passports & pepto bismol

We have indeed made it to Prague, but it was not without its own share of stresses. We had no issue getting on board our flight from Amsterdam, but Prague’s Havel airport briefly gave us a bit of a scare. We were going through customs or border control or something involving a scary woman checking our passports. She asked for a QR code. I assumed this referred to a Passenger Locator Form or some such paperwork that is common with tourism in 2021. I couldn’t locate this form online, so I asked where we could get one, and she didn’t really answer in a way that made sense. This then resulted in us scanning a QR code on the nearby wall that was asking us to schedule a covid test, something that I was pretty sure wasn’t required if we were vaccinated. Anyway, we walked by her again showing a barcode of a scheduled test and that was apparently good enough? We actually have no idea. Perhaps we snuck into the country with only half of the things we were supposed to have done. We never ended up getting the test because the airport site was closed anyway, and we never had to pay, so that was that. We jumped into a taxi and never looked back.

30 mins later we arrived at the Hilton in Old Town Prague. I believe this is the first time I’ve mentioned this, but Nicole is a Hilton Honors Gold Member, and we were upgraded to the executive floor. The room itself isn’t anything mind blowing, but the executive status gives us access to a special happy hour with free drinks and snacks.

After getting settled we walked deeper into the old town. Nicole and I were both a bit apprehensive about even going to Prague on account of tales of elbow to elbow crowds and throngs of tourists everywhere. The number of people did increase as we walked, but it was still manageable. For being here in August and what would normally be peak season, it could be a lot worse.

We passed by the Astronomical Clock, which is one of the main sites in Prague, and we were kind of “meh” about it and continued on our way. We eventually got as far as the Vltava River where we relaxed for a spell to take in the surroundings.

We then arrived at the Charles Bridge, which is evidently where all the tourists decided to be. We joined them for about half the span of the bridge and then did an about face and said, “Never again.” This was perhaps just a tiny taste of what Prague could be like. We had reserved a slot for the 4pm tour of the Klemintinum, a sort of old-timey place of science and knowledge. The tour itself was a bit clunky, stopping always in nondescript rooms with a lone photo of a globe or something like that. The baroque library, which was a very eye-catching library with ornate designs was basically off limits. We could peer at it from a single roped off door and were instructed not to take any photos. Lame.

Eventually we wound our way up a spiral staircase that led to the top of an astronomical tower with views over the city. This was the only thing that really redeemed the tour as it offered nice panoramic vistas without any sort of fencing that one usually finds at the top of tourist towers.

We finished up our tchotchke shopping at some shops nearby and saw it was about five minutes to the hour. We watched the astronomical clock from a distance, and spaced ourselves away from the crowd that was piled up in front of it. With anticipation I leveled my camera and started recording. A few bells rang, one of the statues by the clock moved slightly to also ring a bell, and it was over just as quickly as it began. Surely that’s not it, right? But it was.

From there we made our way back to the hotel to take advantage of our free happy hour. We enjoyed an escape from the crowds while drinking some Pilsner Urquell, a light beer brewed just down the road in the town of Pilsen. We then went out for a proper meal at a local restaurant for some goulash soup and local brews.

After that, we returned to our hotel to relax and contemplate our next move. Our time in the Czech Republic, or Czechia as some call it (or possibly nobody), will be brief because we should be in Austria tomorrow evening.