Monday December 25: Nuremberg
Transfer to Prague
Breakfast was sort of a zoo. Because of needing to have our suitcases outside our rooms at 6, everyone showed up for breakfast at 6:30 when it opened. Coupled with the notion of leaving the boat shortly, things were rather chaotic.
Time to get ready for a long day, mostly on the bus.
This is a strange time. It is sort of the end of the trip and sort of not. It is the end of the boat portion of the trip. It is definitely a different (and nicer) feeling being on the boat than in a hotel. It seems more “homey”, and the common areas are much closer to your cabins. I will definitely miss that when we get to the hotel.
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I found this transfer (from the boat to Prague) to be poorly designed and executed. In the briefings, a lot of time and emphasis was spent in describing how to leave the boat, and what to do in Prague, but the in-between was hardly mentioned at all.
In the pre-trip descriptions, there was a lot made of Nuremberg, the history, and the Christmas markets. Obviously, the Christmas markets would be closed on Christmas Day. However, I was expecting some sort of non-trivial walking tour. Instead we got a quick drive-through “panoramic” tour, and then basically a bathroom break. There was so much that I would have liked to have seen, but there wasn’t a chance. I felt like we were rushing through Nuremberg (in which there was lots to see) in order to get to Prague a bit sooner, so that we could sit in our hotel rooms longer, or wander around a modern city in which there was nothing good to see. This did not seem to Amy and myself like a particularly good trade-off.
As we were getting off the bus in Nuremberg for essentially a bathroom break, the guide said that we had an hour to wander around in, and that we should be back at 45 past the hour. A moment later, she talked to the bus driver and corrected herself, that it was only a 30 minute stop, and that we should be back by 15 past the hour. Given the short time scale, Amy and I split up. We were in the walled old city, and we had almost the same idea. We both headed for the wall, but we went in essentially opposite directions. I got up to the wall, which was on a small rise, and which rather warmed me up, had about 2-4 minutes to take pictures, and then I needed to hurry back to the bus. I thought that I might be the last person back, but not quite. I actually beat Amy back.
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Amy had gone to a different section of the wall, taken some pictures, and then hurried back. She ended up jogging for the end. Then two more people returned, and we were only missing one couple. We waited and waited.
Finally, someone saw them strolling leisurely towards us, which got the bus passengers irate. They sort of paused, looking in windows or something, and someone on the bus went out and told them that we were waiting for them. As we guessed, they had run off after the first announcement (of a 1-hour stop) and did not hear the second announcement (that is was only 30 minutes). They thought that they were 15 minutes early getting back, rather than 15 minutes late. We were thinking that this could be the worst of both worlds: We only got 30 frantic minutes to wander around, but the bus wouldn’t leave for 60 minutes.
Shortly after we left, we were told that there wasn’t going to be a scheduled lunch stop. I was thinking that this might have been nice to know a bit earlier, so that we could have bought something with us to eat. In reality, it wasn’t that bad. Shortly after we crossed the border into the Czech Republic, we stopped at a roadside truck stop/gas station. There was a McD’s there, which became very quickly very popular.
Unfortunately, one of the elderly Viking guests (from one of the other buses) slipped or tripped on the cobblestones, and from rumor broke her arm. When we got there, she was already lying on the ground with people with umbrellas standing around/over her. A bit later, we saw an ambulance arrive and tend to her.
We quickly ordered some food before the crowd from the bus overwhelmed them, and then I made a quick pit stop. Unfortunately, Amy wanted a fish sandwich, but they didn’t have fish. She got a veggie burger. On the down side, it was deep fried. On the plus side, it was filled with various bits of vegetables, rather than being mostly one type. Unfortunately, it didn’t really agree with Amy’s stomach.
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We reboarded the bus and continued about an hour to Prague. We are staying in a huge Hilton hotel. When we got off the bus, there was already a huge line to check in. We figured that we would be in the line for an hour, but it moved amazingly fast. It turns out that Viking had essentially prechecked us in. They had a table full of key cards and names. All we had to do was tell the Viking person our name, they gave us the appropriate card, and directed us to the elevators.
We are on Floor 2. One might guess that this would be the second floor, i.e. the floor above the lobby level, but not in Europe. So then one might guess that we would be on the third floor, since the second floor is Floor 1. Not here. We are on the 4th floor. Above the lobby is the mezzanine, above that is Floor 1, and then there is Floor 2.
