Day 433: Leaving Prague, Czech Republic

After getting up and getting packed, it turned out we missed breakfast at the hotel.  Since checkout was at 11 and there was no way we could check out, leave our bags in our room, walk to the parking garage and get back to retrieve our bags.  We decided instead, to check out and leave our bags at the desk and return to retrieve them after we picked up our car.

We walked towards Revolution street and found a bakery along the way.  We stopped to have a Latte Machiatto and a croissant before heading over to the Palladium where our car was parked.  

It turns out that our hotel is about four blocks from the parking area.  But we didn't see any cross walks.  A policeman was approaching and I stopped him to ask where the cross walks were.  He didn't understand me at all so I said, never mind and thanked him.  I learned several Czech phrases like Thank you, You're welcome, Good day, Good night...it's amazing how few words you need to know just to make friends in a foreign country...or at least make a good impression!

We were able to get across the street which had two sets of tram tracks on it and went inside the Palladium.  Ted wanted to check the prices at La Coste and Ecco. While going over to Ecco, I spotted a baby shop where I went in and got a few things for the new baby due to arrive in August.  While checking out, the woman wanted to know where we were from.  When we said California, she said her daughter lives in "Val-noot"  We didn't understand until she wrote it out ....what she meant was Walnut!  We think she may have meant Walnut Creek but we could not be sure because she didn't understand the Creek and she gave me a English - Czeck dictionary to look the word up but Creek was not in it.  Instead I wrote it down for her.  

I said thank you and goodbye to them in Czech....and had huge smiles on their faces.  What a simple and lovely people they are!

We got down  to the parking area and Ted went to check on the car while I dug out our ticket.  It turned out to be about $75 to park for three days but it was well worth it, knowing the car was safe.   After picking up our luggage (we had to double park), we were on our way out of the city with Julie leading the way.

After hours on the road and two stops....one for Ted to sample the KFC in the Czech Republic and one to fill the tank with diesel.  The KFC smelled funny to me but Ted ate it.  I only sampled some fries.

The rest of the way home was uneventful.  Although the weather had been nice in Prague it was once again rainy, cool and overcast in Stuttgart.  We unloaded the car and checked email for the next hour or so.  After making a few calls to my children for Memorial Day, we walked over to Mamma Maria's for Pizza.

We regaled Michele with our trip to Prague...especially about meeting up with the Italians.  He thought it was hilarious.  He also asked us some technical questions about uploading files to Facebook.  I have to do some research for him for that.

After coming home, we watched some TV  and  went to bed.  Time to unpack and clean up tomorrow.

 Monday   5/31/2010