The weekend started a little early for me as I left school before noon on Friday to pick up cousins Bill and Linda Epperson at the Prague Airport. If you do not have a car you might think that meeting someone at the airport would be challenging, but the opposites is true. I simply got on the metro line at our nearest stop - about a five minute walk from our apartment - and road to the end the line. A trip up the long escalator and two quick right turns and I am outside facing the bus stop from which the bus to the airport leaves. Walk across the street and wait in the queue for the bus to arrive - it is simple. Then I have about a twenty minute ride to Ruzyne Airport and get off right in front of the terminal and the arrivals area. I arrive about forty-five minutes before the plane is to arrive and treat myself to a McDonalds Latte. Then a quick check of the arrivals board brings the bad news that their plane is going to be about forty-five minutes late as there is some delay at Heathrow where their Chicago flights lands before the final leg to Prague.
The good news is that they did arrive with all bags and in good spirits and only moderately bedraggled. We reverse the journey and queue for the bus at the airport, ride the bus to the initial metro station and then then the fifteen minute metro ride to our home station. The five minute walk takes us to the door of our apartment building and we carry the baggage up the stairs. Carrying the baggage was a delight as I suspected that their might be some goodies for and we were not disappointed! Items that safely arrived were the biggest bag of chocolate chips imaginable, three bottles of barbeque sauce, two bags of brown sugar, some fish oil, folic acid, eye drops and probably a couple other items we had asked for.
I had hoped to make it back to school to teach my 2:15 class in Algebra 2, but with the plane being late and trying to make Bill and Linda comfortable I choose to let my students carrying on working without me as they are a great group and I felt that I could trust them to work unattended.
After a brief stop at home to unpack and familarize themselves with the apartment we set out to see the neighborhood and
work the cobwebs out of the travelers. We met Liz coming home from school and she took Bill and Linda home and I went to the pharmacy to pick up a perscription for Liz. We then went out to eat at a nearby Italian restaurant - enjoying a very good meal. Liz and Linda shared a salmon and spinach gnochi meal, Bill chose speghetti carbonara and i chose chicken curry. We were all happy with our choices and walked home and saw a few sights.
Saturday morning after a slow start, Bill, Linda and I set off to visit Melnik, a small town about forty-five minutes by bus north of Prague. The two pictures of an altar and a pulpit are from a church at Melnik, but the real destination of the trip was to walk through a well furnished small castle that has been restored and well furnished.We walked around town, had a nice lunch and then headed to the bus depot to catch the 14:30 bus back to Prague. We arrived back at the bus station about ten minutes before the bus arrived - which was good as it came in early and left five minutes before it was scheduled to depart. The return trip was not crowded and we all got seats. On the trip from Prague we were the last three on the bus and had to stand most of the way.
When we returned to Prague, we went straight to the tourist area and saw Wencelas Square, Old Town Square, and other city landmarks. We had coffee at Old Town Square and watched the crowds come and go from our birdseye seats outdoors right on the Square. We then started our journey back to the apartment. I got us on the correct tram to return home, but after about three stops realized that we were going the wrong direction. I hustled us off and looked for the tram stop going the opposite direction - which took a few minutes. Then an uneventful trip home began. We stopped at Lepanska and ambled up hill to our apartment.
We got home about 6:20 - which was later than we wanted to be as the Oklahoma v. Texas game was already in progress. Liz had a great pizza for us to munch on as we watched Oklahoma get the early lead, but the Longhorns eventually prevailed to the consternation of all of us.
Bed time and a good night's sleep got us ready for our Sunday adventures which will be reported tomorrow.
Sunday's adventures turned out to be supurb. Linda, Bill and John ventured out early and hit the Prague Castle area. We waited in line with a large group of jovial Italians before being able to enter St. Vitus. The wait was made slightly shorter as we watched some young Italians play
with a rubber spider. It held a great attraction for them and Bill got in the act and participated with the silliness. After the tour of St. Vitus - which was certainly worth the wait - see pictures of stained glass below. After we saw the castle area, Liz joined us for our tour of the Wallenstien Castle grounds. All the pictures in this area of the blog are from Wallenstien or St. Vitus or the grounds around the Castle.
On our return from touring highlights of Prague we chose to stop by a great restaurant run by a family from Macedonia who have a boy at our school. It is a quite new and lovely place with excellent food. George and Sonya spent some time in Florida and other places before opening Vemeer in Prague. Fortunately it is quite near where we live. We sat on the veranda and had latte's and crepes and chatted about the day's events. The background music was Nat King Cole. There is a park across the street from the restaurant, so the view was grand, the traffic was minimal and the food was wonderful.Then it was back home to rest and relax. Liz made a lovely meal for us late in the evening and we rested up for the next days' events.
No comments:
Post a Comment