After Paris, we flew to the fabulous, fabled city of Prague, now one of my favorite places on earth!
Prague Castle and Vltava River
Our flight wasn’t until 9:45AM, but Gate 1, in its lack of wisdom, arranged our departure from the hotel for 6:45AM. Yikes! As a result, we were up really early to shower, dress, finish packing and check out of the hotel. Our wonderful tour director, Anne, met us in the lobby with box breakfasts to take to the airport with us. The breakfast consisted of bottles of juice and a bunch of pastries. Rebecca gave hers to our driver, and I added my bottle of juice.
We were dropped at the airport more than an hour too early, as the gate didn’t open until 8AM. (If you’re traveling within the European Union, two hours or less is plenty of time to check in for a flight, something a travel company should have known.) We found a place to sit and I ate my pastries. After we were finally able to check in, we found a spot to eat a real breakfast of quiche before boarding our Czech Airlines plane. We lucked into aisle seats across from each other.
Prague airport is nice and small. The hotel sent a car for us driven by a Russian immigrant to the Czech Republic who was very nice but drove like he was entered in the Monaco Grand Prix! We were happy to arrive safe and sound at Hotel Rott.
Our room wasn’t ready, so we ate lunch at Nuance, the hotel restaurant. We had bowls of delicious beef broth and salads, followed by dessert. By the time we finished, our room was ready. We were assigned to room 401 at the back of the hotel. I didn’t expect much of a view, but boy was I wrong. Though the room looked out over an inner courtyard, when I looked up over the rooftops, I could see Prague Castle silhouetted against the sky. Perfect!
After unpacking, we wandered over to the Old Town Square in time to see and hear the famous Astronomical Clock mark the hour. Quite a crowd of people were there. I figured everyone who was too afraid to go to Paris last year ended up in Prague instead.
Old Town is so picturesque and we both fell immediately in love with Prague. I’ll have lots more posts in the next few weeks.
Statue of Jan Hus in Old Town Square
Linda