Prague Saturday August 7th
Yesterday we had breakfast in our hotel and then walked back to the train station to get seat reservations to go from Prague to Regensburg Germany where we’ll make a connection to Wurzburg. There was a 2 minute line-up and the reservations cost 140 CZK which is about 5 euros. We haven’t had any trouble with line-ups or expensive seat reservations since we left Italy. The more efficient the train system, the less you wait and the less you pay, it seems.
From there we wandered down through Wenceslas Square, on into the Old Town and across the famous 500 year old (at least) Charles Bridge. Across the bridge there was a spot on a building where they’d marked severe flood elevations over the last century or more. The year 2000 flood was the worst. However, they’ve recovered quite nicely. We saw the astrological clock in the Old Town Square and a lot of other sites. Because of Prague’s complex history, there are a lot of events that have occurred in these places that have a lot of meaning for the Czech people and some significant events were only 20 years ago. We stopped for a beer and a wine in a really nice restaurant in the Old Town. Even though it’s very touristy and historical during the day, there is a lively bar scene. In the place we were in the nightlife type bar opened at 8 pm and closed at 6 am. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the stamina for that kind of scene.
We walked back to our hotel and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Good food and very reasonably priced.
Today we knew from the weather report that it was going to be rainy and cool. After breakfast we set off in the pouring rain in our coats and caps for the nearest subway station. We took the subway to a stop near Prague Castle. We visited the Royal Gardens that were very beautiful. We then bought an audio guide tour of the Castle. This was expensive but not a total rip-off since Prague Castle is, I believe, the biggest castle complex in Europe. It’s huge, with different palaces, cathedrals, other buildings and squares, set on a high hill overlooking the city. Even with an audio guide it’s hard to keep track of all the history that’s taken place here.
Tuesday August 9th Wurzburg
We never posted a blog again in Prague because the connection was bad but to continue the Prague story: It rained so hard that by the time we got back down the hill from Prague Castle to the subway station we were pretty wet. We decided to forget the anniversary dinner in the old town and just go back near our hotel. After drying off in our hotel room we went just down the street to a Mexican (of all things) restaurant and actually had a decent meal. When we got back to our hotel at only 6:30 pm the night desk clerk was totally drunk. The only thing holding him up was the front desk. He gave us the wrong room key and when I asked for the right one he just smiled and kept talking to 3 young women tourists. I reached across the desk and into the shelves behind him and got the right key. He didn’t even notice. We heard later that he had papers all over and couldn’t manage to close the safety deposit box (which we weren’t using). Somebody even called the police on him but we don’t know why. However, it all worked out and the next morning he kept coming into the restaurant for big glasses of juice but he was still there.
Our final day in Prague was beautiful weather. We walked down to the old town, had a nice lunch (potato pancakes and beer), toured the old Jewish quarter and sat in the square listening to music. It was Prague Jazz Week with 4 or 5 groups playing for free in the square on Sunday afternoon (this kind of thing keeps happening to us - it‘s great). We listened to a couple and then had a really nice dinner for our anniversary. We had talked to Mike and Diane Klobouk about Prague since they’re very familiar with it. It’s a beautiful and seemingly very livable city that easily lived up to our expectations.
The next morning (yesterday) we walked to the train station and after much confusion about platforms caught the 9:04 to Plzen near the Czech/German border and then another train to Regensburg, Germany. As sometimes happens, our train was 70 minutes late so we missed our connection to Wurzburg at 2:30 pm. We improvised by taking a regional train to Nurnburg and then another one to Wurzburg arriving 1 ½ hours later than planned. You have to accept this stuff.
On the way here we noticed that the rivers all looked awfully high for August. Then on CNN last night we saw that there had been flooding in Poland, Czech Republic and southeast Germany. It did rain pretty hard on Saturday, all day.
We had booked a Novotel through Eurobookings and we’re here now. It’s really nice. We paid 297 euros for 3 nights including the best buffet breakfast yet. However internet is extra so we’ll get it for a few hours later, post this and do some further research.
Today we toured the sights of Wurzburg - castles, bridge, palaces, gardens, town square - the usual. If you came only here it would look fantastic but we’re getting used to all these beautiful old towns. Wurzburg is the first place we’ve been in weeks where there are only hundreds of tourists not thousands or tens of thousands. It seems quite calm compared to other cities. In Prague, when the famous clock on the side of a church chimes each hour, 2 windows open and wooden figures of the apostles rotate by so you can see them in the window for 20 seconds. Every hour there are at least 500 maybe 1,000 people waiting to watch this happen. It really isn’t that interesting so we doubt if anyone does it twice. That means that every hour there’s a whole new group of 500-1,000 people there. The crowds in the tourist areas are insane but you just somehow get used to it. The trains aren’t bad - especially 1st class. Some train stations are a little wild at times.
We could only be here in July and August so we came despite knowing it would be crowded. We’re coping just fine but anyone who has a choice should not visit Europe in the summer. All of Japan must be here and a good part of China and Australia too. Then there’s all the North Americans. Plus the Europeans are all on holiday travelling now too. We haven’t gone to any beach resorts since Nice but we imagine that they’re insane too. Oh well.
We’re just cooling off before dinner although it’s been a beautiful day again - 28C and sunny. It doesn’t feel hot at all compared to Italy.
Tomorrow we’re going to take the train about 1 hour to Rothensburg which is supposedly the best preserved medieval walled town in Germany. We’ll come back here for tomorrow night. After that we don’t know where we’re going. We better figure that out soon.
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