Comment Trip to Prague and Budapest
 

I have just returned from a trip to Prague and Budapest Oct. 31. I had a very nice trip and all went as planned. They had record warm temperatures while I was there.

I flew on KLM from Chicago to Amsterdam. The flight was on time and went well.
I flew on Czech Airlines from Amsterdam to Prague. Czech Airlines will usually offer a ham or cheese sandwich, a chocolate cookie bar, a bag of mints and a drink. It was a very good meal. We landed at Prague at the new terminal. We unloaded at a gate but we immediately had to walk down a stairs to a waiting bus that took us to the old terminal. They do not have immigration control set up in the new terminal yet. There were no lines at immigration.

I had arranged to stay at an apartment and had someone from the apartment pick me up. He charged me 400 czk for the pickup. The apartment was not in the city center, but I was very pleased with it. The apartment had been recently refurbished. It had all modern furnishings. It had a bus stop out front where you could take a bus to the Florence Metro Station or near Old Town square. There is also a major Tram line at the Florence station. It is also within walking distance to the main train station. I found it on their web site www.daliaccom.cz. They have the web site set up where you can view the apartments.

I know that people want to see the astronomical clock in Old Town Square, but it was nice to walk through the area without the large crowds waiting to see the clock. There were still a lot of tourists in Prague, but it was not bad. There were a lot of Japanese tourists in Prague. They were buying a lot of crystal. When I was walking by the crystal shops in Old Town, I would see the Japanese men setting on the sofas and the women buying crystal. I was surprised to see that they had removed the scaffolding from the horse statue (St. Wenceslas on horseback) at top of Wenceslas Square.

I stayed a few days in Prague and then flew to Budapest on Czech Airlines. Even though I got to the airport 2 hours before flight time, there was a line at the check in counter. They handle several different flights at the same check in counter. I always see a lot of bags wrapped in plastic. I was told that there was a report on Czech TV that the airport workers were stealing from passengers bags and that the plastic wrap was to keep the workers from taking things from their bags. After I go through check in, I immediately have another line to get to the gate area. The problem that I see at the airport is that they don’t have enough workers to handle the volume of passengers. They only had 2 people checking passports.

My gate was C9 which is in the new terminal. It was shortly changed to C11. The new terminal is attached to the old terminal, but there is a long walk to the new terminal. In the new terminal, they have a baggage check before you enter the gate area. In the old terminal, each gate has its own baggage check. I get through the baggage check and I see an arrow that points to the right for gates C1-C20. I make a right and walk to the end (which is a long way) and see that the last gate is gate C10. I walk back looking for C11. I walk all the way back to the begining of the C gates and as you make the right, there is a sign on the left pointing to the stairs that C11-C20 are downstairs. The plane that I was on was a prop job. They bring a bus to the gate where we are bused to the plane. They take carry-on bags that are too big for the overhead and put in a storage area on the plane. It was a nice flight, but we were 30 minutes late. When we landed, they held up unloading passengers until they had unloaded the carry-on bags that they had taken earlier. As the passengers left the plane their bags were waiting outside.

After I reclaim my checked baggage, I go to the minibus counter and order a minibus to my apartment. They said to set down and someone would come by and get you. I told the lady at the counter the address of the apartment which had a number in it. Pretty soon there was a man that came by and says something in Hungarian. I told him where I was going in English, but he did not say anything. He keeps looking for the person for around 10 minutes. I did not understand what he was saying, but was pretty sure that he was looking for me. He finally asks the lady behind the counter who she had sold the ticket to and she points to me. There was no problem getting me to the apartment.

It was nice weather in Budapest. They were having celebrations by the Marriott for the uprising in the 1950’s. The Hungarian President was there to give a speech. They have a very good transportation system and you need to be able to use it, or you are going to be doing a lot of walking. It is very intimidating to go into the Deak Ferenc ter Metro station for the first time. This is the station that has all 3 lines crossing. If you know the last stops on the line that you are using, you should be ok finding your way. There were not the outside stalls set up for the tourists by the Marriott. There were not many tourists in Budapest. Budapest is a very clean city and is one of the most beautiful cities at night. I like to stand on the Pest side at night and look at the Buda side all lit up. I know that people have their favorite restaurant in Budapest, but I like to go to the West End City Center Mall and eat at their food court.

