Ahoj Praha!

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Geo: 50.0878, 14.4205

We got up early and finished packing our bags, had our final breakfast at Schweitzer Pension, and crammed ourselves onto the elevator to meet our cab. Though we requested a "large" cab, it wasn't large enough for all of our stuff. Unfortunately, a second cab had to be called, which doubled our price to Vien Südbahnhof (Vienna South Train Station). Fortunately, we arrived with some time to spare and enjoyed a coffee before boarding our train. Unlike our German train experience, this train left nearly 20 minutes behind schedule. To their credit, they kept apologizing for the delay at every stop.

The train ride was interesting, as we sat across from a man from Thailand and a woman from Venezuela having a conversation back and forth in English. They were both nice people. On the train, we got caught up on our sleeping and planning.

Our arrival at Praha Holešovice was uneventful except for getting scammed on the price of a taxi (according to Rick Steves). The driver hit about 60 mph on a city street, too! Phew.

We checked in at Hotel Hastal Prague and were pleasantly surprised by our rooms… decent sized, comfortable, and air conditioned! This hotel also has a nice restaurant/bar off of the lobby AND free wireless internet. The internet has been hit-or-miss thus far, so we are pleased.

Though Jeannette continues to have trouble with her ATM card, we are making sure she is taken care of until the issue gets resolved. A call to the EPFCU did not prove helpful, so we will try a bank tomorrow.

We walked from our hotel about 10 minutes right into the central part of Prague's Old Town. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and it took little convincing for us to jump aboard the ship “Adria” for an hour cruise along the Vltava. Prague is an amazing city as it is one of the few places in Europe that retains its Old World charm. Untouched by “ugly” development and unravaged by the bombing raids of WWII, the city is definitely unique. The famous Charles Bridge was in use before Columbus set foot in North America in 1492. That's kind of old. After the cruise we walked across the bridge and back through Central Prague to our hotel and enjoyed Pilsner Urquell, the original Pilsner brewed in the neighboring area of Plsen.

Na shiedanou! (Czech for goodbye.)

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