Wednesday, September 18 Off to Prague

 What a weird day this has been! We left Vienna with no problem and arrived that the Sudbahnhof in plenty of time. Today at breakfast was the first time the breakfast room was full and it was somewhat chaotic! At the station I decided to pick up some food and drinks for the trip. Good thing, too -- just as we were about to leave the station, there was an announcement that there would be no food available on the train. We relaxed in separate window seats and enjoyed rolling through the Austrian and Czech countryside. Some lovely views but some very unsightly, apparently-abandoned factories and so on too. Houses are tiny -- people live in what look like garden sheds sometimes,

but have small above-ground pools in their yards.

When we arrived in Prague, we were not at the station from which Larry had planned our route to the hotel. After about 15 minutes of disarray, we realized we could walk to the hotel in a very few minutes. We went straight to Wenceslas Square but the street names and numbers are hard to follow and it took some time to find the entrance to the court-yard of the hotel. It's a strange set-up with reception in an internet service office. However, the young woman who seems to manage it met us there and showed us to our temporary room. After one night we must move. Something about repairs to water damage. We gratefully dropped our bags and headed for the beds to recover from the trip. Mine immediately collapsed! We fixed it, but it broke again, so my mattress is on the floor. After a rest we headed out to see the town and have dinner.

We wandered the length of the square and through some side streets. We found a

restaurant with sidewalk tables where we had a Czech meal (according to the menu) and pilsner. We also picked up Prague Cards (3 days of public transit and free entrance to all museums, the castle, etc.). We wandered across Charles Bridge after picking our way through some of the devastation from the flood. Then we decided to hop a tram back to Wenceslas square. Easier said than done! We realized it was the wrong one, hopped off and then got on the right one, but going the wrong way. We figured we could do the turn at the end of the line and come back, but it went into the barn. That meant walking several blocks in search of a stop that would actually get us onto a tram going the right way. Eventually we found one, waited about 15 minutes and rode back to our destination.

Looking at the city map and the public transit map I still have no idea how to navigate but Larry claims he does. That wasn't the end though. When we got to our room, the key wouldn't open the door. When we went to get help from the internet people, the elevator quit, so we had to walk back up to the 4th or 5th floor. They guy had no trouble and afterward we could work it too. Go figure!

 I think that Prague would be confusing at the best of times. There's English here, but much less than in Vienna and the Czech language is less comprehensible to us than German is. The city is not anything like a grid, with narrow winding streets in every direction. The street names aren't well-marked, and the maps are hard to read.

Prices are hard to translate -- 20K to $1 CDN. I keep gasping at the big numbers. Like 690 K for the Prague card. Forking over 1380 at one go for something like that was startling to say the least, but since that only about $69 it's not so bad.

The room we have tonight is nice, with hardwood and ceramics, an efficient little kitchen and 2 rooms plus the entry and bathroom. There are 2 other beds in the other room, so if I wanted I could sleep there. No phone, but apparently many phones are still out anyway after the flood. TV, couch and 2 comfy chairs. We'll have to go out for breakfast, since it's not included and we don't have food. We'll shop for breakfast things for the rest of the time, tomorrow. Hoping Mom's feeling better. She sounded fine last night, but can't be perfect or she wouldn't be in hospital. 

Prague Photos 18-23 September 2002