Prague after 26 years

Bus to Prague

Today we move on to Prague by Flix bus at 0925, which required us to be at the nearby station at 0910.

We got there before 0900 and ended up waiting for nearly an hour till the bus arrived and finally departed at 1000.  This wasn’t my expectation with Germany, especially when I found that it was a German-registered bus.

The double decker had a low ceiling on the lower deck with nearly no room on the storage shelves.  We probably got the best seats with extra legroom, meant for wheelchair passengers.

Around 1140, we unceremoniously entered the Czechia with no stops or checks, as both countries are part of the Schengen zone.

We arrived at Prague’s Florenc bus station at 1400.  The supposed 17 min walk to the hotel was only 13 min but with lots of cobbles along the way, Kim had an uncomfortable time with his suitcase.  He wasn’t in the best mood upon arrival at the Salvator Hotel.

Having had a big breakfast, none of us required lunch and we managed to last till dinner time with just some fruit.

Exploring Prague’s Old Town

We rested till around 1630 before heading out to show Kim the Old City.  While it was already touristy 26 years ago, there was absolutely no comparison with what it is like now:

• Cuisines of all types were available along with too much of the usual pizza and pasta. Local cuisine was available in some places at tourist prices.
• Apart from souvenirs, there were shops that sell seemingly very useless and irrelevant items. There was a few entire shops selling rubber duckies of various sizes and colours.  And others just plain aprons with machine-embroidered names (and not very nicely done).

From our hotel, it was a short walk to the Prasna brana Gothic city gate.  The concert hall next to it had gorgeous restaurant on one side and an equally stunning café on the other side.

From here, the road took us to the old town square where there was the Church of Our Lady before Tyn and the tower with its 600 year old mechanical clock face.  The square was very busy with people drinking and dining.

We found our way to Charles Bridge.  It was busy as well and for that reason didn’t photograph well.  Add to that, many of the buildings (towers) and statues were also very dark in the gloomy weather.

At the other end of the bridge, in Mala Strana, we didn’t linger too long but made our way back to our hotel room for a dinner of salads bought from Lidl supermarket.  We feel that we had eaten too much recently and it was time for something lighter.