2023 Central Europe - Prague

While waiting for the car to pick us up in Cesky Krumlov, I received a call from Jack who had fallen while trying to do some yard work and hurt his shoulder and his arm was numb.  Suggested he get to the hospital to have it checked out, and he called an ambulance because he couldn't drive without being able to raise his right arm.  During the ride to Prague, I heard back from him that there was nothing broken and ER doctor said he should rest it (using a sling) and if it wasn't better in a week, he may have a tear that would have to be surgically repaired.  Ugh.  We decided to wait a day to see how he felt before I cancelled the remainder of our trip and return home.

We arrived in Prague about 5pm with the car service delivering us from Cesky Krumlov directly to our hotel in Old Town, Prague.  Prague is much larger than we expected (and that I remember from being here back in the 90's).  The hotel is less than 1 block from the famous Charles Bridge and our room overlooked the river.  The room is huge and very elegant with a massive crystal chandelier - we certainly have experienced a huge variation in hotels!  

Isn't that floor gorgeous?

Modern Bathroom

Unfortunately, didn't get all of the chandelier, but it was beautiful

View of the river from our hotel room window

We arrived tired and a little hungry, but our hotel does not serve lunch or dinner (odd, considering how large it is).  So we asked for some restaurant recommendations and stopped at one closest to grab some take-out. Spoke with Jack again and he felt his arm was no longer numb and a little less painful, but he couldn't raise it very high.  We'll give it another day to see if he can manage on his own.

Lin and I booked a 3-hour tour for the next day of Prague Castle and surrounding area.  Anna, our guide, was a joyful young woman who belly laughed all the time at her own jokes!  Made us laugh, whether it was funny or not.  She was also super knowledgeable and spewed forth dates from the middle ages and historical names without making it sound like she memorized a script, and she peppered the historical data with interesting stories - she really knew her stuff!

She shepherded us through two tram rides to get up to the castle complex where we learned that it is the largest in the world and saw multiple churches and massive buildings, some of which the President of the Czech Republic and government entities use as offices.  We also walked through a quaint street in the complex called Golden Lane where tradespeople were granted tiny homes/shops and now serve as museums and/or tourist shops.  

Golden Lane Tradesman house/shop

One of the several churches in the Palace Complex

Square within the Complex

Beautiful frescoed walls

A nobelman's solid silver tomb

Interesting windows, apparently a staircase?

Another square in the

Golden Lane of little shops

Prague Castle Guard

The castle overlooks the town and afforded incredible views of Prague.  

On our walk back down to the city center, we stopped at the Lennon Wall where dissidents posted their thoughts.  The wall had been used like this while the USSR was still controlling Czechoslovakia in the 60's, but after John Lennon’s death in the 80's, the wall was used not only for dissident postings, but odes and tributes to the former Beatle. The dissidents felt relatively safe from government violence at the wall because it is directly across the street from the French Embassy, surrounded by cameras and the dissidents calculated the Czech government would not want to publicize their mistreatment of young dissidents.  

Tower at the end of Charles Bridge

One of the many statues on the Charles Bridge

We walked the Charles Bridge, along with what seemed like a substantial portion of the Earth's population, admiring the many statues and the tower at one end of the bridge.  We found a great restaurant to try Czechia's famous fried cheese and it was good.  The cellar restaurant had great ambiance - dark with low ceilings, and a huge number of candles and candlewax everywhere.  We then walked through the Old Town, stopping at the famous Astronomical Clock perform its mechanical movements on the hour.  It was somewhat underwhelming in this day and age, but was a marvel in 1410 when it was built and it is the oldest operating astronomical clock in the world.

Art Installation

Can you spot the alleyway that leads to a restaurant?

Prague Street Scene along the river

Restaurant and Hotel barges on river

The "Dancing House" by architect Frank Gehry

Lunch place

Fried cheese, boiled potatoes and salad

After dark, we walked back through old town to take a few photos of monuments and buildings lit up and stopped for "chimney cake" that is filled with fruit, whipped cream and/or ice cream.  They are sold everywhere as street food and were tasty, but one was plenty and I won't be looking for any more.

Jack continues to do ok, so we will soldier on for the next few days.  Sound asleep that night, I hear Lin's phone (across the room) alert her to some weather happening in Colorado and then I heard a loud thump.  I called out in the dark, asking if she was okay and she said "not so much".  She had gotten her feet tangled in her bedding and when she tried to jump up to shut off the alert, she....wait for it.........fell out of bed.  It would have been very funny, except that she fell on her hip and she has a bit of osteoporosis and I was worried about a broken hip or pelvis, although her pain was in her leg.  She had a rough night trying to find a way to sleep that didn't hurt and the next morning we talked about our options.

Options were to cut short the trip and go home...but we were concerned about her trying to travel.  Call for a doctor/hospital, but she felt that she didn't need to do that, and wanted to give it some time to see if it would get better or worse.  We could try to extend or stay in Prague so she could recover and cancel Budapest, or we could wait a day (canceling Budapest) and go back to Vienna where she could rest up and be close to the airport for our return to the U.S.  

Lin rested the following day and her pain did ease up a bit, so we chose the last option, cancelling Budapest and making travel arrangements to Vienna that involved an Uber pickup to the Prague train station, reserved seating on the train from Prague to Vienna and a hotel right next to the main train station in Vienna.  Lin was able to use her rolling carry-on luggage as a cane to help her do the little walking we had to do.  

Everything worked out fine (easy for me to say since I wasn't in any pain) and we spent a couple relaxing days in Vienna in a modern high rise hotel (with an elevator) and easy access across the street to a supermarket, food court and restaurants in the train station.  I was able to do take-out for our meals and she could rest her leg.  The pain was considerably better a couple of days later (rejecting the idea of having a wheelchair at the airport) when we left very early on Tuesday for the 15 minute train ride to the airport and our mid-morning flight back home to Newark.  We arrived mid-afternoon and Charlie picked us up and brought us back to his house where Lin would stay a couple days before heading back to Colorado.  The next morning (3 am) I got on the road and drove back home to South Carolina and arrived about 4pm.  Jack had managed ok over the past few days with his painful arm and he and Beau were glad to see me.

Although we had more drama than anyone wanted at the end of the trip, we had a wonderful time and Jack and Lin are both following up with doctors, but doing ok.  

Thanks for reading and coming along with us on our adventure!