Big Broad reporting from Praha, Czech Republic:

We had an auspicious beginning to our trip with Air France changing our seat assignments at the last minute and then, adding insult to injury, "misplacing" our luggage.  The check-in agent was trying to do us a favor by sending our bags all the way through from Los Angeles to Prague without us having to claim them in Paris (our one layover).  Instead the bags were lost and that screwed us up royally.  Note to self: do not change the plans you made 8 months ago!  Once we got to Prague and found our missing driver (he was upstairs, we were downstairs at the airport) w got to our hotel.  Julieanne's brother, Christopher, joined us from Germany; we found a patio bar (Cafe Kafka), ordered cocktails, and all was right with the world. 

On Sunday we walked around the old town square.  Julieanne used 7 of her 8 gigs of camera memory taking lots of pictures of lots of old buildings.  Again we found a patio bar (Cafe del Toro), ordered cocktails and appetizers, and (you guessed it) all was right with the world.  We watched the Astronomical  Clock chime in the new hour; quite the spectacle and a definite crowd pleaser.  We also took a quick tour of the city on an open-top tour bus, rode our first European subway, and had dinner at U Fleku (don't worry about trying to pronounce the name, this is a strange language!).  After several beers and Becherovka (a very herbal and sweet liquor), we headed back to our hotel via the Vltava River walkway, meandered through some very dark and seedy alleys (I think I saw the vampire Lestat in one of the dark corners) and EVENTUALLY, made it back. 

More to report later; can you picture 40,000 skeletons?

From Tish, posted via Kathy