Praha (Prague), Czech Republic

Trini and I grudgingly ended our 8-day stopover in Wiesbach where Manfred and Miriam (Trini’s cousin) lived. It was hard to say Auf Wiedersehen but move on we must. Until next time…

We woke up at 3:15 a.m. so we can have a head start since our flight to Prague was in Frankfurt. Poor Manfred had to get up early too to drive us there. The drive was almost two hours although we weren’t flying in the autobahn like the other drivers. Manfred dropped us off at Terminal 2 and we bade him goodbye and expressed our sincere thanks for being a very gracious and kind host.

The Czech Airlines counter was still closed when we arrived at 6:10 a.m. so we sat for another hour or so. At 7:15 a.m., a lone employee started to check us in. When we proceeded to the gate we noticed there weren’t that many people flying with us. After boarding, we were all bused us to the plane. Trini and I stared in “horror” at our tiny turbo prop airplane! No wonder there were not that many flyers and the counter guy tagged most of our hand carry luggages since it was going along with the checked in baggage.

Trini has a fear of flying on small airplanes, luckily, the flight only took an hour and twenty minutes (15 minutes of that taxiing in the runway). After retrieving our baggage we exited the customs area and found our shuttle driver holding up my name. A curt hello with a smile then he took over our cart and we followed him with two other ladies who shared the shuttle with us.

The shuttle driver was a speed demon with a lead foot. At least he did not run over any red lights. He drove us around the city and we were able to see the beautiful UNESCO Heritage and Cultural Site. I was surprised to see so many tourists considering it is still winter. I’ve been following the European countries’ weather forecast for the last couple of weeks and we are lucky to have this spring-like weather now whereas it was 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit colder two weeks ago! I observed that the people were dressed in extremes – some were in shorts and t-shirts only and some were bundled up to the hilt.

After checking in, these two seniors took their afternoon nap. We only had three hours of sleep and our old decrepit system is begging us to rest. After a power nap, we went exploring the historical center. There were people from all over – Asians snapping photos of their kids in store fronts, young Americans discussing where they had lunch and where their next destination will be, Swiss gentlemen with their feathered hats licking ice creams, locals just trying to dodge the tourists getting from point A to point B.