Hello from Prague, Czech Republic Part 2
Drafted started Tuesday evening – June 7, 2016 (fourteenth post of this travelogue)
Draft continued on the train to Berlin – June 8 2016
Uploaded: Thursday evening June 9, 2016 (We did not have internet last night – long story)
This blog will detail the rest of our tour of Prague and discuss some miscellaneous items.
Our next stop on the ride was the Old Town Square. This was a wonderful stop with lots to see. Probably the highlight was the medieval astronomical clock located in the old town hall – first installed in 1410 link. It is the third oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still in operation. We sat in a sidewalk café and had amazing ice cream sundaes (photo) while we waited for the 3:00 PM chimes. We were a bit let down, as we did not experience what we believe is the typical on-the-hour event. In the square, there was a great Dixieland band playing and that gave a somewhat unique twist to the visit (listening to American based music in this very old European setting).
Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square
Dixieland Band in Old Town Square
Our last stop was a one hour riverboat cruise on the Vltava River. The main event on that cruise was to travel under the Charles Bridge which was constructed starting in 1357. The bridge has 30 statues which were erected around 1700 – most now replaced by replicas.
As noted before, our location in Prague was not in the middle of the historic district. That said, it was easy to get to the historic center by the tram which was a couple of blocks from the room. We had been spoiled by our past locations where we had access to great bakeries. We did however have a great restaurant about a block away. They served an amazing hamburger (photo). The first time we went there, we both had the burger, but the second time we split the hamburger and had great deserts (photo).
Dinner in Bistro by our apartment
After doing a lot of walking and touring on Sunday and Monday, we took Tuesday as a “down day”. Pat tried to do some washing, but the dryer was way too hot and she decided to only do one load. I went by tram to the train station and got our train reservations from Prague to Kassel, Germany (via Berlin).
Most standard train transfers are only a few minutes. For our trip to Kassel, I specifically had them schedule a longer layover so that we would have plenty of time to find our train and also have lunch in Berlin. In the past, you could set your watch by the train’ arrivals and departures. That seems to have changed since the last time we were here. They are still reasonably prompt – unless they have a strike/slow down like our trip to Karlsruhe – then all bets are off. Still, we have experienced trains running as much as 15 minutes late and that never happened before.
The Czech Republic is a part of the European Union, but continues to use its own currency, as opposed to the Euro. The same is true of the UK countries. It brings back memories of having to change currency and figure out approximate prices in each country you visited in Europe. The Czech exchange rate is roughly 27 Koruna to the dollar. By comparison, the Euro is equivalent to about 1.13 dollars. Those are the published exchange rates. Unfortunately, you don’t get that rate in the exchange booths, and then the tack on an additional fee. We try to use ATM, so we get pretty close to the published rates, but our bank tacks on a fee. They get you one way or another.
I am drafting this part of the post on the train from Prague to Berlin – about 4.5 hours travel time. This afternoon we will travel from Berlin to Kassel, Germany. That will be on a faster ICE train and will be a bit less than three hours. We have Eurail passes which gives us first class seating. In the past there was no extra charge, but now you pretty much have to have reservations and each reservation cost a bit (not huge dollars). The trains in Europe are on dedicated passenger rails. They are very clean and the coaches are modern and comfortable.
Train travel in Europe is much superior to the US. The train system is expansive and servers a very high percentage of towns/cities. While I complained a bit about the trains being slightly late in some cases, it is in terms of minutes as opposed to hours which is often the case in the USA. That said, the connections are very short and any delay can mess you up. Virtually all the trains are electric and the tracks are very well maintained and smooth. I had mentioned earlier that the train speeds are often pretty fast. We have seen speeds as high as 314 KPH (195 MPH). At any speed, the ride is reasonably smooth.
I mention trams previously. In the major cities most of the public transportation is via what we used to call street cars. They run on tracks and are electrically powered by overhead wires. Each of the major cities has an extensive network of these trams. They are very clean and inexpensive.
We are a bit surprised by the number of smokers in Europe. All of the buildings are smoke free, but the streets have tons of folks smoking (young and old). Sadly, they are not real good about properly disposing of their butts. It seems that many of the cities we have been in have what we would consider inconsiderate disposal of trash. That said, the streets are pretty well maintained by city workers with brooms and shovels. In some places they power wash the streets at night.
That is all for this post.