Prague and flight to Dubai - Saturday 6 August

Our last breakfast in Prague, and I only felt like eating the refreshing melon and some yoghurt, plus a cup of coffee. That dinner last night might be a good way to start a diet! Not a great night's sleep either, I ended up extending my walking pole and hammering on the ceiling above... It did the trick :-)

We had done a little packing, and had a taxi booked to take us to the airport at 12 pm. It was handy that checkout didn't need to be until that same time, because we wanted a short local look around, then showers, before finally packing. It was another hazy and very hot day.

We headed back up the short distance to Castle Square, and then in the opposite direction to the Castle. We found our way past the Loreta Church, in time to hear it strike 9 am with its bells playing a hymn.

Then a little further on we came to the Strahov Monastery and Church. Boy, was it hot! The guys decided to sit in the shade, but Jan and I took a fancy to looking at the Library. About 45 minutes later we emerged after viewing some amazing exhibits, including items in a collection that led to the idea of museums in the first place. Two rooms housed the library books dating from the 10th to the 17th century. The time, skill and effort that must have gone into hand-printing the words, and illustrating these books, usually Bibles, is amazing.

We had a quick look at the Monastery Church, through a grilled window because it was closed, and it looked beautiful. We then moved around to the garden area behind the monastery for some amazing views over the city (still looking very hazy though).

After this we took the downhill road to join up back with the road we were staying in. We sat in the shade of a small cafe's umbrella, across the road from our hotel and sipped smoothies to try and use up some of our Czech cash. We headed back to the hotel to shower and finish packing, then before we knew it, our taxi was there to whisk us to the airport, 25 minutes away.

We were about 40 minutes early for check-in, so Jan and I sussed out what food we could afford, and I could eat, to use up the last of the Czech money. It was back to McDonalds for me :-) ! We didn't mind the long wait till the flight. I found that, although my seat was supposedly a window seat, there was actually no window for my particular seat - just the fuselage. Luckily, I was able to turn right around and see a little of the view out the window for the seat behind me, with some obstruction from the wing. But I could see enough to get a great view of the Vltava River flowing through Prague, and the bridges crossing it - lovely!

Special diet and children's meals always get handed out first, and mine arrived, containing a delicious and genuinely wheat-looking bread roll and cream crackers (that style anyway). I questioned this and the hostess told me that some items had fallen on or off my tray so she wasn't sure how accurate its gluten free status was, although the hot meal was pre-labelled as GF so that was safe. I couldn't bring myself to eat the roll or crackers, and asked another hostess later, who went and checked. Again, uncertain, and upon conferring with a male steward, he felt he'd seen those crackers only on lactose-free meals. No one else on the flight was GF, so they couldn't compare. Interesting. So, I left both items, and had David's cheese and chocolate instead.

I spent the rest of the flight catching up on the blog, which I'd got behind with because of the migraine. This was time well spent because you soon forget the detail of what you did and saw, even a day later, and I do want to keep a record to refer back to.

We arrived a little early in Dubai, just before midnight. The screen on the plane had told us that our luggage would be found on carousel 11. It said it several times, Steve saw it too. So, that's where we headed, and waited and waited, also wondering why so few other passengers were waiting... Eventually, Steve went to look around and found our flight's baggage listed as sitting on carousel 3, and our bags were there - BAH! Off we went, through the gate for people who had nothing to declare, and wondering what we were supposed to declare anyway! My word, Dubai Airport is a stunning airport architecturally. And their system of organising huge numbers of people to get into the excellent taxis is wonderful, too.

We got to our hotel (the Pullman Mall of the Emirates) after a 20 minute drive. Our 'Executive King' room was on the 20th floor so the views across the Dubai haze were great, night or day. We weren't sure about wireless Internet access, it looked very expensive in the hotel information (not in a folder, but on our TV screen), but Jan found out that it is free for those of us in the Executive rooms. Buffet breakfast was also included in the price. We both had a good night's sleep.

Prague

Oh dear, I had virtually no sleep and a migraine all night, my head and neck were killing me. It was all I could do to get up in the morning, and I felt a little nauseous too. I could barely open my eyes with the light. I forced myself to get up, and went downstairs with David to breakfast where I promptly burst into tears when Jan and Steve looked at me. I managed to eat some slices of melon. But, a miracle...! All I really fancied was a cup of coffee, which perked me up (pardon the pun) no end. I took a few steps out on the street in the fresh air and I couldn't believe it - my headache completely disappeared within 15 minutes. I have no idea how that worked, but I sure was relieved!

