CENTRAL EUROPE 2011
Day 8
September 9 Friday
Prague
This morning we got up early and took a taxi to the
Dresden train station for our train to Prague.
The trip took over two hours. When
we got to Prague, we found a very busy train station.
The first thing we needed to do was get some Czech crowns, a 1000 crown
bills worth about 60 US dollars. We
stopped in a Burger King (yes, another Burger King) in the station for lunch,
then to the train ticket office to get our seats (we already had bought our
tickets on line) for our train to Brno on our way to Budapest in several days.
We went out to where the taxis were lined up and
took a cab to our apartment. The
driver charged us 980 crowns – that was almost 60 US dollars.
When we arrived at our hotel/apartment, we were told at the desk that the
taxi driver took advantage of us, like they do to all tourists.
The ride, we would later learn, should have cost less than 300 crowns –
we paid 
over three times that amount. This
certainly did not give us a very good first impression of Prague.
The government needs to step in and exercise some control.
We later learned that a visitor was charge 1000 crowns to be driven
across the street to their hotel.
We checked into our hotel which was once a palace
– the Pachtuv Palace MaMassion. Because
we had booked through Splendia.com for Dresden, Prague and Vienna, they gave us
a free upgrade to a beautiful, huge suite with a large living room with a full
kitchen bar, and a beautiful huge bedroom. The
entrance hall itself was twice the size of a normal hotel room – like the one
we had at the Sacher in Salzburg. The
living room and bedroom had crystal chandeliers.
The Pachtuv Palace is right at the Charles Bridge which is the famous
bridge in Prague. From the front of
the hotel, we had a wonderful view of St. Vitus across the river and up on top
of the hill in the castle.
After settling in, we walked a few blocks to a large
grocery store to get cereal, yogurt, sweets and milk for breakfast.
In Prague, many of the busy streets had underpasses rather than crossing
the street on the surface.
Next we went next door from the hotel to the
beautiful Phenix Café bar for drinks. There
was a young couple sitting at the next table who were speaking English.
We got into a conversation and found out that he was from Arlington,
Virginia and she was from Virginia Beach, and the daughter of an Anglican
Priest. They were on their honeymoon
and shared with us some of their wedding photos which they had on their I
pad. It is a small world.
We had earlier spoken to a couple from South Carolina at the train
station.
We decided to go back to our hotel where we had a wonderful dinner in the
Amade Restaurant. We ordered three
small plates – beef tartar, scallops with pasta, and shrimp, all accompanied
by a white Italian wine and a Czech red. For
dessert we had a very delicious tiramisu. Everything
was beautifully prepared and delicious. It
is hard to get used to the Czech crown…dinner cost 1275.00 in crowns.
Wow!
After dinner we walked across the Charles Bridge,
which is a pedestrian bridge. It was
very crowded, and there were a number of musicians playing at different
locations. The hill, the castle, and
St. Vitus were beautifully lit.
We went back to our apartment for a good night’s
sleep. We did have a little problem
in that the air conditioning system
had been turned off. We had to open
the top part of our bedroom window. We
were on the first floor, and we heard several groups of loud party goers walking
past our window during the night.
