Tuesday, June 24, 2014

June 24th (Day 10) Vienna-->Prague

We made some great memories in Vienna and some wanted to stay a couple of days longer but if anyone understands how important it is to stick to an itinerary it's the Griswold's. After saying our goodbyes to our guide Manuela, we hopped on a train for a 4.5 hr ride to Prague, Czech Republic.  Several of the EuroCats have mentioned how excited they are to visit Prague. It'll be hard to top the first ten days of the trip!!!
Waiting for the train.






Grant was even comfortable for a couple of minutes before a bunch of people got on the train at the next stop.

Once we arrived in Prague we waited on the platform for our tour guide Petr but he was no where to be seen.  Our fearless group leader, Allison, rose to the occasion and led us all the way across the street to our hotel.  Petr showed up shortly after and said he waited for us but never saw us at the train station, our train did arrive a couple of minutes early.  After The Griswold family switched out of their smokey rooms (nothing can dampen our spirits) we were ready for our orientation meeting with Petr. I was thankful the map of the city he provided us with was smaller than Vienna's. There is also only 3 metro lines, we should know our way around Prague by the end of tomorrow! Petr gave us some good tips that will be useful to us in this new city: about a half a mile from our hotel is a main street, always turn when you get to this street because if you continue to go straight you will run into Prague's red light district. O_o  Other tips included: beer should cost around 40 koruna ($2) and that is how to judge the prices that restaurant charges, there is no need to learn to say thank you in Czech because everyone here understands our America version, the subway line stops running around midnight so if we have to negotiate with a taxi driver we are prepared.



The guided walking tour Petr led included an abundance of beautiful sites. Prague was one of  the only cities that didn't get bombed during the war, so all of the buildings we saw have been undamaged since they were built.  The Charles Bridge, built in 1357, was unlike any bridge I've ever seen before. A friend of mine just spent a month in Prague and told me I should watch the sun rise from there before we leave. We were able to see the John Lennon Peace Wall before we walked across the bridge. Since the 1980's the wall has been filled with inspiring lyrics bad quotes from The Beatles and Lennon. The wall has been painted over several times but within a couple of days it's filled again with colorful, inspiring graffiti. An original portrait of Lennon still remains about as untouched as something can be on a wall full of graffiti.

The EuroCats are trilled to be spending the last 5 days in this charming Czech Republic city. I spent a couple of minutes tonight outlining what activities we have planned for the remaining days and noted the weather for that day beside it on a handy dandy "Outfit Planning Cheat-sheet."  If anyone on the trip is having trouble deciding which outfit to wear please ask to see this sheet of paper! This isn't The Griswold's first rodeo and everyone knows we dress to impress.










No comments:

Post a Comment