(Blue skies as we wait for bus in Greystones)

We have arrived safely in Prague, our plane only returned once to the boarding gate… As we were coming in to land I was very surprised by how green it is around the airport. Very like home. Then I remembered why it’s so green in Ireland and I guessed that they get a lot of rain here in Prague, too. So far my guess is correct. It’s a little odd that we have arrived at our destination so soon, it usually takes at least a day or three, the plane is faster than the bike I suppose. So it might take us a little longer to acclimatise, probably just as well the weather is very familiar then.

(The overhead locker opposite our seats wouldn’t close.. so we had to return to the boarding gate and…

(…the engineer fixed it)

I had prepared for our arrival very well during last week and Denis was quite impressed that I knew where we could buy bus tickets and what bus we would need to take and what stop we would need to get off to get the metro. I also knew the metro stop we needed to get off to be near our accommodation. He was easily able to ignore my error when we got on the right bus going in the wrong direction (still in the airport and just a short run to the right bus going in the right direction.) He did do the raised eyebrows thing, though, when I didn’t have any idea how to get from the metro to our apartment… Fortunately, the nice lady in the bus ticket shop had given us a map, we knew the address and there’s a compass app on the phone, sorted…

(Nice staircase, although as we are on the third floor we prefer the lift)

We are staying in Prague 2 in an apartment we found on airbnb, there are plenty of restaurants nearby, including a vegetarian and a vegan. This morning we even found a pastry and coffee shop. (Of course I was having porridge but Denis needs his coffee.) But before it was time for morning routines we were awoken by gentle (but persistent) tapping. A woodpecker? No. Men in blue jumpsuits are laying a pretty stone footpath outside our building. And they start early, too early, it was 6.30am! They work with wooden frames to make patterns with small square bricks, using sand to keep them in place with plenty of tapping. The good news is they are nearly finished the section outside our building.

(the bricks…)

(… and the work in progress from our window)

We are going for a walk in the afternoon and more pictures, see you then, Mairead.