Saturday October 26, 2019 and Sunday October 27, 2019: Seattle to Prague

20191026-27 Seattle to   Prague. 

Today begins our 54 day trip around the world by heading to Prague in the Czech Republic via Frankfurt Germany. The first leg of our trip was courtesy the Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle which took the Clinton Ferry and I-405. The weather was cool and cloudy, but no rain. 

As we crossed from Clinton to Mukilteo, we were reminded of our end of the boating season trip when we took our boat from Oak Harbor to Champagne Point on Lake Washington via the Ballard Locks.  That was the furthest south and longest cruising trip we have made with our boat. Highlights of that trip included spending time with family and friends, as well as successfully navigating the Locks and Locking through the large vessel locks each way. We were also treated to a most incredible thunder and lightning show from my Brother’s home on the shore of Lake Washington. 

The Whidbey Sea-Tac shuttle only runs every two hours, so we arrived nearly 3 hours before our scheduled 1:50pm departure time. 

There were no delays checking our bags, but it should be noted that the Europeans are much stricter about luggage size and weights. When they say 8kg for carry-on bags and 23kg for checked bags, they mean it. They weighed our carry-on bags and then raged them with a dated “Carry-on Approved” tag. 8kg in a carryon bag is barely more than 2 changes of clothes and a toothbrush bag, so the bag is only half full. US domestic airlines don’t generally care about carry-on weight, unless it’s over 12kg.Going overweight costs $200, so it’s a good thing we weighed our bags carefully while packing them. 

It took us less than 5 minutes to get through the TSA Pre-Check security line. Our Nexus membership gives us a Known Traveller number, which gets us Pre-Check status on all US flights. 

Sea-Tac has been remodeling the food court and has removed the Burger Kings and Wendy’s restaurants so only expensive places remain.  We bought lunch at “The Greedy Cow”.  They have pretty good burgers, but boy, are they expensive.  It was $39 for two burgers and two orders of fries with taxes and airport fees.  We greatly prefer the Burger King 2 for $4.99 Whopper Junior meal deals, which include burgers, fries and a drink.

Our flight from Seattle to Frankfurt Germany was on a 747-400 aircraft. This was our first flight on a 747 since the 1980’s. We flew premium economy since Viking River Cruises was sponsoring our flights. We could have flown for free in coach, but had the base coach fare subtracted from the premium economy fare. 

Viking Air was willing to work with us on a flight deviation so we could fly into Prague at the start of our trip, and out of Singapore at the end of the trip, even though the interval exceeded their usual 30 day booking window. 

We had seats just behind the bulkhead where the rear upper deck stairs join the main cabin floor. Seating ahead of this bulkhead and on the upper deck is business class, where seat pods fold out into flat beds. The premium economy seats have plenty of legroom and the seats recline to about 40 degrees with a leg rest that comes up to support your legs and feet. Being behind the bulkhead, we had video monitors and tray tables that folded out of the armrests, but there was ample hip room so our elbows didn’t touch unless we wanted them to. 

The only bugaboo we had was the overhead storage bins in the center of the dual aisle jet were only large enough to accommodate a single roll on bag, so bags had to be spread around a bit to find space for everything, and since we were behind the bulkhead, we also had to find bin space for our day packs. 

We had complimentary Bailey’s Irish Creams on the rocks to begin the flight. A dinner was served with wine or beer about an hour into the flight. The dinners were nothing to rave about, but the hot entrees were hot, and the salads weren’t wilted. Nowadays, we consider ourselves pampered if we get served anything besides peanuts or mini pretzels on a flight. 

The flight crews passed out over the ear headsets and our seats each had a pillow and blanket, as well as a nice zippered pouch containing socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, ear plugs and sleep mask. We also had a 20oz water bottle at each seat. 

We watched the Movie Big Fish after dinner and then tried to sleep for the rest of the flight. The flight crews had dimmed the cabin to try to simulate Frankfurt time in the cabin. Janet manage to also watch Aquaman. Overall, the experience in Premium Economy on Lufthansa was close to equivalent to Premium Economy on Delta Airlines. Lufthansa had more comfortable seats for sleeping, but Delta was certainly more liberal with cocktails. 

As dawn broke out at 30,000 ft, the cabin lights came on and they served breakfast, which featured a plain omelet with spinach and tomato. 

