The guidebooks warn about pickpockets in Prague and when we arrived in the train station there was a recorded message on the PA system doing the same. Needless to say, we felt like easy targets as we bumbled through the station with our large backpacks and nary a clue as to what we were doing. In short order we were able to raid an ATM for Czech Korunas (Crowns), make change at a bakery, buy a 72 hour pass on the bus/tram/subway system, and determine that we needed to get to the Dejvice station. Unfortunately, we didn't know exactly how to get to the pension from there, but I had a waypoint in the GPS that should (in theory) work. In a little less than an hour we were able to get onto the subway and on our way, seemingly without any mishaps.
We had a walk of a little less than a mile from the station to the pension, and as we came to our first crosswalk we were in for a big surprise. We approached the curb and the cars in the street stopped for us -- without their having a stop sign or signal. This was definitely not the way things worked in Germany! I don't think the Germans would have gone out of their way to intentionally run over a pedestrian, but they gave the distinct impression that they wouldn't yield one millimeter to avoid doing so. Rules are rules, and if as a pedestrian you happen to be where you shouldn't then too bad for you. The Czech drivers seem to be a much friendlier bunch, and we found that they consistently yielded the right-of-way to pedestrians. Very nice.
We checked into the pension and spent the balance of the afternoon relaxing and catching up on email and the blog.
We started the day in Gorlitz (upper right) and took the train through Dresden (far left) and then down to Prague (or Praha, bottom middle). Once again we went up the Elbe River through the Saxon Switzerland National Park -- that area is starting to seem pretty familiar.
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