Weds 22nd July 2009 Koln - Prague

After another good breakfast (no fatboys today!) we are away by 08:00 and soon driving towards Frankfurt in the rain.
Most of our journey today is spent on the A3! All the way to Nurenburg.
There are lots of roadworks on the motorway but we don't lose too much time and after a couple of stops arrive at the Czech border at 15:30. It is a few years since I have been into the Czech Republic and the last time we had to buy a vignette, which is a toll that has the amount of days you spend in the country, and stick it in your windscreen. Now you have to purchase a box to go in the windscreen exactly as you would for Austria.
We stop while I go to buy the box and the passengers go off in search of the toilets.
I approach the first booth offering to sell vignettes only to be pointed to another booth across the way. The lady here says "bus", I nod, and she points inside the building.
At last I am at the correct booth to be met by a rather ferocious lady who tuts, sighs, shouts and waves her arms about when I try to explain what I want but have not brought the log book with me. I walk back to the bus for my documents and return to the pretty but scary lady to proceed with my request. Should be easy shouldn't it?
She thrusts a form in front of me "You fill in here, here and here" pointing to the coach details and my own name. I hand it back completed but have forgotten to sign it "you sign" she says at the same time as tutting (not as easy as she made it look!) and I sign it.
She has the log book in her hand and all of a sudden starts flapping about saying "I have a problem"
"I haven't got a problem" I tell her thinking it best not to tell her about the spot on my bum!!
"Your bus already has a box, you have problem" I'm informed
I try to explain that we bought the bus a year ago from another company and it is they who had the box not me. She is not impressed and repeats to me having a problem.
I am a little annoyed by now and find it hard not to shout back at her as I try to explain with my fingers how we have owned the bus for one year and the previous company six years.
I think she senses my frustration and makes a telephone call which in about 30 seconds flat seems to solve the problem.
I pay 1500 Czech Crowns for the new box, receive my box with lots of receipts and instructions and then am given a refund of 700 Crowns on the old box!! She wasn't all bad then.
I say my goodbyes, thank her and am sure I detected the very beginning of a smile as I left, either that or the effort had given her a touch of wind!
We are now in the Czech Republic.
Our hotel in Prague is situated right in the heart of the city in Wenceslas Square. There are some building works going on near to the hotel making access by coach a bit tight and I have been concerned about this all of the trip.
I needn't have worried as I managed to manoeuvre through the obstructions and park outside of the hotel where the porter was waiting to help with the luggage. Everything went very smoothly and I was soon driving off to the coach park.
We had arrived at the hotel at 18:30 which is only half an hour later than planned which is about the time it took Miss Happy to sort out my box!
The coach park is not too far away and I am soon parked up at a cost of 60 Crowns an hour, just over £2.00 an hour.
Dinner is at 19:30 and after taking 20 minutes to walk back to the hotel I just about make it although I would much prefer a beer to foodm at the moment. It is very hot and muggy and as we approached Prague the temperature was 28 degrees.
We have a set meal tonight with a choice for tomorrow which we have to choose this evening.
I also have a registration list to complete with everybody's name, date of birth and passport number needed.
At the end of my meal I walk around the tables for the menu choice and explain to those who do not have their passport on them that I will sit downstairs near to reception and wait for them after dinner. So I sit and wait in the bar with a beer, well it is next to the reception!
After dinner I go for a walk but it is too hot and muggy and as I'm feeling tired I do not enjoy the masses of people wandering about. I decide to walk back to the hotel and have a beer and then bed. The hotel bar opens right out onto the the street and you can sit at the bar and watch trhe world go by.
The bar lady and the nice young lady from reception are behind the bar talking to an older lady sat at the bar.
The lady at the bar is in her fourties and very well dressed but is not drinking. Prague used to have a reputation for the ladies of the night but that has mostly gone with all of them police walking about. Even so you just know don't you!
Sitting to my left in the hotel lobby are Norma, Jenny, Sheila and Evelyn, four elderly ladies from the coach. I am sort of sat between the two.
"You want a massge" asks the lady "only 100 Euros" she smiles as I politley refuse.
I told you!