Blogs from Prague, Czech Republic, Europe - page 2

And just like that, vacation is over and the tour begins! Anyone who has ever been on a tour knows what I mean. A tour is not vacation. A vacation is leasurly days, late mornings, open schedules, and rest. A tour is packed days, early mornings, and hectic schedules. If you want to see a great deal of sights, be taken to places with guides, and learn about history and such, take a tour. If you want to relax, take a vacation. They are very different. So today is tour day one. We were up at 5:45 AM and down to breakfast by 6:30. There are two Viking ships in this hotel so breakfast was hosting about 400 people who all needed to leave at approximately the same time. If you want to be sure to ... read more

After yesterday's exciting dinner, we were exhausted. We decided... we didn't actually decide anything; we just slept in. Hey we are on vacation, after all. So we finally roused out of slumber about 8:30 and were dressed, packed, and ready to check out of trhe Iron Gate Hotel and into our cruise hotel, The Prague Mariott. A word about the Iron Gate. It is older, very centrally located and filled with old world charm. We had a little issue with our room at first. We had a single room with a queen bed, nice and comfortable. The problem was the A/C did not work. After several vain attempts to get it fixed, we were told it was broken and moved to a private suite! We now had two large rooms and our own sitting room in ... read more

We slept in a bit this morning all the way to 8:30 - almost as if we were on vacation! Yesterday was tireing but was well worth it. On our journey to the Charles Bridge yesterday, I discovered that on the Vltava River they run some afternoon lunch cruises. You would think that since we are going on an 8 day cruise in two days we would not find this enticing but you would be dead wrong! Our Viking cruise is on the Main River so, when we were offered the opportunity to cruise on two diffent rivers, of course, we decided to go. Today's plan was to sleep in, check; leave the hotel about 10 AM, check; and arrive at the cruise ticket office about 10:15. Swing and a miss here. We asked our concierge ... read more

We spent most of Saturday very satisfied with ourselves that we completed our packing for the next 16 days. I kept thinking, ‘What are we missing?’ and nothing came to mind, so I enjoyed our Saturday lounging around the house, enjoying the great spring weather on the porch. We went out to dinner for some excellent Mediterranean pizza then off to my mother-in- law’s house to meet with my wife’s brother, his wife, my niece and nephew, and their two kids for my mother-in-law’s 99th birthday. We sat around and told stories and just enjoyed family time when my lovely niece, Christina commented about my travel blog. She enjoys reading the blog and learned how best to travel and be prepared for anything. She made a casual comment that she especially enjoyed the idea of packing ... read more

It has taken nearly 3 years due to Covid delays but we are FINALLY on our way to Prague! I booked a Viking cruise in May of 2019 for a vacation starting in June 2020 on our favorite web site Vacationstogo.com. We were to begin in Prague and end in Paris . Then COVID happened. We were all paid up and ready to go when in April of 2020 the trip was cancelled due to COVID issues. On the positive front, Viking offered us a 25% discount if we kept our booking and continued our plans in 2021 rather than get a refund in 2020. Sure, for 25% why not! So we took our 25% and upgraded our cabin to a veranda suite. Vacationstogo added another $250 each so we prepaid our drink packages and bought ... read more