This Sunday morning started off so well…

We awoke to blue skies and warm temperatures. I got Ann and me a cappuccino and croissant to-go at the bakery downstairs and brought it up to the apartment. I met Z at the appointed tram station at the appointed time and off we went to get the car. The car was there undamaged. We paid the reasonable rate and started the car.

Let me digress. In Prague and in the entire Czech Republic car lights must be turned on 24 hours a day while driving. On Thursday on the way to the car park Z had me turn them on. Can you fill in the rest of the story?? Let me just say that the car does not have automatic headlight turn off. To say the battery was drained would be kind. Turning the key produced not a sound.

Fortunately that same sinister Eastern European guarding the cars had jumper cables. In the Czech Republic one apparently cannot just ask another person if he has jumper cables and could he please jumpstart the car. A meeting of the minds had to occur between Z and the sinister looking Eastern European. I guess much had to be discussed about the relative position of the jumping car, the fact that the car was French, the fact it was a diesel, etc, etc. FINALLY off went the sinister Eastern European then to get the other car. It took a full 15 minutes before anything on the dashboard would even light up then another 20 minutes of charging before car would actually start.

All turned out well. We got on our way and the sinister Eastern European got a tip big enough to take his family for a very nice dinner; He was so nice and helpful. He wished nothing in return for his troubles but took the gift reluctantly. Parking the car for three days cost $15. I gave him $13 for his work. Never was money better spent.

Z and I got back to the apartment fearing stalling the car with the standard transmission would initiate our problems all over again. (Can you push-start a manual transmission diesel?) We picked up Ann and the luggage at the apartment, drove Z home and we were on our way to Vienna.

We stopped for lunch at a lake in the southern Czech Republic. It was Sunday afternoon and families were having their afternoon supper on the terrace overlooking the lake. The warm sun, the lake, the families with little children and the complete lack of English made this a delightful meal. We had Czech money to spend before entering Austria and ate soup, the most expensive entrée, wine, desert and espressos but could not spend over $24. This reminded us of 1971 when we were forced to buy Czech money at the border but paid for our stay with the family of Z’s friends in hard currency. Then, too, we had to spend like “Americans” although this time we could have exchanged the currency.

We arrived in Vienna at Josef’s apartments where we had stayed two years ago. I happened to make reservations for October not September by mistake. It had to do with using the American sequence of dating rather than the European – 10/09/2006 and 09/10/2006. Joseph had one apartment available anyhow for two of the three days so we were saved from my idiocy again! Well saved 2/3 of the way.

This evening is a quiet one – finally. I went to an internet café to reacquaint with my long-lost American friends. Still full from our enormous (for us) meal at the lake, we will sleep long and hard tonight. Oh and by the way, I had Goulash soup and pig’s knuckle for lunch this afternoon. Only in Eastern Europe does that sound the least interesting. No dinner needed tonight. Guten nacht.

Lesson for day 6: Never judge a book by its cover or a sinister Eastern European by his looks.
Second lesson: Pig’s knuckle tastes a lot better than it sounds.