cuandos

Then, with six hours to spend until the flight to Valencia, I recoiled at the typical airport food on offer and ask the ladies at the tie store where I should go for a good slow lunch away from the crowd. They recommended Kâfers, which turns out to be an excellent choice. I chose oriental, following the waiters suggestions, and had the Japanese finger food and then the Thai curry. Wunderbar! The apfel strudel is so good, I order another one "to go" and walked it back to the ladies at the tie store. They have something to talk about I suppose. Finally, I spotted a five litre "Party keg" of Löwenbrau in the “Tax Free” which will be just right for Klaus' party coming up on Friday afternoon. And a replacement Bushmills, for the house.

Lovely Lucia, a thirty year old Slovak beauty, was my driver to the airport. A very pleasant drive it was. I wish her well on her future marriage to James, the lucky English boyfriend.

Having forgotten about the new, for me, regulations, I immediately got my Bushmill confiscated. If I had not opened the plastic bag to have a few sips during my stay, I could have carried it on, but !!

This was somewhat compensated by a good deed I was able to do - approaching my gate, I spot someones agenda and papers splashed on the floor in front of me. To make it short, I see his flight (Davids) is in the final boarding stages, and make it to his gate as the last bus was getting ready to leave for the Krakow flight. The flight agent got it to him - apparently he didn't even know it was lost. A nice warm feeling begins.

After breakfast, another half hour on the net with emails and visit to the Greek wine site. Good site, although they don't export to Spain.

Got to the center to buy some gifts to bring back to Spain. Decided on some granate (garnet in English I now learn) jewelry - a bracelet for Michelle and a pendant for Anna. The Bohemian garnets (Pyrope) are bright red and are said to have healing properties...

Another terrace lunch at the Kovarna - first a light, then the dark beer, same brisket, same pleasure.

Back to the hotel to pack. Couldn't close the suitcase with everything in it, so I decided to remove the liter of Bushmills Malt I had bought on the way in. This, it turns out is less than a bright idea.

After packing, visited a well known "gentlemen's relaxation" club not far from the hotel. Nice Campari and Soda. Watch the show with "A." Stay a while. Relax.

On the way back to the hotel, stopped at "Cheers" for some potato soup, duck and an unnecessarily huge ice cream. A fine day and I was ready to go back to Spain. Missions accomplished!

I walked to a fine restaurant Kogo at Slovansky dum. This is a cool place where the beautiful people go to enjoy a meal. One of the best meals I had in Prague, but also the most expensive - 1705 Kc. That's 66€ or US $98. Minestrone, a beautiful thick steak prepared exactly to my taste with some spinach. Chianti classico and San Benedetto. A gelato and coffee afterwards. Pictures of everything will appear somewhere, someday.

From here it was a short walk to the Ungelt Jazz and Blues club behind the old town square. Wonderful small club in an ancient cellar with great acoustics. Entry fee 300 Kc and the drinks were the same price as everywhere else. Sat at a table with Brent and Misty, expats from Seattle just settling into Prague. Congratulations were given for the twins due in August. Luboš Andršt opened for B B King recently and knows how to play the electric guitar! Great sessions (3) with his singer/harmonica man, drummer and bass – each of them an expert. I had been expecting singer Reesie Davis, but was told "she no longer works here." No matter, the group was great and the evening magic. I bought a CD on the way out.

I left after midnight and the metro had stopped. Since I had not studied the plans for the night trams (there is a shift which runs all night long) I just walked back to the hotel - avoiding the amazing temptations of Wenceslas Square.

Sleep before the last day in Prague.

Afterwards, René asked which of us were going swimming! Well this sounded good to me - what else to do except another walk around town? So two girls from Madrid, the guy from Georgia (on his honeymoon) and me go off to the outdoor pool. The girls giggled themselves to pieces when I teased them about not needing a suit - "I'll just go nude", sez me. Well, this wasn't allowed in the pool, although for the mixed sauna sessions, no suits were allowed. So I bought a bathing suit and the four of us joined about a dozen others already in the pool. Nice arrangement of entering the water from inside the building and then swimming out into the huge outdoor pool. I did a (1) lap in the BIG pool and then splashed around like everyone else. Invigorating air temperature 8ºC while the water was 28.3ºC. It would be a pity to come all the way to Carlsbad and not take this opportunity to swim in the famous thermal waters.

Non eventful ride back home. Exchanged web site addresses with one of the Greeks - megapanos - who is in the wine business.