Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

We left Prague early this morning, when our driver, Lenka, arrived in a drizzly rain to transfer us to Passau, with a stop in Cesky Krumlov, which deserves an entry of it's own (as does our last day in Prague yesterday so I see where I am already behind, sigh). This is just a brief dropby if you while, since we found out at our welcome reception that as expected the wifi will be spotty along the river and that the Facebook access is blocked to allow more travelers to access the wifi. So my "postcarding" will be on hiatus until Budapest I am thinking, and I will miss my FB friends, too.
I know that the river cruise experience is going to be wonderful. The ship, registered to Uniworld, is elegantly appointed, and with only 143 passengers (out of a 180 max) there will be no crowded feeling. There are Amerians, Brits, Canadians, a family from Hong Kong and I think a few Aussies aboard. Many are an older demographic, who knew we might feel young at our ages. There will be many excursions when docked, and definitely time just sailing the Danube. We are docked in Passau. Germany; tomorrow we will have a morning walking tour, before sailing off on the river. Tuesday our option is a bus trip to Salzburg. And after our noisy nights in Prague (fyi the hotel discounted our rooms for the inconvenience of the scaffolding and loss of double windows), I am really forward to the quietness that is our cabin.

Continue reading "In Passau, on the River Beatrice" »

I wanted to leave our Prague visit largely unstructured, in part because we would need to get over the jet lag, and in part because the river cruise has its own agenda of tours. But I knew also that there is a fascinating story of the Jewish community in this Central European city, and so we engaged a private guide for a 3 hour walking tour. Olga met us at our hotel yesterday morning, and since the hotel is a mere 5 minutes from the Josefov area of the Jewish quarter, it was a short walk over to begin the tour. Nestled in the blocks of an area now given over to elegant shops are several synagogues of an earlier time. Olga was a wealth of information, and it was both fascinating yet not without poignant reminders of a community decimated by the horrors of the Final Solution. We will be taking a similar journey in Budapest, and it was a morning well spent in history.

Continue reading "Visit to the Jewish Quarter" »

Rachel told her father he would only need one Czech word for his stay in Prague: pivo, which means beer. Given his language abilities, we are going to stick to this.

First morning in Prague means finding our traveling crew (old friends Dana & Ned, Rhonda and her sister from Iowa, Emilie) at breakfast, and as 4 of us had just arrived, there were some housekeeping chores to do when we set off for the day. Luckily for us there was a tourist office just across the way in Old Town Hall (we see brides in white several times a day), and we purchased a Prague Card for museum/sites entrance, then walked to a Metro station to get a 3 day transportation card. From there it was a lovely stroll across the Charles Bridge to get to the tram stop for the Prague Castle. Tram 22

Continue reading "Pivo" »

The last part of our long journey into Prague was relatively easy, even though it involved a shuttle bus to the tarmac for our flight and a bit of rain delay; the flight was short and we were rather charmed to be served a proper British tea. No lines, luggage or immigration at the airport, and the hotel driver was waiting for us. From touchdown to check in was under an hour, and the sun was just setting.

We are a bit dismayed to find our hotel, the Grand Hotel Praha, chosen for its charm and location in Old Town Square, is under construction: scaffolding covers the front and obscures our view of the Astronomical Clock. As I type this in the early morning there is a worker perched outside my window, and he is not exactly quiet. Profuse apologies from management; apparently they have no control as to when the government allows them to do this, or so the oddly translated note in our room states. We knew the square would be noisy, but we have one of the layers of window glass removed and we know we are going to hear the noise from the square as well. The hotel itself is charming, our room spacious and the bathroom newly remodeled. It's going to be an "ah well travel" experience.

We are really tired at this point, but I take a quick shower and we go out in search of dinner. We decide to walk off the square, and to my surprise, find a place that I recognize from my notes. It's small, and full, but there is one table left, lucky us. Pilsners, schnitzels and salads later, we walk back to the hotel as it begins to rain. We have yet to see one set of traveling companions and know the others are still in the air; plan to find everyone at breakfast in the morning. In spite of the cafe noise outside, we sleep.

We have made it to London and are currently in the Concorde Lounge, BA Terminal 5, waiting for our flight to Prague in two hours. The Concorde Lounge is courtesy of David deciding to splurge on First Class FF tickets, and while it is quite nice, I know I cannot get used to this. I think Business is a splurge, seriously.

We seemed to have either learned a few travel tricks or have been very lucky so far; perhaps it is the bonus of both of us being able-bodied, err knee, this year. Car pick up was on time, no line at LAX, and a fairly smooth crossing of the pond to London. Certain things in First were
interesting, besides the flat bed: FA's offered pj's to wear as well as a bed make-up, turn down sort of service. Service was excellent, food was ok (expected better), wines were fine. Between boarding, dinner, and lights out, hardly time to read, and no movie time either.

Continue reading "In Transit" »