Prague revisited
Well, quite the night.
When we got to our train compartment it was all made up and ready for
bed for three of us. That is three
bunks, one over the next up the right side of the compartment with a 2-foot
walking area, a small sink and a small luggage closet on the left. We had to take turns bringing in our luggage
while the others waited out in the hall.
Since the room was already claustrophobic it was determined that
sleeping in a bunk with 4 inches of overhead clearance would be
unendurable. We folded back the bunks
and restored the three-across seating with padded but uncomfortable
chairs. That will now be our sleeping
mode for tonight.
The train moved VERY slowly through the first fifty miles in
Poland with frequent stops. There were
lurches, howls, whines, thumps and bumps.
At one point there was a long pause while some of the cars peeled off
for Budapest and some for Vienna while we did the train version of the chicken
dance. The good news, there were no long
train whistles at every stop. Once we
got into the Czech Republic the train picked up speed and the stops were fewer
which enabled us to grab some naps. To
Rick Steves, who advocates night trains as a way to save money as well as
arriving rested at your destination, the three of us are, in unison, raising
hand gestures.
We hesitantly made our way through the huge train station in
Prague and out onto a side street. This
was the perfect place to request an Uber taxi and we had one in about 5
minutes. No streets in Prague go in a
single direction and we whipped left and right through early morning (7:00 AM)
traffic to our hotel. Our Uber bill
showed up later for $4—what a blessing.
Too early to check in of course but the desk person stored our luggage and
directed us to the coffee machine and the ATM across the street so we could get
some Korunas (conversion rate 25CZK = $1).
Knowing that we couldn’t get rooms this early, we scheduled
a private guide for this morning. Eva
arrived right on schedule at 9:00 and the first order of business was to
explain to her that we were tired and crabby and she better be really
good. She was not intimidated. We did the whirlwind “get acquainted with
Prague agenda” starting along the Vltava, through the Jewish quarter (like
Krakow, shut down for the holy days), back to Old Town Square and the historic
sites in the old town. Next was New Town
with a quick pass through one end of Wenceslaus Square and then back to the
river and across to Mala Strana (little quarter). Eva is in great form and suggests that we do
the 15 minute walk straight up hill to the castle rather than taking the
tram. She is in Beast Mode and we are in
Least Mode. There is a brief stop at the
Church of the Infant of Prague, a Catholic shrine of sorts. A service is in
session, but the irreverent Eva plunges down the main aisle and waves us into
photo-taking position. Perhaps the
worshipers are used to this although we’re not and hesitate before inching our
way up a side aisle.
We survive the climb and the views are everything you have
ever heard about Prague. Our pictures
won’t do it justice. We do a walk-through of the castle grounds and into St.
Vitus Cathedral. A guide on a previous
visit told us that this area is akin to combining St. Patrick’s Cathedral in
New York with all of Washington DC. The
Changing of the Guard is scheduled for a few minutes from now so we join the
crowd. We like to snap a few pictures as
much as anyone, but this obsession with the camera phone has gone beyond any
common sense. Mary gets hit in the head
twice by the same guy as he is swinging his phone around (she mentioned to him
that he might not want to do that again), and a woman behind John is reaching
around his face with her camera to take a video. She is also the recipient of advice. We’re
already crabby ya’ know.
The next step is to sidle along the hilltop to get some
different angles of this best view of Prague.
Eventually we arrive at a long looping path back down to Mala Strana
passing a new statue or memorial every few steps. There was a major flood here in 2007 and it
would seem that most of the Lesser Town was underwater. The city has now
installed an in-ground series of metal beams to which portable aluminum flood
walls can be attached whenever floods threaten in the future. We end the tour at the Charles Bridge back
across the Vltava. This was a whirlwind
little-bit-of-everything peek at one of our favorite cities in the world. We wanted to do this to give Pat an overview
and us a refresher. Having a different
guide gave us a bit of a new perspective that was helpful.
Lunch time! We move
to the Old Town Square and find a street-side table at U Prince
Restaurant. Our waiter hands us our
menus and asks for our order, and then returns every minute to see if we have
decided. We didn’t mention that we’re
crabby but he starts to get the idea.
Pat has a goulasch soup with bread, Mary has a panini and John has a
Duck Rillette and the goulasch soup.
It’s all so-so but we’re in the heart of tourist land and we want the
sidewalk experience so we play the game.
One more quick walk around and it is 2:00 PM, time to check
in. We run to our hotel, get our rooms
and all head for either showers or bed.
The last 18 hours has been busy.
Our hotel manager gives us a couple restaurant
recommendations, one right around the corner.
After a quick cocktail in the room we choose the closest option,
Restaurace Stoleti. As promised, the
service is good, and the food is terrific and very reasonable, the wine is
Moldavian and ok and an overall good experience. Listen to the locals. Pat had the grilled chicken with mashed
potatoes, John had the cheese stuffed turkey steak with red cabbage and potato
risotto and Mary had a spinach soufflé.
After dinner there was a walk back to the river and Pat got
her first look at the Castle over the Charles Bridge at night. This has to be one of the best views in the
world, and if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen it a million times. It never gets old. Our crabby time seems like a distant
memory. We’ll all get a good night’s
sleep tonight.
What did we learn today?
An overnight train may or may not be a good idea, but you had better
know what you’re getting into.
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