Prague - Disney without the Disney - 9/20/2010

Up an at 'em early this morning for the trip to Prague. Got to the train station in good time to grab a bit of breakfast and buy some food for the trip and then waited for the train. As we waited on the platform, a strong sense of foreboding overcame us. The place was packed and we had no reservations. When the train arrive it was chaos, much like it was we caught the train from Mannheim to Paris. We at least knew what car we were suppose to be in but, as we had no reservations (didn't think we needed them for this jaunt) all of the available seats were taken by the time we had stowed our luggage. We went in search of available seats in other cars, but there were none and people, also without reservations, were hanging out in the hallways, the bathrooms, the car connecting areas, anywhere there was available. So, apparently, even if there are more passengers than seats, all those passengers are still permitted to board. Lesson learned, get reservations! Fortunately, while Rick and I were in search of seats, we had passed through the dining car and snagged a table and slowly dined on the most expensive bad omelette (seriously, how hard is it to make an omelette?), coffee, and watered down orange juice in our lives. We learned that the train clears out considerably in Dresden which was about 2 hours and 20 minutes away. Like good Europeans we ate s-l-o-w-l-y and nursed that coffee until we got into Dresden (the steward didn't seem to care and there were seats available) at which point we were able to snag some unreserved seats for the remaining 2 and 1/2 hour trip to Prague.

We were delighted to be on a train with a bunch of BIG, noisy, middle-aged drunken American men, apparently on a group jaunt, who found it necessary to play their ipod loudly in the dining car and discuss LOUDLY anything that struck their fancy. The Europeans in the car tolerated them, as they are probably use to this. We were embarrassed. Rick said that he now knows why Americans have the reputation of being big loud and obnoxious. Doesn't matter that for every one loud obnoxious travelling American, there are ten quiet ones. The one loud, obnoxious American makes so much more of an impression.

From Dresden we followed the Vatlva, also know as the Moldau, River Valley down to Prague. It is pretty country and there are many quaint towns along the way. It was overcast but not raining. We have been very fortunate with the weather. We've encountered a little rain here and there but nothing constant, steady, and seemingly endless. The weather in Berlin was the best so far with temps in the high 50's low 60's and partly cloudy. These have been wonderful crisp fall days and seeing the leaves changing reminded us that fall is coming to our home in Oregon and we wondered if we'll see and feel a change when we return there in less than a week.

Prague Train Station

Pulled into the Czech station roughly on time, around 3:15, and, to avoid the fiasco that we just experienced, we stopped in at the international ticket office and reserved seats to Dresden and then onto Frankfurt for our Thursday travel. Because the hotel appeared faily close we decided to walk rather than take public transport (or cabs which are notorious here for cheating tourists) and quickly discovered that there are a lot of cobblestone streets in Prague. Hope the wheels stay on the luggage. Our hotel is in the old town area of Prague which is filled with narrow streets going every which way, no grid system here. This resulted in us circling in on our hotel for a while before actually reaching it. Just as I was despairing that the hotel ever existed, we made a sharp turn onto a street, unnamed on our map, and there it was, Hotel Savic. Yay!

The hotel is beautiful with an old style character consisting of big wooden beams, thick white walls, and multiple staircases. Our room has exposed timbers and a ceiling that slopes down which has resulted in my hitting my head a few times. We have a tiny window that looks out a small square, or rather, triangle, and a cafe restaurant below. We are on the 4th floor, and charmingly, the elevators only access the 3rd and 5th floors. To get to the 4th floor we had to get off on the 3rd floor (we didn't have access to the 5th floor) and hike up, with our 45 lb packs, a spiraled staircase far
more difficult to manuver than the one at the Amstel Canal B&B. Later we discovered that other wider, straighter staircases were available for our use :-) Did I mention that I think we've lost weight on this trip?

Kin Charles Bridge over The Vatlva River

Settled in, cleaned up, and then when out in search of food. We negotiated our way out of Old Town, known as Stare Mesto, and crossed the King Charles Bridge to enter the Hradcany (Castle) and Mala Strana Districts. The views take your breath your away, particularly at night. As Rick describes it, Prague is Disney without the Disney. You are surrounded by century old gothic and baroque structures topped with steeples, domes and spires. Just coming from Berlin, which had been bombed beyond recognition during WWII, and now, with a few exceptions, is occuppied by post 1970's architecture, Prague provided quite the contrast. It was a carnival atmosphere on the King Charles Bridge, a pedestrian bridge, loaded with tourists and vendors selling their wares. This is probably the most touristy city we've encountered on this trip.

There are a wide array of restaurants to choose from and no need for hopping on the metro for a 20-minute

Old Town (Stare Mesto District)

ride. We finally settled on one that had a spunky Chzech blonde waitress, Lanka, who spoke roughly six languages. I hade a pork tenderloin stuffed with blue cheese, Rick had a chicken stuffed with ham and gouda cheese, and we ordered a side of potato pancakes and potato croquettes which are essentially mashed potatos, patted into little balls and deep fried. Brilliant. Both dinners were excellent and we had some nice conversations with folks seated behind us who were from Minneapolis touring through Europe. We also chatted with Lanka, who, has a boyfriend who conducts scuba tours and so in the winter, she takes off for Goa, India. Rick and I imagine that winter here must be lovely and are already thinking about a return trip to celebrate Christmas in the City of Good King Wencaslas. Satiated, we strolled back across the bridge, and made our way to the hotel. Aside from my apparently pressing the wrong combination of light switches and blowing a fuse that caused the entire room to loose electricity, getting ready to for bed was pretty straight forward :-)