Czech Republic, Prague

Left Vienna bright and early for our journey to Prague. It was a pleasure driving through the city at 8.30 on a Sunday morning. We hit the autostrada and that was we stayed for the next 350 or so k's. Most of the driving was in the Czech Republic, we knew when we had reached the boarder as there were Casino's (not quite Vegas!), sex shops and a biker bar. Couldn't be further from Vienna if we'd tried!!! The driving was pretty horrendous, it would have to be the worst road surface I have ever driven on. A concrete panel road surface in really poor condition with road works for much of it, with rain for some of it. We arrived in Prague early afternoon and for those of you that know Prague our hotel was on the main square right opposite the astronomical clock. This is of course a huge pedestrian plaza that is incredibly busy. This small piece of detail was not known to our GPS. I ended driving driving right through this space, and had a very nice tour guide stop to tell me to drive out as quickly as possible before the police came. Managed to do just that, parked illegally and walked back to the hotel. I do all of the driving on our trips, Rogers not interested and I don't mind it. Once we had checked in, the Hotel staff went back to the car with Roge to move it to the hotel car park. Both Roger and I expected that that hotel,guy would drive. Not so. Roger had his very first European driving experience in Prague central. Needless to say he needed a drink. We had booked a private walking tour before leaving Vienna and we met our guide at 4pm for a 3 tour. Best money ever spent. Our guide was an amazing young American woman living and studying in Prague for the last five years - her speciality - Eastern European politics. This woman showed us and taught us things we would have had no idea about if we'd been on our own. At the beginning I was thinking that 3 hours might be too long but it sped by. We now thinking we'll see if we can do the same thing at our next two stops, Berlin and Amsterdam. She recommended a great place for dinner and that was where we finished the night, with Roge having the local speciality of Pork knuckle.Read more