The hotel is huge with a cavernous inner (indoor) courtyard. Our room is on the inside, i.e. our window opens to the courtyard. This is actually probably a better view than looking outside, although it probably depends on which side of the square you were on, and how high. The elevators are similar to the ones in Paris; i.e. there are no buttons in the elevator. You request your floor from a display, and then it will tell you which elevator to use. That elevator is already preset to stop at your floor. Interestingly, there are a few glass elevators exposed to the courtyard. If you are lucky enough to get one of those, you can see yourself going up or down.
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Just to be confusing, there seems to be multiple Viking boats/trips staying here at the same time.
While we waited for our luggage to be delivered, we went out and down to the river for a quick view around. The place we stayed in Budapest was wonderful in this regard. We were right on the river with a view of the old town right across from us. Here...not so much. There looked to be a kayak course set up in the water, with some bleachers set up for spectators. Other than that, not a lot of interest.
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We were rather warm walking around. It had dried out, and we could occasionally see the moon peeking out of holes in the clouds. When we got back to our room, we found that the luggage fairy had delivered our bags. I quickly changed into a lighter shirt and sneakers. I wrote some of this up, and then it was time to hike to dinner
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They gave us a paper map to follow to the Red Stag. I found it easier to use Google Maps. Unfortunately, the temperature had dropped since we visited the river, and I was borderline cold. I had delayed a bit too long writing stuff up, so we had no time to spare to get there. Google Maps was fairly easy to follow, although the scale threw me off. For example, at one point, it looked like we needed to take a left a block from where we were. However, after we crossed the street, I could see that we turned left immediately.
We found the place without too much difficulty, and we were only 2 minutes late. We gave them our names, and they asked if we were with Viking. They sat us at a table for 6, and said that other people might be seated at the same table. We said that we were fine with it. Fortunately for us, the waitress spoke very good English and was very friendly and helpful.
We both ended up getting some venison leg. Amazingly enough, they served it within a few minutes. Amy really liked it, although because of her stomach, she couldn’t eat all of it. I was forced to put away the slice of deer that Amy couldn’t eat. She did, however, have room for a poppy seed cake. I got a decaf latte. I really hope it was decaf, otherwise it will be a long night.
Strangely enough, we never saw anyone else from Viking, and no one ever joined us at the table. My sense on the boat was that there were few places open, and that half the boat was going there. This idea was reinforced by their behavior at the restaurant. We have no idea what happened. Maybe the other people couldn’t find it or decided that it was too far to walk, or they found closer places and blew off their reservations?
We had been told that there would not be a lot of places open, and without reservations, you probably wouldn’t be able to get in. We ran into our friend Jackie (the owner of Chris-moose) in the elevator. She hadn’t had them make reservations for her. We figured that she was out of luck. However, there seemed to be plenty of people in the streets, and a fair number of places that were open. The Red Stag had a lot of its seating areas closed, but still it wasn’t more than half full.
In any event, we had a good meal. Afterwards, we continued away from the hotel to the end of the block, where there were some interesting lit-up buildings, and we took a bunch of pictures. There was a duo playing violin and cello, so we stopped to listen for a bit and get them some cash for their efforts. We moved laterally to a big square and took more pictures of the buildings. We took a different route home, stopping at one point to view a “screen” made up of a large array of smaller displays, showing a video that was one or two stories tall. The most interesting snippet featured a dancing Santa next to a VW Microbus. I don’t really understand the point, but it was funny to watch.
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We have two activities tomorrow (one in the morning, and one in the evening, with free time in the afternoon. Fortunately, we have one of the latest flights out. We don’t leave the hotel until 11:15, so we have plenty of time to pack in the morning. The couple that we had breakfast with this morning was flying out at 6am, so they were going to be getting up around 3am. I don’t envy them.
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The temperature control in this room is interesting. It seems very intuitive, and it even can be set to C or to F. The problem is that because of the ubiquitous comforters, I set the temp fairly low (66), but when we came back from dinner, the temp was hovering around 71. They have a note next to the unit that says if we have issues using it, to please call reception, so I decided to do so.
She said that they were going to try to fix it from their end, and if it wasn’t resolved in about 45 minutes, call back, and they would send someone up. I thought to myself that I was just going to live with it, because I was ready for bed, and I didn’t want to stay up for another hour or so.
I was just about to get into bed, when I heard someone tapping on our door. I quickly threw on some clothes and let the maintenance guy in. He hit the duct with a non-contact thermometer, and now he is in the bathroom doing something in the ceiling, where the unit is located. I hear interesting noises. I have no idea what the result is going to be, but hopefully he won’t be taking too long.