The Achilles tendon was feeling better and the day was even nicer than the previous Saturday. What better excuse for another beer hike? Shorter this time – 15 km – but with two fairly steep slopes along the way, one down to the river, the other up. I set out from my place at around 12:30 pm, after another hearty but not too heavy lunch, and shortly after an hour, I make a technical stopover in Libčice n. Vltavou, before crossing the river.
9barů is a pub-café hybrid (or hospodokavárna, as the folk at Čep & Pec say), the kind you can find everywhere in Prague. Besides coffee, matcha and good looking pastries and cakes, they have two beers on tap, both from Pivovar Moucha. I get the 11° Světlý Ležák, and it’s really good, refreshingly bitter, and goes down really well while sitting outside, in the shade of a large tree. When Moucha started, their beers were pretty rubbish, but they’ve improved, and today they are solid, though not particularly remarkable, which is more than good enough for me – and pretty good news today, considering I would be finding that brand again.
I love crossing the Vltava with the ferries! There’s something old-timely slow about it, and even though the crossing takes only a couple of minutes, you still feel the world has shifted down a couple of gears.
There’s a bistro right by the sport where we make our landing, Občerstvení Na Dole. They serve Svijany and I was going to ignore it, until I read the strategically placed blackboard with the menu, and převoznický (ferryman) guláš was something I simply couldn’t pass. Another technical stopover was in order.
I get one, with a beer, and find a place in the shade with a decent view to the river. Even when Svijany was firing on all cylinders two decades ago, Máz was far from a great beer, and today it’s the sort of thing I’d drink only if the other options are Braník or Staropramen. But here it didn’t matter, because that guláš was proper mňamdopičí; rich, with a note of burnt paprika that took the flavour up a notch, and several large chunks of beef that almost dissolved in my mouth. I could have easily have a second or third serving, but right ahead of me was the hardest part of this hike, the fairly steep slope, the uphill one. It wasn’t very long, just 3 km, but I’m still not in the shape I wish I was.
The climb surprisingly went well, I managed without even slowing down my pace. It must have helped that it was all in the woods, and beautiful, with no sign of civilisation to be heard or seen. The rest of the way to my destination, however, would be somewhat less fun. Not because it was ugly, far from it, but because it was almost all in the blazing sun – the day had turned out to be warmed than expected. But I wasn’t complaining much, because that discomfort would only mean that the first beer at my destination would taste all the better.
This was my third visit to Polepšovna ducha, and the sensation when arriving was just like the first one. Polepšovna is an oasis of tranquillity that makes you feel you are far removed from any major urban centre, even though you are just a few kilometres outside Prague. It is also the prettiest beer garden I’ve ever been to, bar none. It’s quite extensive, dominated by a výčep with a terrace and a stage for live music, overlooking a meadow dotted with old fruit trees, and another building almost hidden among the trees that spill in from the woods surrounding the property. Naturally, you can drink your beers in the terrace and soak up the view, or lay down a blanket or borrow a deck chair to enjoy them in the meadow, in the shade of the trees.
They have four beers on tap: the 11° from Moucha, the same I had in Libčice, and the other three are their own brand, all solid, brewed by Daniela Tallová, the head-brewstess at Moucha, and one of the people behind Polešovna. Their ultimate goal is to build a brewery on site, until then they are létající.
I arrive, thirsty, get a 11° and pick a table in the shady part of the terrace. Before I even have time to take my first (long) sip, I see a couple I know from Únětice walking in, who, after the “what are you doing here?” usual in this kind of situation, join me at the table, glasses are clinked and we start talking. It doesn’t take long for the old rocker at the next table to join the conversation, which, as this kind of conversations are wont to do, switches seamlessly from music to history to sports to politics to beer and breweries, trips, pubs old and new, relationships; all punctuated by remarks of how wonderful a place Polepšovna ducha is.
My three new old friends say their good-byes, but I stay for one last beer, a kyseláč that I find surprisingly enjoyable for a style I don’t generally enjoy. It must be the place, the atmosphere – more people have arrived, there’s quiet live music playing, the sun is slowly dropping, and I’m feeling happier than a pig in a bubble bath.
Na Zdraví!
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