Day 38 - Berlin to Prague

We had our alarm set for 8:00am as we had to be checked out and ready to be picked up for breakfast at 9:00am by the host family Sam had stayed with on his school trip in 2008. When they arrived Svenja (who had stayed with us in 2009) introduced us to her parents and her younger brother.

Our Breakfast Hosts

We then drove to a nearby restaurant where Frank had pre-order a magnificent breakfast feast composed of six different dishes, including some German specialities such as raw meat (actually very nice), and different cheeses, fruits, eggs and fritters. There was so much food, and despite how nice it was, even between six of us we could not get through it all. And we sure tried! Meanwhile it was nice to see Svenja and again and get the chance to meet her lovely family. Of course Svenja was kept busy translating because her parents spoke only a little English – which was still way more German that Laura and I can speak of course.

Sadly we were working to a deadline as Laura & I had a 10:48am train to catch to Prague. So we piled back into the car – now weighed down by six people AND a huge breakfast – for the short drive back to the Hauptbahnhof. Everyone came with us to the platform as we found our seats and climbed aboard – Frank even kindly explained to the German couple in our seat that we had them booked so they had to move. Right on time – with a last wave to our hosts on the platform – our train was away on the first leg of our joint adventure.

After the breakfast feast to which we had been treated, I needn’t have bothered stocking up on supplies for the 4h:45m trip to Prague. Along the way we did get another look at the beautiful scenery around Bad Spandau they we had seen on our European trip in 2008. Mind you, the scenery was pretty goods throughout most of the trip.

We arrived in Prague on time at 3:30pm. Getting some Czech Korona wasn’t a problem, once we worked out that the (i) symbol for Information here seems to mean pretty much any sort of information (train, metro, tram) not just the usual Tourist Information. We realised afterwards that we could really have walked to the accommodation Laura has booked for us, although with all our luggage perhaps it was just as well that we caught the tram. We were amazed when shown to our “room” – a top floor apartment with kitchen/dining, lounge room, bathroom, and with the bedroom in an upstairs loft. And did I mention the balcony with panoramic views of the Prague Castle? I should have delegated all the accommodation bookings to Laura!

The busy bridge

We changed into some cooler gear for walking – it was sunny and warm to hot here – and set out to explore Prague. Our apartment really was walking distance from all the sights, so we started by just walking down to the river and then up towards the famous Charles Bridge. The bridge is famous for being the focal point from which the city grew and for the 30 statues which line both sides of it. According to the guide books it is also famous for being crowded with tourist and hawkers of knick knacks and pictures, and they certainly got that bit right. We made our way across and then paid about A$3.50 to climb the bridge tower on the far side. We actually couldn’t work out why we were the only people up there, because it afforded great views not just of the bridge but the river and the palace as well. After coming down we sampled one of the local treats (dloty) which were quite tasty. On the way back over the bridge we made a point of reading the guide book’s description of what each statue was about – they were all religious saints – since we figured we might as well learn as we looked.

Of course it was already very late in the day so we re-traced our steps and bought some dinner supplies from a supermarket near our lodgings. Once we had prepared and eaten dinner, made plans for tomorrow, and showered it was time for bed. Especially since one of us still had some serious jet lag to catch up on.