If you’ve ever travelled to Europe from the United States you know that flights generally leave in the afternoon and arrive in the morning.
If you can sleep on an airplane then no problem.
But if you are like the GSB travel team who either insist on talking the entire flight or reading medieval and Byzantine history, when you arrive at your European destination, you are tired and you just want to find a bed that is not moving at 530 mph.
Our flight was uneventful, which is the way one likes them these days.
The most memorable part of the flight was watching The Wife and Ann, with headphones on (they were watching movies), talking with raised voices to each other across the isle because, well, they had headphones on. If this had been a Lufthansa flight in 1940, the Nazis would have probably pushed them out the door over the Atlantic. To her credit, I think our stewardess found them “colorful” and was sad to see them leave when we deplaned.
We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany early on Friday morning and, experienced travelers as we are, quickly found our way to the Lufthansa lounge for the free food and drink. Ann quickly secured a glass of white wine and a beer (Germany is known for both). I asked her if she was really drinking wine and beer at the same time and reminded her it was the morning. Ann said, “I am not drinking them at the same time; I have a sip of wine, then a sip of beer.” How do you respond to that?
After a one hour flight we landed in Prague, we collected our luggage, found our tour liaison, and got into the van for our 30 minute drive to our hotel in Prague. During the drive, I explained to the gals some of the history of Prague. (The reader may recall that I was the one reading medieval and Byzantine history on the flight while the gals were talking and watching movies). When I finished, our driver, who happened to have a history degree from Charles University in Prague, confirmed I had spoken accurately and complimented me on my knowledge of Bohemian history.
There was not much to do once we got to the hotel except get cleaned up and go to dinner. We found a nice traditional Czech restaurant near the hotel, where we ate, mumbled, and stared at each other like people who had not slept in 36 hours.
Tomorrow we meet with our tour guide and embark on our five-hour tour of Prague. GS