Yesterday was a relatively trouble free day that didn’t involve much except taxis and airports. Often a good gauge of the state of a city is the drive from the airport to the city. With Budapest, we came in on the river, so we saw it’s very best. Our taxi ride to the airport confirmed the feeling we had that Budapest still relies heavily on the tourists from the riverboats and once you get away from the river, life is a bit different. The road was rough and the apartment buildings definitely more from the communist era where design was not considered.
Once at the airport, we checked bags, followed the signs dutifully through passport control, only to find we were not meant to be there. This was only necessary for flights out of the EU (including the English… due to BREXIT). Anyway after lots of searching for a staffed service desk, which seem to be some relic of the past, we then went back to Passport Control, confessed our error and we were back in the EU. It was one of those times where auto-pilot said… ‘different country – passport control’. Soon enough, we were on our way for our first 35 minute flight, this one to Vienna. There was time for a sandwich and a drink. I’d asked for ginger ale, but the Austrians have an alternative Austrian Lemonade instead.
We had a layover of 3 hours in Vienna, which has a really big airport, with seemingly hundreds of gates, but our plane still landed away from the terminal so we could savour the old aeroplane steps and the bus to the terminal experience. The Vienna airport seemed to lack flow. I’m hoping they are in some sort of redesign process to make it a bit easier to get around. Another 35 minute flight and we arrived in Prague.
The airport experience in Prague was somewhat different. As we walked out our bags were waiting on the carousel. Uber seemed to have done deals with airports to replace taxis. They have consoles where you enter your address and pay and then you take your ticket outside and a driver is assigned. It’s all very efficient and we were in our Uber under 10 minutes after landing.
We have a nice apartment just near a moving sculpture of Kafka’s head designed by Czech sculptor, David Cerny. There is a shopping mall next to that that has a cheese shop, a wine shop, a cake shop and a grocery store. After breakfast at a coffee shop we set out to explore. Prague has large array of ornate buildings that continue to surprise wherever you look. In places it feels like a city of laneways, where you might just come across another of Cerny’s sculptures.
As we have a week here, and Deb is still recovering from her ongoing cold, we used today as a discovery day, taking the Hop On / Hop Off bus around the main sights and neighbourhoods. We stopped off for lunch at a basic little courtyard cafe and had a beer and a goulash.
We walked back to the bus via the Senate Gardens which appeared to be setting up for a concert at one end. It has stables at the other end, but we didn’t see and horses. There is however a pond that houses some very large fish.
Once back on the bus we drove through the castle precinct and battled traffic back to the Main Railway Station, so we could walk back to the apartment, via the ice cream shop, of course. One thing we have noted is that Czech drivers do seem to be a little more speedy and one has to take a little more care at the pedestrian crossings, because the cars do not always stop. All part of the adventure.
Until tomorrow
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 