Glad you enjoyed your trip. We were in Prague, Budapest, etc. in June and have many good memories. Went from Springfield, MO, on American to Warsaw via Chicago (and with family visit stopover in NYC) and London. Returned from Vienna.

Ah so, the Japanest tourists...and when we were there so many school children.
Castles, churches awesome. Plus charm of old towns. Eating at West End Mall food court...do you mean the three story Vasarcsarnok at end of Vaca utca? We ate there, too.
ozarksbill

Hi Denis, I enjoyed your account and have a question about Czech Airlines. We too connect to Czech Airlines from Swiss Air by way of Zurich. Do you recommend on our return trip home, that we get to the airport hours and hours early given the holdups you had with Czech Air? (We're going in less than 2 weeks.) I have only an hour and a half in Zurich before my flight to Boston. Given your experience, do you think we'll make it what with the baggage check thing etc?
Was the astronomical clock under repair, or were there no crowds because you are there late in the season? Thanks.

soxgirl - I always get to the Prague airport 2 hours early and have made it ok. They do a pretty good job of getting you through the line. It seems like no matter what time you get to the airport that there are lines. What time is your flight from Prague to Zurich? I see that there is one at 07:15 and 14:45. You should be able to go to the Czech Airline site and monitor your flight for a few days to see if it is usually on time. The astronomical clock was under repair. I am not sure when they will have it repaired, but I believe that it will not be until sometime next year.

The mall that I like to eat at is located at the Nyugati Metro stop. This is a huge mall. I enjoyed very much walking in the Vaci u. area also. There is major construction around the Keleti Train Station. It is hard to get to the station via street level. I took an underpass to get to the station and thought that I would have to turn back. The underpass was being used as a public urinal. It is ok if you take the metro at the Keleti station. I was surprised several times to be walking at night and look down and there would be a homeless person sleeping in a doorway. It seems like they all had a blanket. All that I would see was a face peeking out from the blanket. There were a lot of buses bringing in school kids to visit the city.

I had a flight back to Prague on Czech Airlines. I scheduled the minibus to pick me up. They picked me up close to the time that I scheduled. I arrived at the Budapest airport about 2 ½ hours early. They did not have my Prague flight listed on the board yet. When it got 2 hours I got up and looked at the board again. It still was not listed. I look across the room and there is a large crowd at check-in counter 1 and 2. I said to myself. That is probably where I will have to go. I look up again and sure enough, it is 1 and 2. I go over to check-in and there is a group of around 50 Spanish elderly travelers. There is a large circle. I walk around the circle a couple of times and there is no sign of a line. This group was flying to Prague and then transferring to another flight to Madrid. This meant that they would need 2 boarding passes. With 2 counters open, it is going to take hours for this group to get all their paper work done. I stayed to the right hoping that they would open more check-ins and thankfully they did. I was able to get in a line behind 6 people. I still had plenty of time after getting into the gate area. I found a restaurant that had some good food at the airport. When I got to my gate, most of the Spanish group was there. They talked more than any group that I have been around and I did not understand a word that they said. When a Czech Airline person came to the desk, they rush the door that leads to the plane even though it was another 30 minutes before we were allowed to board. When we start to board and get on the plane, they are standing in the aisle talking. The flight attendant has to tell them to take their seat. I am not picking on this group because they are Spanish or elderly. Any inexperienced group of travelers would probably have done the same thing. The flight to Prague went ok and I enjoyed my stay in Budapest, but I was glad to get back to Prague. Again we land at the new terminal and have to be bused to the old terminal for passport control and to pick up our bags. There was no line at passport control.

Hey Denis, thanks for the info. We leave at about 9:30 AM-the Czech Air flight is under Swiss Air's "control" should that make any difference.

soxgirl - I have never had any dealings with Swiss Air, but I don't think that it will make any difference.