Arrival in Prague

We arrived at the border of leaving Austria at 1:33pm and less than a minute later, we arrived at the Czech border. Tunde got off the bus and talked to the guard. He just let us go! No Stamp! No looking or talking to us! NOTHING! We teased Tunde asking her what she was doing to these men! Ha Ha I was disappointed with not getting a stamp in my passport saying Czech Republic.We arrived in Prague shortly after 4pm. We were staying at the Quality Inn but were told not to expect "quality service" as in the states. Sure, there was no AC and the room was plain but clean and not as bad as were expecting. We opened our window and could hear children playing nearby. I liked this room better than the one we had in Berlin and it had a much better shower.

Our view was of the roof but we could see other flats' windows. We got excited as we saw previews for the movie "Return of the King" thinking we would get to hear it in the Czech language, but it wouldn't be on until after we left. Bummer. I would have loved to hear Gollum saying "My precious" in Czech. ha ha We had an included buffet dinner which had a little bit of everything including rice, beef and corn.

At 7pm we left for an optional excursion with a male guide for a visit to Strahov Monastery and then had a panorama view of the city and the Moldau River. So pretty it was! Braslav then took us to a pub that was upstairs where we had one drink. I opted for the dark Pilzner beer. Our evening ended with a water show at Krizikova Fountain which was outdoors. The music seemed to dance with the music of different soundtracks (Phantom of the Opera among others) and colored lights. This place can hold up to 6,000 people and was fairly crowded for the 9pm show. Four shows are done nightly at 8, 9, 10, and 11pm and last 45 minutes. We were back at the hotel close to 10:30 and just went to bed since we were outside of the city to go out.