We've had a very busy day. Up early to finish packing and have our bags outside of our cabin by 7:30 AM, breakfast and final briefing on our 1/2 day in Regensburg and our 4 hour trip to Prague. We had a good tour of this lovely city with the oldest existing stone bridge in Europe which connected the north and south shores of the Danube and enabled Regensburg to become a commerical center of Europe. Of course, Regensburg Cathedral was added to our list of beautiful architectural phenomena - this time we didn't go inside, but walked the city with its contining stunning architecture. We saw the house where Oscar Schindler lived and heard that they would be adding the name of his wife to the plaque on the wall since she was also instrumental in helping to save Jews from the Nazis. We had a prearranged lunch at the old BratHaus by the river - it was wonderful sausage, saurkraut and sweet mustard on a roll. We then walked across the stone bridge to our bus and were on our way to Prague. It was nice to have a short excursion on our last 'sea' day on the Swiss Jewel. After last night's reception and dinner and the 'joys of packing', a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Prague sounds restful...reminds us that 'leave the driving to us' takes on its own sweet charm on a busy, active trip.
It's amazing how the little things add up to a wonderful trip...after a brief "comfort" stop, Jeremy - one of our wonderful Tour Directors - passed out ice cream pops on the bus. Just an example of the right touches.
When we got to the Prague Marriott, the check-in was so easy (including getting access to the Executive lounge for us - thanks to our standing with Marriott Rewards). We took a short orientation walk around the town square with Fero, another Tauck Tour Director, to orient ourselves to the old town center area. Then we changed clothes for dinner, had a glass of wine and a beer for Art in the lounge and headed downstairs to meet our friends for dinner. We were transferred to a lovely restaurant with 6 other of our shipmates. We were seated a table outside overlooking the Charles Bridge at sunset and right on the water. Perfect! We watched riverboats filled with tourists go up and down the river while we ate. Food was good, conversation was fun and despite a large, noisy group that was seated near us, we had a good evening. We asked our waitress to arrange for our shuttle back to the Marriott; the driver arrived a few minutes later, courtesy of Tauck.
We were all exhausted so, although it's only 9:30 pm....I'm off to bed knowing that our tour of the old town and the Jewish section leaves the hotel at 8:45 AM. Another good day.
Pictures of Regensburg
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