Czech Republic...Briefly

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First of all, I do not recommend Student Housing as an accomodation of choice!

Second, Emily is a a stupendous navigator and a real trooper!

Third, I might not be able to return to the Czech Republic as I have now bribed a police officer.

So, on to the trip...we left Venice a little later than expected, around 10:30 am, but that should have still given us plenty of time to make it through Austria and into Prague for dinner.  NOT!

We are barely on the road, around 11:45 and we run into stopped traffic.  Not sure why it has stopped at the moment, but it has and it is roastig hot.  Emily begs for the AC, but as I had previously explained to her, the car we have is just a step up from a lawnmower and we have no power for air if we want to get up hills, let alone to turn it on while we are sitting and not moving.  I told her to pretend she is Paris Hilton on the Simple Life and she can return to her previous luxury in approximately 8 days.

In order to amuse her and distract her from her hotness, I suggest she play with this balloon thing filled with I don't know what that she purchased in Venice.  She was supposed to be able to mold it into various shapes, but it was difficult to manipulate so I suggested that she take advantage of the heat and put it on the dashboard to warm up, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID...once it is sufficiently warm she squishes it and oh yes it is much more pliable and then and BOOM, it explodes...well we now know what is in there...flour!  Thank god we were sitting at a standstill in traffic as if we had have been moving we would have looked like snowmen!  As it was, it exploded all over Emily and the car and me and after we stopped laughing, I pulled off the road and she got out and shook most of it off much to the laughter of the people behind us and then we used wet wipes to clean ourselves and the car as best we could.  However, I beleive a vacuum is in our future prior to returning the car.

So the neverending traffic jam did not move during this time and we were stuck for about 4 hours, moving little or not at all.  On one occasion we were stopped long enough to enjoy a german band in a van behind us singing beer songs and for a group of guys to break out a soccer ball and begin a quick game.  All of this due to traffic control lights on the highway which decided to flash Red and stay Red!

Once we did get moving we tried to make up some time by taking a more direct route on class 2 roads as opposed to the highways.  Another mistake!  Emily was terrific at navigating us, but the roads were windy and not great in parts and all I kept thinking was that I promised to keep her safe and I don't think driving through the Czech countryside at 10 pm at night quite qualifies.  She was super though and we did fially make it to Prague, but the saga does not end as we cannot find the street our hostel is on, so we break out the map book and once again Emily to the rescue, finds the street, which leads us to the area, but the building still eludes us.  I decide to ask some taxi drivers and it turns out we are just one street away we were finally all settled in and snoozing by 11:30 pm, just 13 short hours after we had departed Venice.

The next day we decide to take it easy and explore the old town and famous Astronomical Clock and tower and the Charles Bridge, the oldest Medieval Bridge and listed in the 1000 Places to see before I Die book....It spans the Vltava River which winds it way through the city.  There are 14 other bridges, but this one is the most spectacular with beautiful views of the old town and Prague Castle.

We climbed to the top and back down of the 200 ft tower and then took the elevator ride just for fun.  From the top of the Astronomical clock tower you can see why Prague is known as the city of 100 spires.  We were just in time to see the clock chime the hour and go through it's little dance of the devil.

The next day we head to the Castle and St. Vitus's Cathedral and the Basisilica of St. George.  Another tower to climb with different, but equally beautiful views of Prague.  In the area they call New town we go to Wenceslas Square, which is more of a street than a square, but full of shops and many tourists.

As we leave Prague to head for Germany and Frankfurt, we are stopped by a policeman.  I am not worried as we were both wearing our seatbelts and hard as it may be to beleive I was not speeding.  He walks up to the window and starts speaking german, I'm like, spreken zi english and he say ok a little.  He manages to ask us if we have a Highway ticket.  I said no, and where would we get one?  He said that it is marked on the borders that you need a highway ticket to drive on the highways in Czech Rep.  I explain that we just arrived 2 nights ago and obviously have no idea, but we are on our way to Germany and we will be out of the country in 20 minutes, but Ok, where do I get one?  He said the gas station, but he would have to give me a fine as he has gone to all the trouble of catching and stopping me.  I see where he is going with this, so I say ok how much?  He says the fines are between 8 and 10,000 CZ dollars, but he would consider 4,000 as we were relatively innocent, oh how he does not know me, so I say ok, so give me the ticket and tell me where to pay it, he said we could go back to the supermarket 10 miles or so and there is an ATM there, I said, nope we are going this way, so how much in Euro is 4,000 CZ, about 140, but he will take 70, and I say ok so I CAN PAY YOU!  more of a statement than a question and he says oh yes, you can pay me, so I do and off we go, no ticket, no hassle, but 70 Euros poorer.  We stop at the next gas station and purchase the 7 Euro highway pass so we do not get fined in the next 20 minutes and good bye to the CZECH Republic!  On to Germany....