It was about 8am local time when we deplaned in Frankfurt, Germany. We arrived in the Z gate of Terminal 1, and our connecting flight in the A Gates in Terminal 1.  Our luggage was checked through to Prague.  We did have to go through Passport control to go from the Z Gates to the A Gates, but the booths were well staffed and operated with German efficiency. There is a large duty-free mall between the A and Z Gates, but it’s all in the airport’s “sterile” zone, so we didn’t have to go through any security screening checkpoints to get from our arrival to our departure gates. 

One oddity we noted was there were several flights of stairs that had to be negotiated in the jetways and a bus was used to get us from the terminal to our connecting flight to Prague. 

The flight from Frankfurt to Prague was not completely full, so we had an empty seat between us.  We were also pleasantly surprised to have a cheese sandwich  and  drink service  on the short hour long flight. 

From the air, Prague looks green, European and beautiful.  Our plane was greeted with an enclosed jetway, but once inside the terminal building, we had to go down 2 sets of stairs.  We did not have to clear customs or passport control, and had no trouble reclaiming our checked bags.  A pair of Viking representatives greeted us just outside the baggage claim hall.  They were expecting two couples, each going to a different hotel, so we had a private transfer in a small Mercedes sedan, like an Uber ride.  

Our transfer driver was pretty aggressive on the road, making us cringe a bit, but he got us to our hotel- the Prague Hilton- in one piece.  A bellman immediately whisked our luggage off while we were instructed to go inside and check in at the Viking service desk.  So it turns out that Viking has their own reception desk, one floor down from the main Hilton check in desk.  

The Viking service desk had complimentary coffee, tea and bottled water.  Several couples were getting checked in.  Our Viking concierge was able to get our room ready for early occupancy, which was appreciated since we felt a bit like zombies by then.  We found the room to be very typical of a nice Hilton or Hyatt Regency hotel.  

The elevator banks in this Hilton are controlled in a unique way.  To access, you tap your room key on a pad.  The pad then displays a message telling you which elevator to board.  Once you’re in the elevator, there’s no pushing floor selection buttons.  It takes you up to your floor non-stop.  So it appears that the software running these elevator banks optimizes the elevator usage to minimize the number of cars needed and needless stops at intermediate floors. 

We showered up, brushed our teeth and set an alarm to get us up at 3:45pm because we had arranged with our Viking Concierge (Zuzanne) to have a private car guided tour of Prague’s City Lights for the same price as the optional Viking excursion, which had sold out.  

After our naps, we walked around the hotel a bit to familiarize ourselves with the neighborhood and to check out a place for dinner that Zuzanne had suggested.  It was within an easy 5 minute walking distance from the hospital. 

When we returned to the Hotel, Zuzanne introduced us to our guide, Michael, who drove a nice Mercedes sedan with the largest navigation screen I’ve ever seen in a car.  When we got into his car, it had started to rain.  Michael basically took us to all the tourist areas of the city and filled us in on the political history of the Czech Republic.  We got out to walk around at one fo the cathedrals with a view up the river at the series of bridges that cross the Vltava River, and at a spot under the Charles bridge for a quick walk on the bridge.  

Basilica of St. Peter and Paul

View from Prague Castle Hill

Charles Bridge and Cathedral of St. Nicholas

Charles Bridge Tower with Cathedral of St. Nicholas and St. Vitus Cathedral

Dome of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas and Belfry

Basilica of St. Peter and Paul

“Dancing House” Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as interpreted by architects Frank Ghery and 

Vlado Milunić.

Prince Wenceslas

Czech Presidential Palace

Our last stop was the presidential palace.  By then, it had started raining hard.  Michael dropped us off at the Gate Restaurant, at our request, for Czech food and beer.  

The Gate restaurant has a contemporary interior with a very large bar and casual atmosphere.  Ben ordered Czech goulash stew with sausage while Janet ordered Czech dumpling filled with pork (which turned out to be diced ham).  The beef in the goulash was surprisingly tough, and the goulash itself was more like brown gravy.  The local beer on tap was less expensive than water by a long shot.  Janet had heard that it is safe to drink tap water in Prague, but this restaurant charges nearly a dollar for tap water, so beer it is.  The local brew is a Pilsner lager, kind of like Miller or Budweiser.

It was a short walk through light rain to get back to the hotel.  We were both totally exhausted with jet lag and were ready to collapse into bed.  Tomorrow, we have a Viking inclusive tour of Prague at 8am.  The breakfast Buffett opens at 6:30am, so we’re setting an alarm clock.