En Route to Prague

I left Munich this morning (9/26) at 9:19 AM by high-speed ICE train, which topped out at about 215 km/h per the display at the front of my coach. I don't know what that is in American, but I'd say pretty fast. I arrived at the Nürnburg Hbf at 10:31 and my bus to Prague was scheduled to leave at 10:41 - another tight connection, but according to travel forums I had visited prior to leaving, the Prague bus literally parks right in front of the main station exit and the 10 minutes is plenty.  The travel advice forums were right and I found the double-decker luxury coach operated by Deutsches Bahn without difficulty and with 5 minutes to spare.

My reserved seat was on the top level, on the driver's side, in the middle of the bus. Light refreshments and snacks are served on the bus for a fairly steep price, but on advice from one of the Canadians I met on the bicycle tour way back in Salzburg, I filled my messenger bag with a Subway turkey sandwich from the Munich Hbf, and three Paulaner "big boys - pounders - half-liter" beers. Total cost for my snacks - €7. A similar smorgasbord bought on the bus would have cost me about €24.

 

Travel time to Prague from Nürnburg, about 3 hours 40 minutes. Add the 90 minutes between Munich and Nurenburg and you have a substantial travel day. 

I arrived at the Hotel Alton after walking from the main train station (that's where the bus drops you off) at about 3:30, after getting lost and changing money - The Czech Republic is in the European Union, but it has not yet adopted (or, more properly, has not yet been allowed to adopt) the Euro. Instead I now have Czech crowns, at about 20 crowns to $US 1. In other words, when I took out 5,000 crowns from the ATM, it figured out to be a little over $250.00.  It's weird to have a legal tender note in your pocket that says 2,000 on it. 

 

I used my TripAdvisor City Guides app on my iPhone to finally track down my hotel. It has a very neat "point me there" function which uses the phone's GPS and compass features to give you bearings and distance and direction, all without using a data connection. Prague is the first city I've been to so far that has been included to date in the City Guides (Vienna's in it, too!) and I'm loving the free app more and more. 

I settled into my hotel, with which I'm very pleased in terms of quality and location, and then I simply did a circuit of all of the streets surrounding the hotel to get the lay of the land. Interestingly, unlike in Germany and Austria, there are 24-hour minimarts here in Prague. I bought a Pilsner Urquell, a Czech beer, and some light snacks for the mini-fridge in my hotel room. 

I didn't do too much of anything else, except for some hand washing, as I was out of clean underwear and socks. Woolite packets this time, and I prefer the Woolite to the Tide travel packs I used last time. 

Tomorrow I plan on a self-guided walking tour of Prague's old town, courtesy again of the TripAdvisor city guide. 

Legerova 62 Praha 2, Prague 120 00, Czech Republic