Prague, Czech Republic
Monday, August 31, 2015

had breakfast, unknowingly, in the Volkswagen cafe which was efficient and pleasant with superb orange juice. We then promenaded back to the hotel to complete our packing and check-out; although, to be honest, my part in the packing was minimal and I was told to go and have a shower and stop getting in the way !

Anyway, the taxi arrived and transported us swiftly to the train station, and what a station it is. Multi-level, multi platform, multi everything. It even had a fish and chip shop !!! Everything worked to plan and once the train arrived we boarded, found our seat and began to sweat.

Now, the sweating wasn’t because of fear, nervousness or worry, the sweat was simply because the inside of the train was at about 35C; it was absolutely boiling. The air conditioning didn’t work and when quizzed, the guard simply shrugged his shoulders and indicated that what it is is what it is ! So the 5 of us in our compartment sat and sweated, smiling occasionally but basically slowly roasting. The chap next to me was going to Dresden to see some old friends who he visited every year since 1957.

We continued to sweat…

Once he left we chatted to the other occupant, an American girl called Ashley who was touring Europe in between jobs at the US senate. She was both interested and interesting, and we spent a couple of hours comparing and contrasting Europe and the US and learning some facts about the US capitol. She was off to Budapest, Istanbul and Barcelona after Prague. One day, it is possible she will rise to the highest echelons of the US government… And we will be able to bore people to death telling them how we met her on a train 🙂

We sweated a bit more…

It was around this time that we crossed into Czech Republic. The station names changed and the new guard brought around free bottles of water to cool us down ! We eventually reached Prague, said goodbye to Ashley and found our way to our apartment, our home for the next 2 nights.

The apartment is perfect, situated on the Old Town Square with two bedrooms, kitchen, etc. We had much needed showers, then zipped down to meander around the square for a short time before hunger drove us to a restaurant just under our apartment window.

The food was nothing short of stupendous, and we merrily filled ourselves to bursting point on the beef, salmon, pasta, etc that was served. Two Czech beers and two coffees later we return to the apartment to cool down a little and then retire …

The square outside our windows is one of the central hubs of Prague and is full of “tired” young people from many different countries although at first glance the UK seems to be most common. Some were sitting on the pavement looking rather exhausted at 7.30pm, somehow I don’t think they were going to make it to Prague’s famous nightspots 🙂

Tomorrow we plan a tour of the city then some shopping, but that is a story for another day.