PRAGUE TO PARIS

Prague to Paris Saturday January 8, 2011

Well, the tour ended officially this morning when Milan put us into our transport to the airport. It was a tremendous job to sort out all the various destination and flight times from 04h25 this morning until quite late in the afternoon. We were on the one o'clock flight to Paris so left the hotel at  in the company of none other than Suitcase John, still bemoaning the loss of their luggage and setting out who he was going to sue. We felt quite sorry for them because they were finally ostracized by the group, many of whom had shown him a good deal of sympathy initially. But he simply refused to get on with his life and insisted on playing the martyr until everyone avoided him before he cornered them like the Ancient Mariner.

The cabbie didn't say one word on the way to the airport and we knew we had reached our destination when. She stopped the vehicle and opened the boot! It turned out the Prague airport is not logically designed and we discovered the initial problem when we made our way to Terminal One Departures (right next to Terminal Three Arrivals). Turns out we needed to be at Terminal Two Arrivals and Departures Czech Airways which was about as far from where we were as you could get. We were sharing a luggage 'chariot' and all the way John was muttering about the stupidity of the driver in not telling us where to go. I finally responded by asking rhetorically how many Melbourne cabbies would be able to tell a Czech passenger where to book in for VirginBlue at Melbourne airport.

We went to collect our tax refund - all of $60- so didn't go through to the lounge with John and Carole. What a circus the refund process turned out to be. There was a Russian woman at the Travelex counter when we got there and only one staff member on duty. It took all of an hour for her to collect her refunds - over US$3,000. We finally got through and who should be bump into but Leon and his missus so we had a good long chat to them.

I had a bit of a mishap when I board the aircraft. Rab was travelling Business Class while I was in Economy (long story) and I had my passport in my hand as well as our two packs. As I swung her pack into the luggage rack, I dropped the passport but only discovered the loss when I got to my seat. After searching my immediate area, I made my way back up the plane against the incoming tide of passengers and there was the missing passport, as John pointed out to my chagrin.

Nice short flight to Paris and we had booked a room at the Airport Sheraton, which was fortuitous as we were able to walk to the hotel from the arrival terminal. Very nice room. We just had a snack for supper in the Club Room and are now having an early night ahead of our flight tomorrow. 

Just after I wrote that we had a bit of an odd experience. There was a knock on the door and someone pushed it open. This at 9.00 pm! I had put the chain on so they couldn't open the door fully. I shot out of bed and shouted "Who is there? What do you want?" I peered through the peephole, but the passage lighting was very dim and I could only make out the shape of a man who said he was just checking that the room was OK and then he walked away. Very odd and I mentioned it to the girl when I checked out, but she was busy and I guess nothing will be investigated. It may have been nothing, but I was glad I had the chain on.