December 4 - Arrival in Prague

We gathered for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. The breakfast room staff seemed, for the second day in a row, to be stymied as to how to accommodate a group of seven. They seemed loathe to move tables. So, we got shunted to the restaurant again. No staff in sight, so we just started moving tables ourselves. We didn’t take into account the overlapping tablecloths which led to dishes and sugar bowls crashing to the floor and making a mini-mess. Oooops. If that’s the worst thing that happens on this trip, then we should be fine. Famous last words.

So, then, I tripped and fell getting through the revolving door as we were going out to the taxi. No harm done except to my dignity. We piled in – seven people and their cases completely fill any taxi vehicle on this continent. The trip to the train station took half the time and half the money that the trip to the hotel had cost. That driver seemed to want to give us the scenic tour.

The train came and we piled on. But something seemed hinky when most of our assigned seats were already occupied. Checked the train number. Oooops for the second time. Wrong train. Almost went to Hamburg. Our proper train wasn’t due for another 10 minutes. We piled out fast as these trains don’t hang around for very long. Once we were finally on the right train, we settled in – six of us in one cabin and Mary Ann (who was looking for some quiet time) in the next cabin. We spent much of the trip figuring out how to connect us all on WhatsApp so we can communicate when we are out and about. We got to Prague about 1:30 p.m. We found an ATM so a couple of us could take out CZK (Koruna). The Czech Republic is in the European Union but does not use the euro. The travel agent realized after he had booked the tickets that this train went to the station outside of the old city centre where our hotel was located. He had told us about this, and Angela and I said we would just take a taxi. (A train going to the main station would have left Dresden very early in the morning.) Easier said than done to find a taxi at that station. There is no actual taxi stand. Luckily, two taxis came to drop off passengers and we waved them down – Vicky and I went in a car, and the other five went in a mini-van. Vicky and I got to the hotel – the driver couldn’t make change for our CZK big bills and didn’t take credit cards, so we had to resort to paying with euro. I went to reception, only to find out that our reservation was at the Grandium Hotel, not the Grandior Hotel. Both drivers had misunderstood our pronunciation and hadn’t looked at the address we had shown them. Oooops for the third time and it was only 2:00 p.m.! Luckily, the van driver had just arrived. Vicky and I squeezed in and off we went again, this time ending up where we were supposed to be at the Grandium. There were deep breaths all around - we had arrived safely, none the worse for the wear.

We’ve been using a three-room set up, with two in each of two rooms and three in one room. Paige (Theresa’s daughter) had hoped to join us in Prague for a day or so as she is studying in France, but her schedule changed, but we kept the extra room anyway. So, Theresa is enjoying one night by herself tonight.

We set off to explore – thankfully, Vicky is far better at navigating than I ever will be and she got us going in the right direction. King Wenceslas Square is nearby. It’s a huge, long boulevard rather than a square. It was lined with trees lit up all in gold. The booths were, we found, 80-90% food. Food of every kind. There was food everywhere with the odd handicraft booth sprinkled in. We checked things out for about an hour. By then we had our bearings and knew how to get to the site of another major market that we want to see tomorrow. Then we headed back to the hotel for a drink before dinner. We took up about half the seats in the hotel bar and Angela cheered during the France-Poland match. Who knew my sister was a football nut??

Angela had made a dinner reservation at a hotel across the street. By 8:30 we were tucked in for the night, tired and well fed. We have a walking tour tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. so we’re doing an 8:00 a.m. breakfast. So, we got here safely, but it required some fast thinking, lots of energy and determination and a pile of humour!Читать далее