So, we were ready for Tereza at 9 am when she met us outside our hotel. She was very charming and spoke excellent English. She took us down through the Little Quarter, pointing out one or two sights we had walked past previously but not taken much notice of. She lead us back across Charles Bridge and told us some very interesting historical stories and background about the city, the country, and its people. One of the statues on the bridge is of Saint John of Nepomuk, who was a 14th century priest to whom the Queen confessed all her sins. According to 17th century legend, the king believed his wife was having an affair, and wanted to know what she had told Father John. He refused to tell, so he was tortured and then killed by being tossed off the bridge.

Tereza guided us through the courtyard of the Klementium (a Jesuit monastery and school, now the Czech National Library, holding many very old books) and then to one part of the Jewish Quarter, where we saw the outside of the Maisel museum we had missed the day before. Maisel, the wealthy Jewish financier of a 16th century Habsburg King, and built this as a private Synagogue. In WWII, it served as a warehouse for the accumulated treasures of decimated Jewish communities, a collection that Hitler planned to use for his "Museum of the Extinct Human Race".

Then we found ourselves in Old Town. Tereza showed us one building that had housed Hitler's SS. They discovered that the statues of musicians on their roof included one of the musician, Mendelson - a Jew. But they didn't know which was the one that needed to be removed. Someone thought they knew, and a statue was removed. Well, it turns out they had removed the statue of Hitler's favourite German composer, Wagner!

Soon we arrived in Old Town Square with its 13th century Town Hall and amazing Astronomical Clock. With revolving discs, celestial symbols and sweeping hands, I don't think anyone would be able to understand how to use this clock. However, 500 years ago, one very clever man created it. Sadly for this man, Tereza told us that the town was worried he would leave and build a similar clock elsewhere, even though he was old, so they blinded him! I hate to think how they would have done such a thing in those days, to the man who had made them so proud. But he got back at them by feeling his way to the mechanism and breaking it so it wouldn't work... until someone else was able to work it out 500 years later. We were there to see the clock chime on the hour, which is heralded by Death (a skeleton) pulling a cord and ringing the bell. Then the windows at the top open and the 12 apostles parade by, then the rooster crows and a man plays the bugle from the top of the tower. The crowd was huge to watch this. And, we were on the alert for pick-pockets in this area...

In front of the Hall, 27 white crosses are painted on the paving. These mark the spot where the 27 Protestant nobles who had defrenestrated the two Catholics and their Scribe, were beheaded in 1622. The execution ended Czech independence for 300 years, until 1918.


As we walked towards New Town (which is also very old, but just newer than Old Town), Tereza explained and showed the many different architectural styles represented in the Old Town Square, and along the streets where we were walking. She took us past Tyn Church and through the Ungelt Courtyard behind it, where foreign merchants used to have to stay in quarantine for three weeks, and pay their taxes before they could sell goods in the markets. On we walked, past the Powder Tower towards New Town's famous Wenceslas Square.

Wenceslas Square is more of a boulevard than a square. It is lined with a mix of old and new buildings, and lots of modern shops and restaurants, ending at the top with the National Museum and the grand St Wenceslas Statue. In November 1989 this huge square was filled every evening with over 300,000 people hoping for the end of communist rule, and jingling their keys in solidarity. Instead of being violently crushed, this peaceful demonstration became known as the "Velvet Revolution", and indeed the end of communist rule, resulting in the election of a president of free Czechosolavkia.

At this point, our excellent 3 hour tour with Tereza was over, and we needed to find some lunch. With me being the awkward one to feed, we settled on McDonalds (fries for me)! After which Jan and Steve continued browsing the shops, and David and I strolled back via a different route and over the Most Legh Bridge next to the Charles Bridge. It was a very pleasant walk on a lovely, hot, sunny day.

Back in the Little Town Quarter, we popped into a music shop that Tereza had earlier pointed out, then stopped for a coffee/beers in a small cafe's tiny beer garden near our hotel.

A couple of hours later, after a good rest, we caught up with the Barrows and decided to have dinner in another different restaurant. Remembering the gorgeous pork knuckle meal I'd had in Budapest, Steve and I ordered the same here, thinking it would be nice to have a last traditional Czech meal. Well, what a mistake! YUCK! We were both shocked by the HUGE, whatever it was cut of pork delivered to our table - one each. All the other customers were watching too. It was DISGUSTING to look at (a complete mass of gelatinized pork fat covering it) and I could only eat about a third of the meat, and Steve about 60% of his. We both felt sick. I finished my mashed potato and veges and that was it, the worst meal in our lives! I got a couple of scoops of icecream on the way back, to try and cleanse the taste and the thought of it from my mouth and mind. For once I didn't have my camera with me, and decided not to take a photo with my iPhone either, as I'd probably feel sick if I looked at such a graphic photo of it in the future. It certainly gave Steve and I a horror story to laugh about in future!

