Travel to Prague

Sep 9 -  Travel to Prague

And another adventure begins….

Just before our driver picked us up to go to the airport, we each received an email from Viking telling us our ship had been changed and of the low water levels in Europe - with the possibility of having to do a ‘ship swap’ along our route. 

If water levels remain low during your voyage, we may also need to enact what we call a mid-cruise "ship swap" to bypass areas that are impossible to sail through. Since Viking operates identical Longships purposefully sailing in opposite directions along the river, we are able to transfer you by motorcoach from your ship to the exact same stateroom on an identical sister ship further along the river so that you can resume your itinerary with the least possible disruption.

 Oh joy! Not what we were hoping for!

 After leaving a half hour late our flight was uneventful!  We both managed to grab a few winks ( emphasis on ‘few’!) after dinner was served.

The delay leaving, meant that we didn’t arrive in Frankfurt until after 7:00AM with an 8:25 connecting flight to Prague.  We always request wheelchair service as you never know how much walking it will take in an airport!  So we sat and waited for the cart to take us to immigration.  There are no speed limits on the ‘Frankfurt Airport Autobahn’ as the driver sped through what seemed like miles of walkways shouting, ‘Achtung, bitte!’, ‘Watch out!’ at the unsuspecting people who leapt out of the way!

We then had to switch to another cart which whizzed us to security!  Please note that seatbelts are required on these carts!!  No kidding!  But that was the beginning of another adventure…. When we got through security and sat at the designated spot, no cart came!  It was now 8:00 AM and we decided that we could walk as we were leaving out of gate A26 so it shouldn’t be too far from where we were.  What we soon found out was that between every two numbers was a long distance, so Mary ended up almost running, as I tried to keep up, hoping that she could convince the agents at the gate to wait for the little old lady with the cane doing her best to get there.

Well…. When Mary breathlessly got to the desk they told her the gate had been changed to A18, and we had to back track!  By now it is 8:20!  So Mary was off and running back to a gate we had passed precious minutes ago.  Luckily for me there was a special assistance person pushing an empty wheelchair and I pleaded with her to take me as we were about to miss our connection!  We got to the gate at 8:26 and they were looking for us!  Phew!  That was the closest call we have ever had to missing a flight!  Someone must have been looking over us!

As the captain pulled away from the gate raindrops obscured our view out the window.  💧Rain!💧. Is this another sign that someone is on our side raising the water levels!  We shall see!

We arrived a few minutes late into Prague and were met by two wonderful Special Assistance porters.  Now praying that our luggage arrived after the delays and changed gate, we were wheeled to the carousel - and to our bags!  Hallellujah!  

The Viking rep was there to greet us and the porters took us right to the vehicle that would transport us to our hotel, the Art Nouveau Palace Hotel

We are both exhausted and will relax for the afternoon and get ready for our tour of Prague by night!  Our next post may not be for a day or two but we should have lots to tell about as we have several tours booked!

The Happy, Tired Travellers!

😁🛫🛬🚌😁