Erica, Prague, and Madrid in That Order. Day #2 May 2, 2019 “Best Day So Far”

Last night we had a marathon stay at the American Airlines lounge at Heathrow Airport arriving shortly after our flight landed in London at 10 AM and not leaving for Prague until shortly before closing (the American lounge closes at 7 PM but we left at 6 PM) heading over to the the British Airways lounge which is open much later (until 10 PM).

Our flight to Prague was uneventful and very quick. We were scheduled to take off at 8 PM and arrive at 11 PM but since Prague is one hour ahead of London our trip was only 2 hours instead of the expected 3.

From the Prague airport (PRG) we were greeted outside baggage claim by our Blacklane driver, Denys (pronounced Dennis), who helped us with our luggage and drove us to the hotel. I know what you are thinking, “Patrice and Robert are a couple of spoiled rich kids taking a private car to the hotel”. Actually it is quite the contrary. I was turned on to Blacklane (a German company) by my friend Jeff. This was the second time I used them (they have a convenient phone app) and they have been very competitive in regards to price but beyond comparison in regards to service. We used them in New York at JFK. The price was a little more than a taxi but the driver met us at baggage claim, helped Patrice with her luggage, we didn’t need to wait on a long line for a taxi and he drove us in a clean car to the front door of our hotel. Considering that the tip was included in the quoted price it was very a reasonable service. Unfortunately their pricing is not always competitive. For example I looked for a quote from LAX to our home (less than 6 miles) and they wanted $117 for a ride that typically costs about $30 by taxi. For $87 I will wait on a taxi line in Los Angeles.

But of course the highlight of the night was seeing Erica at our hotel. It had been 6 months since we had seen our baby (sorry, FaceTime is good but not the same). We hung out in our room for a while and prepared for our first day in Prague.

This morning we had a great breakfast at the hotel, then waited for our tour guide to arrive for our 3 hour walking tour of the city. When he didn’t arrive at the arranged time I called the tour company and was connected directly to the guide. He apologized for being late and said he would be there soon. A few minutes later Patrik introduced himself and we were on our way. We had a great day walking to a variety of sights. The weather was perfect as was our guide. Our 3 hour tour actually lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes. Patrik had a wealth of knowledge about the sights and history of the Czech Republic. I strongly recommend Patrik from Lucy tours (Lucy is the owner and Patrik’s mom). You can contact them at lucytours.com.

We found a human statue in Old Town Square. I know you have seen them in various places. We have seen them in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Barcelona and Madrid (I am sure we have seen others). This guy seemed particularly good so I put a tip in his jar before taking a picture. After dropping in the tip he grabbed me and instead of me taking pictures of him, Patrice took these pictures of us.

More planned for tomorrow. I need some sleep now. My Fitbit is reading 19,293 steps. Maybe I will walk up and down the hall a few times to hit the 20K mark. Steps aside, spending my day with Erica made this the best day so far.