Tim and Jan Wood
The trip plans started to gel after my wife Jan and I discussed what
areas in the world we would care to visit before the rapidly evolving
countries changed forever. We decided on the Czech Republic and
Hungary because they were going to become part of the European Union
at the end of April, with the accompanying currency of the Euro. We
felt that this was an opportunity to explore the historic areas of
the former Ottoman Empire, while experiencing the purchasing power of
the dollar against the Czech Koruna and the Hungarian Forint.
Before leaving the U.S., I purchased about $100 each of Korunas,
Forints and Euros from Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange in South Coast
Plaza. We have always followed this little exercise prior to
traveling to a foreign destination. It saves time and trouble until
one can conveniently get to a preferred ATM, American Express office
or a bank. We also booked our rental car online from Budget Auto
Europe and reserved our arrival and departure hotels while leaving
the rest to chance, since we were driving.
We purchased several reference books to take along containing
history, hotels, restaurants and attractions. While Fodor's "Eastern
& Central Europe" was helpful with the hotels and restaurants, Rick
Steve's "Best of Eastern Europe" cut to the chase and was a real
time-saver on attractions.
We left on April 5 and arrived the morning of April 6 via Air
France while pre-arranging to have the hotel schedule a taxi to pick
us up at the Prague airport. The driver's taxi was a Scoda Octavia.
The Russian car looked a whole lot better than the old ones from
Communist times, and it was comfy to boot!
Fortunately, we had the necessary Korunas to pay for our ride,
thanks to Thomas Cook.
We were not able to book the first night in our preferred hotel,
so we opted for the Red Lion II for one night, located in the
Mala'Strana. Unable to check into our hotel until noon, we walked to
the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most), and then took a nap to combat the
jet lag between California and Prague. Gathering some energy, we
walked to the embassy area and stumbled upon one of our researched
restaurants, the Blue Duckling. It was very good and very pretty, and
of course we both had the duck. The "vin ordinaire" of the country
was high in quality and a pleasant surprise.
The following days in Prague, we were able to rise fairly early
and take advantage of the typical breakfast offered by most European
hotels, "buffet" style -- juice, coffee, meats, cheese, cereal, jams
