Off to Europe… After a Stressful Start

We spent much of last week hustling around trying to get last minute chores around the house handled, taking care of some minor, but persistent, medical issues, and generally preparing to leave for a month’s trip away.

At o’dark thirty last Saturday morning, an Uber picked us up and whisked us off to the airport to catch a 6am flight to Providence, Rhode Island to meet up with Lin and Mark for our long anticipated Danube River Cruise.

It’s lucky we opted to get there a few days early. First, it would allow a bit of leeway just in case of airline delays as well as allow us a couple of days to adjust to the 3-hour time change. More importantly as it turns out, Marcie inadvertently forgot her backpack in the back seat of the Uber midst the unloading of the luggage on the airport curb, noticing the loss only seconds after the driver pulled away. Drats! (More colorful language was used, but I’ll spare you the details. Use your imagination.)

We,pondered whether Marcie could do without it, bit quickly came to the conclusion, she could not… meds, iPad, camera, trip notes, etc., but what to do. There were no seats available on later flights. David luckily had the passports in his pocket and our tix were on our phone, so we boarded the flight. Recovering the backpack was no easy feat and getting it to Providence was a complicated and costly maneuver. But we managed to retrieve it thanks to an honest Uber driver, David’s sister Mary’s help and FedEx. It showed up Monday morning on Lin’s doorstep, much to Marcie’s relief. . Whew! Not the best way to start a vacation.

On Tuesday afternoon, we loaded luggage for four and ourselves into another ride share. Marcie’s backpack stayed on her lap for the entire 1-1/ hour trip  into Boston’s Logan Airport.

We checked into Lufthansa, dropped off our luggage without incident or delay, and made our way to an airport lounge for some dinner and relaxation time before boarding our on-time flight to Munich.

Three movies, two mediocre meals, and a couple of catnaps later, we arrived in Germany, made our way through the long lines at European Union’s newly launched biometric check-in procedure and Immigration checkpoint, then headed to the gate for a quick 55-minute flight to Prague, Czechia’s historic capital city.

All the luggage arrived in Prague and  Marcie’s backpack was on her back.  Tired, but excited, we ordered an Uber to our hotel in the ‘old city’ by using conveniently located automated kiosks in the airport. Easy-peasy!

Our choice of hotels was the Charles River Palace Hotel, a lovely old hotel reserved through Booking.com. The staff welcomed us warmly and showed us to us rooms. High-ceilinged, well-appointed accommodation complete with crystal chandeliers and a lovely view of the Vitava River.

After a hour or so to unpack and unwind, we followed the hotel’s recommendation for dinner at Stoleti, a 5-10 minute walk down a cobblestoned street  from the hotel. Luckily, the menu was in English and the waiter spoke English because our collective knowledge of Czech is zero. We were starving and the meal was good. Walking back to the hotel, we solidified plans for our first full day in Prague.

Dinner at Stoleti.

Join us next time as we venture our into the city and begin exploring.