On to Prague

Friday, June 14, 2019
Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Leaving AmaLea, heading to Prague
This morning we disembarked from our lovely cruise ship AmaLea, bidding farewell to the amazing staff who have made this a smooth voyage.   We went by tour bus to Regensburg, a quaint town on the upper part of the Danube. It’s also where the Regen river connects to the  Danube. We cross over a bridge that spans the Regen and Danube to the old town (in German berg means bridge hence the town's name). We start over the stone bridge which was recently renovated and see why this location was of geographical and political importance. Rivers were the key to trade (including collecting taxes) and this spot was perfect. After our walking tour we enjoyed a lunch of sauerkraut and grilled brats at the oldest (1579) inn, where they also have make the sausages.  We joined some friends from the ship and enjoyed the river and the day. We recrossed the bridge and headed back to our bus for the next leg of the ride to Prague. The countryside is mostly rolling  farmland, with fields of various grains of slightly different shades of green to make a pretty mosaic pattern in this  summer sun.
We made a quick rest stop about half way between Regensburg and Prague.  Since there was no formal border crossing, we weren’t sure whether we were still in Germany or in the Czech Republic.  We walked toward the May Day Motel to get a drink and find restrooms.  It was quickly apparent that we were no longer in Germany - weeds had grown up between the paver stones, the nearly deserted restaurant had formica tables, a small tv showing an old rerun of Columbo (Peter Faulk's family was from the Czech Republic and is still a favorite son), cracked linoleum floor - the whole place looked like a throwback to the 1950s.   Pam thought the name appropriate as “May Day” is a common nautical distress signal.  She later learned that the Communists designated May Day as International Workers Day with compulsory parades - you marched or were fined, fired or disappeared.  Such a grim idea still fits this sad looking May Day Motel.
We finally arrived in Prague about 5 pm, ready to be off the bus!  While we are no longer on the ship, this part of our trip is still managed by AmaWaterways so we set out with our tour leader for a walking orientation of the old town area of Prague. It was still light outside and the streets were full of local visitors, town folks, buskers, and plenty of tourists. We joined another couple from the tour and continued walking over the Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava River. It was quite a show with young men celebrating stag parties, musicians, families, hustlers, beggars and almost anything else you can imagine, nevertheless we enjoyed the walk after being on the bus most of the day. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for a light dinner. We sat outside in front of a fabulous well maintained Art Deco style building which was used as a performance center. It’s decor certainly showed we were in the land of Alphonse Mucha. The cold beer and food were both refreshing after a long day. With that rest beckons and we return to our hotel.
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Comments

Brad
2019-06-19

Wonderful!

Val
2019-06-20

Beautiful!

2025-02-07

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