Plodding along.

I just realised the day is slipping by,  and I got nothin’.

There were a couple other interesting (well,  to me anyway) things we saw in Prague that I’d like to share.

 

First of all,  I thought I was being really clever,  taking a picture of this aging Trabant,  that was wheeling up the E65 somewhere outside of Prague. 

“Oh how cute,  they have those old cars here”, I thought.   What a dope.  If you look closely at the plate,  you’ll see he’s from Vienna.  So much for that discovery.

I should mention a couple things about the drive.  First of all,  if you manage to stay off the built up roads,  you don’t need a vignette.   Any time Travelling Companion goes up to Suchdol from Gmünd,  she doesn’t bother,  since it’s all back roads.   The somewhat annoying thing was,  the “back roads”  on the way to Prague were in considerably better shape than the four lane “built-up” highway.   The disadvantage was that the back roads take you through all the towns,  and if you’re behind a transport truck or *gasp*  a caravan,  then you’re going to be somewhat stuck there.  Patience can be a virtue in these cases.

I do think that the leisurely pace of the back roads must surely have helped with our fuel economy.   We drove up and back,  and on Tuesday I noticed that the trip odometer had just turned 900 kilometres,  and we still had a half tank of diesel fuel.   

Don’t ask me what kind of fuel economy that is.  All I know is,  that ain’t too shabby.

 

Now,  in keeping with the car theme,  and again this has really very little to do with Prague,  I saw some other vehicles that I had no clue about.

 

It turns out, unlike the one pictured above,  these are actual Czech cars.  Who knew?

 

There are more pictures at this site.   Crazy.

 

I’ll admit that I’m not much of a car guy, but I sort of have something resembling a clue when it comes to automobiles,  and even if I might not come up with the year right away,  I can usually at least name most cars.  Not these guys.  Total mystery. 

 

Of course,  I didn’t really have time to stand around an gawk,  since my Lady companions were well on their way to getting out of sight.   Not the best plan in a place like Prague.  Just something a fellow learns over time.

I tried looking at the cars longingly,  but was ignored.  That never works. 

 

 

You’ll notice that the little green one on the left is “right hand drive”?   Well,  that’s not because it was produced for the UK market.   Austria,  Czechoslovakia and Hungary all drove on the left up until they were annexed by German in the 30s.     Italy had made the switch back in the 20s under Mussolini.  

Aren’t these little snippets helpful?

 

 

Yet another right hand drive vehicle.   No clue what it is.

Saw quite a few old cars driving around Prague,  carting tourists here and there.  This guy was really moving.  I guess their time was up.

 

 

Did I mention that we took the subway in to Prague from about a block from our hotel? 

The bonus was,  there was an attendant available when it came time to get our tickets,  and it turns out the tickets are based on the time spent on the system.  I just asked for Staroměstská, (Old Town) and we were on our way.    For the three of us,  with return tickets for later,  we figured it was about eight bucks. 

Well,  it was 144 Czech crowns,  which is presently $7.12,  but we were doing some rough arithmetic at the time.

 

You can see online transit maps that are way better than that effort if you choose.   I was quite pleased that we managed to figure out the subway system.  It ain’t easy when everything is in Czech.

 

 

The stations did have a bit of a bunker feel to them,  and you could sure tell when the next subway car was coming,  since there was a huge rush of air being pushed in front.  I haven’t noticed that so much here in Vienna.  I think they must have figured out how to mitigate that effect?  

 

Tomorrow maybe we’ll put the “fun” in funicular.

 

Keep those sticks on the ice.

 

Thanks for coming by.

 

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