We slept in a bit this morning all the way to 8:30 - almost as if we were on vacation! Yesterday was tireing but was well worth it. On our journey to the Charles Bridge yesterday, I discovered that on the Vltava River they run some afternoon lunch cruises. You would think that since we are going on an 8 day cruise in two days we would not find this enticing but you would be dead wrong! Our Viking cruise is on the Main River so, when we were offered the opportunity to cruise on two diffent rivers, of course, we decided to go.
Todays plan was to sleep in, check; leave the hotel about 10 AM, check; and arrive at the cruise ticket office about 10:15. Swing and a miss here. We asked our concierge how to get back to the Charles Bridge where we needed to go to get tickets. He told us go down this one specific road and you right to the bridge. Five minutes at most.
We followed his directions, evidently badly, as evidenced by the fact that we arrived at the desired location 45 minutes later. Prague is a beautiful but
confusing city. No straight roads, many alleyways that are pedestrian only, and circles, multi road corners, and generally difficult to understand directions. My two sons would disagree, claiming that I have no sense of direction in the first place, and they would be right. Either way, we got to see more of Prague than we had planned but we eventually got our tickets for the cruise.
One other minor mistake. The place where I bought the tickets was NOT the place where the cruise departs. The departure dock, it seems, is about 1/2 mile away, about 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Now, this would have been nice to know yesterday but I didnt get that tidbit of information from the sales person, so we walked 45 minutes essentially in the wrong direction, then 25 minutes back across the bridge and to the loading dock. By this time we had already logged nearly 8,000 steps for the day and it wasnt even noon!
We found the loading area for the cruise, not an issue. We were a little early so we decided it was time for a cafe latte and a chance to rest a bit. It soon
The ship was huge, very well appointed, and only modestly crowded. Our table for two was near the front, away from the general crowd, and partially open under a beautiful sky. The weather was about 72 F, so a perfect day for a cruise. We were offered a drink and soon left the dock to start our two hour cruise. Our cruise featured live accordian music. How can you beat that!
Once the cruise got going, they opened up the buffet lunch. There was all matter of edibles: fresh fruits, fresh cheeses, apple strudel, chocolate lava cake, duck pate with cranberry jelly, chicken schnitzel, beef goulash, ham, turkey, a variety of cold cuts, and fresh breads. It was a feast for sure. I decided to take a small quantity of everything.
Our captain took us up river to the locks where we stopped so we could be raised to the upper level of the river. We then continued upriver as we enjoyed the sights and the food. It was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon. We turned around and slowly floated our way back to
the dock. We departed our vessel and planned to head back to the hotel for a rest before our evenings entertainment, a Medieval dinner experioence.
As we headed back to the hotel we passed near the Jewish Quarter. I was pulled in by the architecture, so we spent the better part of 1.5 hours exploring this unique area. We did buy some momentos for family and friends. We eventually pulled ourselves away and headed back to the hotel. Cathy took a little rest and the blog. Next step is dinner at 8. They tell us the place is 5 minutes away...hmmm I think weve heard that before. It looks easy on a map, but ... Well see, I guess.