Prague

Further comment about our hotel room. There is a glass shower cubicle within the room on one side, and on the other side and behind a frosted glass door is the toilet. Very weird. There is a humongous, beautiful wooden headboard. There was only some random sports channel on the TV, broadcasting in English. The bed is the squeakiest bed we've ever slept in, and you only need to move slightly and there's a heck of a noise (no comments, thank you)! Jan and Steve report the same. And the room above us obviously had the same issue as well as a very squeaky floor. But the inhabitants of the room above were obviously very active in bed, morning and night!

Our hotel provided breakfast similar to the one in Rome - ham, cheese, yoghurt, fruit, bread rolls, buns and cakes, with tea and coffee.

Jan and Steve suggested we try and book one of Rick Steve's recommended Guides for a walking tour the next day. So, I emailed Katerina of Praguewalker to see if this was possible at such short notice.

After this, we were heading up the hill to Prague Castle just before 9 am with Rick Steves' book as our guide. Our hotel was very well located for the Castle Quarter, and it was barely a 10 minute walk, with some great views on the way. The city was quite hazy though. We walked into Castle Square and saw the changing of the guard at the castle entrance. We then walked under the fighting giants above the gate and headed through the courtyards to find the recommended information office to get tickets for the main sights, as well as an audio guide. Unfortunately, the audio guides were not available. Luckily we had Rick!

We went first into the Roman Catholic St Vitus Cathedral (Katedrala Sv. Vita). It contains the tombs and relics of the most important local saints and kings, including the first three Habsburg kings. Construction was started in 1344, but was stalled by wars and plagues. It was finished in 1929 for the 1,000th anniversary of the death of St Wenceslas (no, that's not the same person as 'Good King Wenceslas' in our Christmas Carol. The Cathedral is a combination of Gothic and Neo-Gothic, but isn't the dark, black kind of Cathedral that some have been on our trip. David and Steve were keen to climb the spire, but it was closed.

Beside the Cathedral was an obelisk that was erected in 1928 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia (note, this is now split into two separate countries - the Czech Republic, and Slovakia). Apparently this granite obelisk was originally much taller, but it broke in transit - not a good start!

Next we moved on to the Old Royal Palace where we weren't allowed to take photos of the large hall that was big enough for jousts (though I did take one). Even the staircase was designed to let a mounted soldier gallop in. Of further interest was the Czech Office where, in 1618, angry Czech Protestant nobles threw the two Catholic Governors and their Scribe out of the window. Actually, an old law permitted defenestrations (throwing people out of windows when necessary)! Amazingly, they survived the big fall in this case, but the nobles were eventually all killed in retaliation and to be made an example of. This is what started Europe's Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants.




Next we visited the ancient Basilica and convent of St George, built in the early Romanesque style. From here we moved on to Golden Lane, a street of tiny old buildings built into the arches of the castle walls. We saw one house where Kafka had lived. Some others had interesting displays and stories to tell about the inhabitants of years ago. Above the houses you could walk along the internal part of the wall where there were displays of medieval armour. We went down inside one of the towers to the dungeons - nasty stuff!

Finally, we made our way back through to Castle Square, and grabbed some more photos, including the Black Plague Monument. We headed back to the hotel where there was a reply from Katerina saying she had Tereza available to take us for a 3 hour walking tour the next morning - the rate was 75 Euros total for the four of us for the 3 hours, very good as some charge that per person! We grabbed some lunch at a nearby cafe. I ordered an omelette but it was so ginormous I couldn't eat it all! The others had grilled baguettes. Then we headed down the hill from the Castle Quarter/Little Quarter where we were staying, across the famous Charles Bridge that crossed the Vltava River, and over to what was originally the Jewish Quarter (Josefov). The Charles Bridge is pedestrian only, but it was very, very crowded.

We joined a short but slow-moving queue, standing in the heat, to purchase our Jewish Museum tickets (plus paid a little more for me to be able to take photographs in the Jewish Cemetery. The Jewish Museum Pass enabled us to visit several different museums very nearby. First was the Pinka Synagogue, a site of Jewish Worship for 400 years. However, now its walls display the handwritten names, birth and death dates, and Concentration Camps of the 77,297 Czech Jews who were sent from here to the gas chambers. I had tears in my eyes and had to choke back sobs as I walked through here. There was also a display of drawings done by Jewish children, who later perished in the Terezin Concentration Camp, near Prague. Just terrible...

Next we entered the Old Jewish Cemetery, with 12,000 tombstones all crammed into a tiny space. From 1439 until 1787 this was the only burial ground allowed for the Jews of Prague. Hence, tombs were piled on top of each other in several layers.




The next part of the tour took us to the Ceremonial Hall where there were displays on the Jewish purification of the dead and burial traditions.

