Colleen had requested the Mo find a particular perfume that was only sold in Europe. As luck would have it, we fond a 20% coupon to Saphora on the ground the night before so we decided to go back to Wencesleacaus square where we had been the night of the ballet. There was a Saphora there so we thought we were just going to take a quick walk out of our way. The entire time we've been relying on Google Maps walking, turn-by-turn navigation to get us around Prague. It was a GOD send, without we'd be forever lost. Espeically Mo, she has an amazing sense of direction back in the states, but so far in Europe, it's safe to say she's worthless when it comes to getting us around. I've actually been the one getting us to our destinations!!! Even without the help of Google Maps!? I normally can't find my way out of a paper bag, but for some reason, I do pretty well traveling...guess that means I do too much of it! Anyway, we thought we'd take a quick look at a paper map to remind us what streets to take, after a bunch of questions turns we realized we had no idea where we were until we accidentally walked by the restaurant we had eaten at the night before....ugh, how embarrasing. We decided enough is enough and pulled out the google maps nav app and found our way to Saphora. After all that, we found the perfume, but it was crazy expensive, much more that the Duty Free at London Heathrow, so we promptly left, kissed away the extra time and hoofed it to the Astromonical clock. On the way there we did take a couple minutes to check out local street market. Mostly tourist stuff but we found a very cute little wodden merry go round wind us music player that Emilie would love, we're excited to give it to her. Only $7! Woo hoo.
So every hour the Astronomical clock dings the bells like any other clock, but it also plays this elaborate little autmated show on the bottom of the clock and everybody hangs out to watch it. A bit underwhleming but still fun and hey, we can now check the box. We then climbed to the top of the tower after buying a ticket and the view was great! Very well worth the $5/ticket. Great view of Prague from all sides and a great way to end the trip. The clock is in Old Town Square which was very close to our hotel. We got back, got in our car to the train station and found our way to the platform.
We were in 2nd class and had a compartment to ourselves until Dresden when a couple of people came in and had reserved seat in the window seats we were sitting in. No biggie, we still had plenty of room and the 5.5hr ride went pretty quickly. Nice views of the Czech and German countryside at times but it was pretty cloudy and we were often tucked next to a hillside so half the view was blocked. We did meander along a river for a good portion of the trip which was cool.
Upon arrival in Berlin we were both immediately struck by the grandeur of the Berlin Hbf train station. Huge with multiple levels and very modern and VERY clean. It was a model of efficiency in every way, true German ingeneuity at work! :) We new the route we needed to take to get to the hotel but the tricky part was the public transit ticket. We thought we be cool and go up to the platform and just buy our tickets there. We fumbled our way through the automated machine and chose the option we thought would work, only to have it reject multiple credit cards, all while a line forms behind us. So, we just gave up and decided to find the information center. We got everything sorted out there and made our way back to the platform, on stop down the track we moved from the S "above ground" train to the U "underground train" and of course I was the one who helped us navigate the train station. 3 stops later we got off and made our way on foot to the hotel.
We got all checked in and the room is nice, but reeks of smoke even though it's non smoking. We also quickly realized that Euros go a LOT faster in Berlin than Crowns do in Prague. Glad were only here 3 nights! :) Had a great dinner at a local German pub with 0 tourists. We both got Currywurst which was fantastic, I wanted another order. Might have to have it for lunch.
Not sure what's on tap but we'll likely head out to Potsdam tomorrow and check out the palaces. More to come...
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