August 3 Tuesday
I had mixed feelings about leaving France to go on a vacation, even if it was to a city I'd dreamed of visiting for years: Prague! After all, Warren and I have spent very little time together in France, and there is so much to see and do right here. but as Warren said, what better opportunity will we have? So off we have gone, tonight at 7pm, from Marseille, into the unknown; to a place where, for the first time in a long time, we speak neither the mother tongue nor anything close (Russian, Slovakian.) I'm hoping we can get by in English and in my very limited German.
Our first hard spot was before we even went on our trip: we had to say goodbye to the BMW we have had since we got here in January. When we return, we will be getting a different car. It is so sad - we really like this car! Then, getting to our gate was the next hurdle. Warren likes to have at least an hour before the flight leaves, at the airport. I'm more like a 20-minute-max person. We compromised - we had about 35 minutes, but we didn't know where to go. Of course our destination was Prague (international) but we were going via Paris (domestic.) Which terminal do we go to? Fortunately we chose the right one (domestic) or we would never have made our flight.
The flight was uneventful - on time and not turbulent, and we arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle (also called Roissy, just to confuse tourists) at one extreme end of the airport, and were bussed clearly to the other side for debarkation. From there, we walked 10 minutes to another bus stop, waited 15 minutes, and then took another bus all the way back to where we started from - with just five minutes before our flight was to leave for Prague. Naturally, Warren thought we cut that too close. I took the five minutes as an opportunity to squeeze in a bit of shopping - actually, I'd forgotten my lipstick and went to the duty free just in time - and we boarded our flight for Prague.
Our short (1:20) flight to Prague was also uneventful - except to say that we experienced perhaps the WORST airline food ever. I don't know how the French, with their great regard for cuisine, can have an airline company (Air France) that serves what they do. It was really awful.
Our taxi was waiting for us (the driver was holding a sign with the name "Miller" - that felt good!) and he took us to our hotel, telling us the whole way how much he loved the United States. He had been there with his family on a vacation and had driven 10,000 miles! He ended the 1/2 hour drive to the hotel with a quick tour over one bridge and another, pointing out a few beautiful sites. I knew at this moment how much I'd love our trip - the architecture - even at night - was stunning. Our taxi ride cost $15 - we remarked on how cheap it was, something we would do over and over during our stay here.
Our hotel is small, quaint, clean, and outside of the tourist town. Our window opens up onto a courtyard. I was worried that it would be noisy, because there were many other windows besides ours, but it seems everyone respects silence here.