The Big Day Arrives

Our European Odyssey is about to begin. Packing is in earnest now.
We are leaving Morisset on the 3:17pm train to travel to the Sydney International Airport at 5:35pm. Our flight to Abu Dhabi leaves at 8:50pm. We fly to first to Aby Dhabi, then to Rome, then on to Prague, where we meet the others. Our flight is with Etihad. Stephen and Fiona Carroll, James and Jenny Higgs and Michelle Kirkwood are all on the same flights as us. The other members of our tour group are on other flight itineraries, but all meeting in Prague tomorrow.

There are 17 friends on our journey. They are:

Simon and Priscilla Dodson
Darren and Susan Tappouras
Stephen and Fiona Carroll
Steve and Sandy Dodson
James and Jenny Higgs
Rob and Leah Crawford
Mark and Cathy Peden
Geoff and Ruth Lynch
Michelle Kirkwood

It should be a fun time. Priscilla is worried about leaving the children, but she is even more worried about leaving her 13 week-old puppy, Molly. The new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is the love of her life, and now she is leaving her behind to fend for herself with only Jo, Abi

and Sam to care for her. Good luck, Molly.

We caught the train to Sydney from Morisset at 3:15pm arriving at the International Airport at 5:35pm. Joanna kindly dropped us at the train station and then waved us goodbye. The train journey was relaxing and a very peaceful way to get through Sydney. It requires a change of platform at Central from the country platforms to the airport line (No 23) but this is not challenging at all. Upon arrival at the International Terminal, we joined the queue for check-in to Etihad along with hundreds of others. We met up with James and Jenny Higgs and Michelle Kirkwood in the queue. The helpful assistant gave us three boarding passes, one for each leg of our journey to Prague. We checked our bags and then made our way through customs and security, which was surprisingly quick and uneventful.

While waiting for our flight we enjoyed our last meal in Australia, delicious gozleme and surprisingly good coffee.

The first flight is 15 hours from Sydney to Prague on an A380. This was a new plane and very spacious. Everything about this journey was great, despite the fact it was overnight, very long and the plane was full to the brim. The A380 is a very nice plane. Large comfortable seats with nice headrests, great entertainment system and charging

facilities for electronic devices. The plane is divided into compartments so the sensation is that the plane is not as big as it is. On boarding we walked past the staircase which goes up to the first class and business class areas. Cattle class is very comfortable, so the comfort level in first class must be very impressive.

We arrived at Abu Dhabi at about 5:00am which was 11:00am Sydney time. It was dark and 31 degrees so already we are feeling a bit displaced in the new time zone and climate. We spent three hours in the airport waiting for our next flight. Most of the time was spent sitting in Costa Coffee just relaxing.

The next leg of the journey was from Abu Dhabi to Rome. This flight took about 6 hours. The flight path went above Greece which could be clearly seen below. Then fight over the middle of the heel of the boot of Italy and then up the western coast of Italy to Rome. We then

spent three hours in the Rome airport sampling some of the amazing Italian food.

The final flight was only 90 minutes, very bumpy because we went through a lot of turbulence and ten finally to Prague airport. We were met at the airport by a man holding a list of all our names. It was a 50 seater bus for the seven of us! After a 20 minute bus trip, we arrived at our hotel - the Diplomat Hotel.

We were all allocated rooms on the third floor. After a much-needed and refreshing shower we met in the foyer of the hotel (joined by Geoff, Darren and Susan who had travelled on different airlines), changed some money and purchased a subway ticket to the city. We took a short walk to the subway and caught the train into town. We then walked around the old city square and admired the old buildings - the church and town hall. The old church and town hall were first

built in about the 12th and thirteenth centuries so they are medieval in their design. The Prague Astronomical Clock on the town hall is one of Prague’s major tourist attractions so we waited till it chimed on hour. The clock was first built in 1410, over 650 years ago.

The town centre of Prague is full of old buildings dating back to the medieval age. Jan Has, one of the forerunners of the Protestant reformation who stood up against the Roman Catholic Church and was burnt at the stake for his efforts, is commemorated in the town square by a magnificent sculpture, known at the Jan Has Memorial, constructed in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his martyrdom.

Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious

moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe. In the following century, Hus was followed by many other reformers - e.g. Martin Luther, John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. Hus was ultimately condemned by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake in 1415. This led to the Hussite Wars.

We walked around the town square admiring the architecture and found a delightful restaurant and sat outdoors to eat, watching the passing parade, including the old authentic horse-drawn carriages as the clattered over the cobblestone streets.

We ate late and returned to the hotel at about 10:00pm after two very long days. We are finally here - in Prague.