Stairs and Beer

Sunday, June 10

We’ve tracked our finances using Quicken for many years.  It’s been a useful tool but has  always had many annoying limitations.  It was just over a year ago that they finally added the ability to update your database using a phone based app.  Welcome to the 20th Century Quicken.😉

The company, Intuit, has undergone a lot of turmoil and recently has been split into two different entities.  Each entity is now owned by a different company.  One entity is going to concentrate on business applications (QuickBooks) and the other the consumer market (Quicken).  Since that split occurred many of Quicken’s most useful features will only be available if users pay an ongoing monthly fee.  Core features like the ability to download credit card transactions, sync to the cloud and update using your phone will no longer work.  It’s incredible.  When we purchased the software it had all of these features.  How could they possibly remove features that have already been paid for?  It’s despicable.

Don’t bother trying to download your credit card transactions and import them.  They won’t let you do that.  They really want you to buy the subscription.  Believe me, anytime someone tries that hard to sell you something (timeshares, most life insurance, Microsoft Office 365) it’s not to your benefit.  If they had their way you’d be locked into Quicken and would wind up paying for their service for the rest of your life.

Sunday morning we spent some time writing a fancy spreadsheet that does everything we need (and much more than Quicken ever did).  Our spreadsheet does interactive reports accompanied by graphs.  We’ve long wanted the ability to enter transactions in multiple currencies.  Now we can.  It’s a simple matter for us to download our credit card transactions and import them.  We even added budgeting statistics.  Best of all the spreadsheet is “shared” so we can update it on any of our devices – including our mobile phones.  Writing the spreadsheet, downloading the transactions and importing them took a total of about one hour.  Farewell Quicken!

In the afternoon we headed back to the same Irish pub where we saw the French Open Women’s Final to watch the French Open Men’s Final.  We ordered a late lunch and waited for the match to start.  Dominic Thiem has a fairly good record against Rafael Nadal on red clay but it didn’t seem to matter.  The outcome was somewhat predictable. Rafa now owns 11 French Open titles; that’s an absolutely amazing statistic.

Distance walked: 1.3 miles

Monday, June 11

In 1889 the Czech Tourists Club saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris and decided to build something similar in Prague.  They had Petrin Tower constructed atop Petrin Hill to help celebrate the General Land Centennial Exhibition of 1891.  Standing 64 meters high Petrin Tower is smaller than the Eiffel Tower but can still be seen from just about anywhere in the surrounding countryside.  It’s possible to get to the tower using a funicular but where’s the fun in that?  We walked over the Charles Bridge, through Malá Strana, up some steep inclines before we finally got to an enormous set of winding stairs.  It was quite a climb.

(Petrin Tower)

The lower level of the tower contains a museum where we learned about the quarries that used to exist on the hill, the geology of the area, hydrological issues and the General Land Centennial Exhibition of 1891.  It was very informative.  It was also a nice rest before undertaking the 299 steps to the top of the tower – that’s only three times the number of stairs to get to our apartment!

The views from the top were absolutely breathtaking.  This was one of the few occasions where we actually remembered that we had binoculars with us.  We’ve been lugging them around in our backpack since Rome but often forget about them until it’s too late.  If we had any complaints about climbing the hill or the tower they were soon forgotten.  It was a great experience.

(View of Prague Castle from Petrin Tower)

Adjacent to the tower are two other interesting attractions.  One is the Saint Lawrence Church.  It’s a beautiful old church surrounded by 14 stations of the cross.  We couldn’t find much information on it except that in 1784 it was converted into a residential home.  In 1985 it underwent a complete restoration.  Today it is mostly used as a concert hall.  We weren’t able to see inside because the paving stones around it were being redone.  The other attraction is a mirror maze.  Like the tower it too was built in 1891 for the General Land Centennial Exhibition.  The building is in the form of a gothic tower.

We decided to checkout the nearby Strahov Monastery which is also located on the top of the hill just a short walk from the tower.  We knew it was there but hadn’t researched it beforehand so, basically, we were just winging it.  We had no idea what we would find.

As we approached the grounds we noticed a single, beautifully maintained red clay tennis court.  It was surrounded by a fence that was itself surrounded by flowers.  It seemed a shame that no one was playing on it.  We later learned that it is owned by the monastery and is available for rent.

Next to the court there was an absolutely charming restaurant nestled at the base of a hill.  It is owned and operated by the Monastery.  The main part of the restaurant is situated in a labyrinth of caves under the hill but we decided to sit outside and enjoy the view.  The monks have been making beer there since the 13th century.  We figured that they probably knew what they were doing by now and so ordered one with our lunch.  We had a Wheat Beer and found it to be very good.

We started to wonder why we liked Czech beer when other beers we’ve tried were so unappealing to us.  We’ve long objected to the skunky smell and taste of most beers.  We were surprised to learn that we weren’t crazy and there is a real reason for it.  We found several interesting articles that explain…

The important thing to understand is that light is the number one enemy to beer; it literally cleaves molecules in your delicious brew into pieces, creating a new compound that is nearly identical to one of the substances produced by a skunk.

The menu had a wonderful variety of items that were surprisingly reasonably priced.  Deborah ordered salmon tartare mixed with dill and onions seasoned with fresh lemon that was served with a salad.  I had sausages cooked in a beer and onion reduction sauce served with horseradish sauce.  Both were amazingly good.

(Lunch at the Monastery)

After a leisurely lunch we finally headed into the main courtyard.  The Monastery, which was founded in 1143 and is dedicated to Saint Norbert, is comprised of several buildings situated on extensive grounds.  We headed over to a large Baroque style church but found that it was closed.

Next we headed over to the cloister where the picture gallery was housed.  Several rooms were dedicated to the life of their patron saint.  We saw a large room with many oversized canvases recounting his life and deeds.  We visited many different halls containing large collections of paintings and sculptures as we walked around the gardens.    Many of the rooms were decorated with colorful frescos.  The entire collection is said to contain over 1,500 works of art which span from medieval times until the 19th century.

(Ceiling of the Summer Refectory)

After seeing the cloister we walked around the rest of the grounds.  They also have a library containing ancient religious and scholarly texts housed in palatial rooms.  The library can be toured separately for an additional fee.

After leaving the monastery we walked back towards the tower and saw the beautifully manicured gardens containing roses of many different varieties.  Nearby we found the observatory.  They have three large diameter telescopes and many exhibits about astronomy.  The telescopes monitor the sun during the day and the milky way during the night.  We decided, because it was overcast, to come back and visit on another day when we’d be able to see the telescopes in action.

It had been a long day and we were ready to head back home.  For the trip back we thought we’d try another route.  We looked for a second set of stairs that we thought we’d seen previously that went straight down the hill.  It turns out that this second set of stairs didn’t exist – what we’d seen was the funicular, so we wound up walking back the way we came.

By the time we crossed the Charles Bridge we were looking for some dinner.  We stopped at a trdelník (chimney cake) shop.  We got one with a cheese coating that was stuffed with macaroni and cheese and topped with bacon.  You only live once.  We also bought a bavarian pretzel to take home for dessert.

(Mac and Cheese Chimney Cake)

Our host was kind enough to stock our fridge with some Pilsner Urquell beers.  Pilsner Urquell is the largest brewery in the Czech Republic and originated the pilsner style beer.  We decided to have one with our pretzel.  We liked this one too but not as much as the others that we had tried.  Maybe we’ll become beer drinkers after all?

Distance walked: 9.0 miles and 54 flights (that’s not a record!)