Off to Prague

March 21

Alarm goes off at 7 am. Man that seems earlier for some reason. Our flight is at 12:28p and it's about a 20 minute train to the airport. Our goal is to leave by 9:30 with 10 being our drop dead time. We find a bill for a Snickers bar from Sunday. It's only 2 euros but we didn't eat it so I will have to take care of that. We get packed up and head down for breakfast. 

I finally decide to order eggs (sunny side up) so I make some toast for dipping. I see some sunny side up eggs come out but they go to another table. Then I overhear the kitchen is backed up. We decide to wait until 9:30 but our eggs don't show up so we leave. Last minute packing and we head out. The front desk is nice about the minibar charge and we are on our way. 

We get our tickets and look for our train. The next one to the airport leave at 10:07 from platform 15a. We head to platform 15 which is on the opposite side of the station. We end up outside somehow and there are 15 signs but this is a bus stop. We find out where to go but as we get there the train pulls away. Ugh, there is a train on 14b that leaves at 10:11 for the airport. Up and down to platform 14. We get there but the doors are closed and someone is already there and the door won't open for him. We miss that one too. The next option is from this platform and leaves at 10:22. I wonder if that is cutting it close or not. I guess only time will tell. 

We arrive at Schoptol and need to go to 1a for check in. It's on the far side of the airport. You literally cannot go further in this direction. We check our bags since my is too fat for KLM standards plus our friends we are meeting are checking bags anyway. Since this check in area is at the far end we need to hoof it back to the middle for our departure. Fortunately security is a short line. By the time we get to the gate we 45 minutes or so to boarding so we are fine timing wise. 

We are on a 737-800 that is completely coach. I get writing done while waiting for takeoff. 

Wow, organic bread with free range chicken. It's not too bad. The dill is a little strong but you probably need that in the air. 

The airport in Prague isn't very big and we easily find luggage. As we wait for our luggage my friend describes his as blue. Uh, helpful. A few blue ones go by but they are not his. He says it's a travel pro. Ok that helps. I see a blue one and ask if it's his. He says no. Ok but it's a Travel Pro and it has a AmaWaterways tag. He looks at the tag, it's his. Nice. We head to the front but we don't see s driver with our name. A few minutes goes by and our driver comes in. 

We arrive at the hotel and it's near a ton of embassies including the US. We have the two bedroom apartment and it's stunning. 

After we settle in, we head down to the old city square. We pass by some interesting places.

Charles bridge

Just some of statues that adorn Charles Bridge.

We head to the square where the astronomical clock is.

 This is a little random.

The clock is being refurbished. Awesome!

Nothing like scaffolding. Get something to warm up. Hot cider and mulled wine.

These Hungarian chimney cakes are everywhere. 

There is a market of sorts going on with live music.

We try some fire roasted pork - both the prosciutto and ham. The skin they serve with it is nice and crunchy!

We decide to get a drink/snack maybe dinner but we want to get away from the tourist priced place around here. While eating ,I find U Fleku, a brewery that is a 15 walk. They have some interesting museums here.

Espresso anyone?

We finally arrive. It looks like a quaint little place from the outside. 

They only have one kind of beer and it's dark. They also have a honey and grain(?) liquors so we end up with all three. It's interesting as they just walk around with trays of beer or liquor and offer them to you as they walk around.

We decide to eat dinner here as they have some stuff we want to try like pork knuckle, potato soup, potato pancake and a sampler platter with dumplings. My buddy is screwed. Not only don't they have the potato soup, they don't have the pancake either. He ends up goulash. 

 The goulash is really tender. These are bread and speck dumplings. They are fairly dense and heavy but good for soaking up the gravy.

The specialty plate has duck, roast pork and sausage. The pork is pork but the duck and sausage are good.

The pork knuckle is huge and delicious. Too bad the skin isn't crispy. There is live entertainment. 

My buddy makes a video of the second musician. A little while later he goes to show us and send it to his dad. He can't find it. Maybe he didn't hit record? A little while later he finds it. I think he's brain fried from lack of sleep. 

This place is huge and has a big beer garden that I imagine is hopping during the summer. 

We decide to walk back even though it's up hill. According to Apple maps it's only a little over a mile. It doesn't seem that cold. 

 Maybe we hit a bar on the way back. As we get near our hotel, we only seem to find restaurants and not bars. So we decide to get some beers and play cards back in our room. It's funny the cans of beer are more expensive than the .5 liters advertised at the restaurants we walked by.