch in on the wheat beer. Oh, delicious! Hint of citrus, beautiful color (because the beers are unfiltered they are not clear, and glow with a translucent quality. This beer is the same golden color inside the cathedral when the sun shines just so, the nave lit up against the dark depths of the main hall.) the late summer taste if wheat lingers in your throat... This actually turns out to be my favorite beer, and I am not usually a wheat beer fanatic. I am thinking of the beers I have brewed with my friend George, and I wish we could brew a wheat beer half as good as this.
Maybe I need to pray about it? Perhaps we need a cloister in which to brew? Or a crew of monks.
Then I have an Amber Ale. Nice burnt brown color, again the lingering taste. It is now I decide I should probably get a little food, so I order the meat appetizer plate: flitch of bacon on beer, (I have no idea what a flitch is but I would get it again!) smoked pork tenderloin, Prague ham and bacon. About halfway through my Amber Ale I am thinking that surely, if there is a heaven, this is it. Suddenly, I am a believer.
Next up is the IPA, normally my favorite type of beer, and this does not disappoint, but it is a surprise how light, almost tangy it is. Slightly darker brown than the Amber, kind of a copper color. But now, the lord lets me down as I realize that I have met my BU limit for the day. I am going to have to stop after sampling just three of the four brews. I curse the Urquell Pilsner I had earlier; oh why did I yield to temptation?
Well, the beer taste comparison is over. The St. Norbert brews take first, second and third places, with Eggenberg out of sight in fourth.
I feel blessed.
It takes a good hour or two of walking to start getting rid of the "belly full of beer" feeling, and it is funny how, no matter how many times you walk past or into a building, you end up seeing new things. Like just a little bit ago, practically in our neighborhood, over by the roundabout with the single, sculpted tree, the section of the neighborhood under the tall ornate old buildings and the squared off corner café, there is this cool statue of Franz Kafka that I just found. A tall man strides on, empty suit really, for it had no head or hands, and a little Kafka is riding on his shoulder.
We end up at Andrea's next recommendation, Al Dente, an Italian restaurant a block away across from the Bethlehem Synagogue. Too expensive wine, (one glass each, no half litre here) but excellent food. Gail has goat cheese and veggie tortellini, I have flat noodles with a beef and Chianti sauce that is just the right amount but leaves you craving the taste. We even have tiramisu for dessert and it is just so.
While we are eating the dark sky opens up and it pours down, but tonight the outside tables had already been filled and we were eating snug and warm inside. The outdoor patrons either pushed their tables in close under the umbrellas, or came running in, to be tucked into corners here and there as the waiters brought in their food and drink.
The rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. Seems it has been a lot cooler since Budapest, and a little rain every day or evening since then as well.
A little night walk and we head back early (23:00) to watch a little of the Olympics.