The Klaus Synagogue was a museum devoted to Jewish religious practices and rituals. At this point the skies opened up and the rain absolutely bucketed down. We sat for a while, but there was no letup. We weren't carrying our raincoats, so we had no shelter, and didn't want to buy umbrellas to lug around. So eventually we made a dash to the last two stops on our Jewish Museum tour. First, the Old-New Synagogue that was built in 1270 and is the oldest synagogue in Eastern Europe (and its original floor level is below street level). We didn't find it very interesting. Then finally onto the beautiful Spanish Synagogue with sad displays of Jewish History, particularly during WWII - all terribly sad. We couldn't find the Maisel Synagogue, and it was so wet and we were so tired that we decided we'd had enough. I was just about beside myself with thirst, it had been so hot and we'd been on our feet for so long, and we dragged ourselves back to our hotel through the rain, with no coats. The rain didn't matter because we were so dripping with perspiration from the heat.

I was in such a bad state by the time we got back, that I guzzled 7 glasses of water one after the other, and shortly after, my typical bad headache from lack of water struck. That was the end of me, and I stayed in the dark hotel room with my eyes shut while the others went nearby for pizza and pasta for dinner.

Travelling by train to Prague

We were out the door of our hotel at 8 am. The cost per room of 115 Euros for the night was inflated by another 25 Euros occupancy tax. We had been going to walk with our luggage to the station, but decided to get a taxi as the bags were heavy. The hotel had a taxi that could take the 4 of us for 10 Euro so we were happy with that. We were approached at the station by porters and refused their help. But in the end another one looked at our tickets and then ushered us into a Business Lounge, presumably because we had First Class tickets. We wouldn't have known about it otherwise. There were free drinks and snacks there (we had turned down the 28 Euro per person breakfast offer of the hotel!).

We were escorted to the train by our porter, who took all the very heavy suitcases, insisted on heaving them onto the train, lugging them to our compartment, and hefting them by himself up onto the luggage racks above our seats - then he demanded a large tip! We were in a compartment with 6 seats, no one else with us, with room to stretch out - so that was good. Jan and I later looked at the second class carriage situation (that we'd originally been booked into, before changing to the first class carriage we decided on just before we left home). It was ok, but a lot more crowded, much less leg-room and smaller seats, plus we wouldn't have been seated anywhere near together. We were glad we'd paid the extra.

There was a dining car, where we could sit at a table if we wanted to. I could have had a GF omelette if I wanted but settled for one of my GF muesli bars while we all had a coffee and the others bought long rolls filled with ham and cheese that were brought around to our carriage - no food included on these first class fares! This train and the facilities/services was no comparison to the one for our trip to Amsterdam.

The area just out of Budapest was very scruffy and had enormous amounts of graffiti, but before long we were out in the beautiful countryside and saw the Danube that we'd been sailing along. Some of the journey was back part of the way we'd come on the boat, getting to Bratislava just after midday, and apparently there was a stop at Vienna but we somehow missed that. On the train journey, we passed through 4 countries - Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic. It was very pictureque and pleasant, though David started to feel a bit queasy with motion sickness towards the end.

On the way we checked out some of Rick Steves' tips and warnings about getting taxis in Prague. Scary stuff! We arrived in Prague on time at 4:18 pm (having left Budapest at 9:25 am) and followed Rick's advice of where to find an ATM at the railway station (David withdrew 5000 Koruna, because Euro is not the currency here - that equates to about NZ$336). We avoided the taxis there because of Rick's warning, but couldn't find one across the road where he suggested we look. We did, however know which two taxi companies he recommended (saying the others operated like Mafia, and Marion had warned us too), and luckily saw a good taxi coming our way. Jan flagged it down. I asked how much to take us to our hotel, and that matched with what Rick recommended as a price (300 Kc). He did struggle to get all 4 big suitcases in the back and almost gave up, but we managed, and were happy for him to make the price 350 Kc because of the big load with four passengers. His car struggled over the bumpy roads, up towards the Castle District where we were staying. The traffic was horrendous and the trip took half an hour. He was very nice and pointed out a few sights, so we ended up paying him a well-deserved 400 Kc.

Our hotel rooms are unusual, ours is smaller and in the newer part of the hotel, the Barrows' is bigger and in the older part. They're on the ground floor and we're on the first, with a nice view of the street, and double-shutters that will hopefully keep out the noise. We did have a few steps that David had to get our luggage up, and the lift is very small.



The hotel receptionist was lovely, and we found out that breakfast is included and the internet wireless is free. She recommended a lovely restaurant just along the road, where we again sat in the open air and had a really lovely meal. I handed over a gluten free Czech language card and everything was fine. It was a lovely, warm evening and had been a hot day.

Back at the hotel, we managed to Skype Andrew, and found that FaceTime works too! Tried to call Michelle but she was already at an 8:00 am lecture. No good calling Ross, he won't surface before midday. If you try to Skype or text us, please keep in mind that we're 10 hours behind you :-)