Romantic Danube: Exploring Prague

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels
Romantic Danube: Brussels and continuing to Prague
Romantic Danube: Marriott Courtyard Prague
Romantic Danube: Exploring Prague

The primary purpose of our trip to Europe was a cruise that Viking calls the Romantic Danube.  But since we were going that far from home, C and I looked to extend our trip a bit.  Viking offered a pre-trip stay in Prague and a few extra days in Budapest as their official extensions.  While there were some nice things included, C and I decided we'd be fine on our own for a couple of days on either side of the tour.  We knew there was enough English spoken in each city that we'd be OK and it's always kinda cool to be able to go your own way.

The first morning our first challenge was getting to Old Town, where the touring companies are centered.  We exchanged a little money at the mall across the street from the hotel and followed the tram tracks to the nearest stop.  Unless you're at a major station, it's not unusual for there to be no instructions on how to get bus/tram tickets and this stop was no exception.  So I held up some money to the driver in a "how much" gesture and he just waved me off.  Thinking that meant it was free (which was surprising, but not unheard of) we hopped on and rode several blocks towards our destination.  After awhile though we realized that people getting on the tram had tickets in their hand and were validating them on one of the on-board machines.  Oops!  We hopped off pretty quickly so we wouldn't get fined.  Fortunately we weren't too far from our destination.

We found ourselves in Republic Square, a large plaza that was both a transportation hub and a shopping district. Still unable to find exactly where we needed to be, we popped into a hotel where the concierge told us exactly what we needed to know.  Kudos to him for not giving us the "duh, you dumb Americans" look because the street we needed was right in front of our faces!

Republic Square

Romantic Danube: Marriott Courtyard Prague

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels
Romantic Danube: Brussels and continuing to Prague
Romantic Danube: Marriott Courtyard Prague

One of the benefits of holding the Chase Marriott Visa is that each year you get a free night at a category 1-4 hotel, just for paying your annual fee.  Or, to look at it another way, you get a discounted rate of $85 for any category 1-4 hotel in the Marriott chain.  Since C and I each own the card, we chose to use our free nights at the only category 1-4 Marriott in Prague, which was a Courtyard.  For our final night in the city we chose to splurge on the Boscolo, which is part of Marriott's Autograph Collection.

We were told that the hotel was completely full for the night though our room had a connecting door and we never heard a peep out of anyone on the other side, which was nice.  We'd reserved a room with two beds and were pleased that they weren't twins but something larger, perhaps double beds.

Romantic Danube: Brussels and continuing to Prague

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels
Romantic Danube: Brussels and continuing to Prague

We arrived in Brussels and made our way downstairs and outside to the luggage storage lockers so we could stow our carry-ons while we went into town.  Due to the bombing that had occurred in March 2016, there was an extra security check such that we had to go out to the lockers then re-clear security to come back inside to get to the train platform.

But we found our way to the ticket office, picked up our tickets and did not have to wait long at all for the next train.  Before too long we were in the city center.  C and I walked around the area, just to get our bearings.  Since this is Europe, of course there was an old church nearby so we stopped to take a look around, despite the on-again/off-again mist that was falling.

Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels

One truism that occurs when booking award seats is that you need to be flexible.  That may mean long layovers, indirect routing or not flying on your preferred dates.  But when there are just a couple of people involved, we can usually find flights to suit our purposes.

The trick when booking international award flights is to find award space on the longest legs first and then build connections around them.  We knew we wanted to fly out of Chicago, where my friend C lives, and we found award space on a flight that connected in Brussels.  The flexibility part meant my flight from Memphis to Chicago was before 8 AM while the flight to Brussels didn't leave until nearly 6 PM.  And we landed in Brussels around 9 AM but our flight to Prague wasn't until after 4 PM.  But with a little planning, things worked out.

In Chicago, C picked me up and we drove halfway to Milwaukee to meet another friend of ours for lunch.  It was great fun to catch up and we enjoyed a leisurely meal with a lot of laughs.  In Brussels, as I'll mention later, a Twitter friend drove down to have lunch with us and lead us on a brief walking tour.

Romantic Danube: Overview

Last fall several of us took a Viking River cruise down the Danube.  The cruise officially started in Nuremberg, Germany and ended in Budapest, Hungary.  While my friend C and I considered doing Viking's official pre-trip extension in Prague, Czech Republic and the post-trip extension in Budapest, when we compared what was offered to what we could piece together on our own, using hotel points to offset the cost, we decided to do our own thing before and after the cruise.

As we looked at flights to Prague using our United miles, we had a couple of options: one with a long layover in Brussels and another 2-stop flight.  Not wanting to risk our luggage being transferred any more than was necessary, we went with the stop in Brussels.  It just so happens that I have a Twitter friend who lives in Belgium and she agreed to drive down to meet with us for a few hours.

Later that afternoon we caught our flight to Prague and spent a couple of days there walking the cobblestones of Old Town.  On Saturday we boarded a bus for Nuremberg and we timed it right because it was during the bus ride that we experienced the worst weather of the trip.  Once we arrived in Nuremberg we caught a train for the 20-minute ride to Erlangen, which is the small town where our longship was docked.

Overnight our longship moved into Nuremberg itself and we had our choice of a couple of different tours available.  Over the next several days we had stops at ports in Germany and Hungary and had to change longships mid-trip because the water was so low in some places that our longship could not pass through.

We sailed into Budapest on Friday and had a front-row view to the spectacular lights along the river that night.  When the rest of our group left on Saturday we checked into the Hilton in the Castle District and enjoyed a couple more nights of Hungarian hospitality.

For our return trip, C and went our separate ways.  She used her United miles to return in Business Class on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul while I used my Lufthansa Miles and More points for their Business Class cabin.  Lufthansa is known for opening up first class seats within a couple of weeks of the flight so I had hoped that I'd be able to upgrade as my date approached.  Why was flying first class such a big deal?  Because in Frankfurt, Lufthansa has an entire first class terminal and you get driven directly to your plane in a luxury car.  I'd hoped to be able to try this out but unfortunately had chosen to return home on a Monday, when there are loads of business travelers, so no first class spaced opened up.  Poor me, was "stuck" in business class.

Our flights. Mine in Red, C's in Cyan, joint flights in Pink
Map made at gcmap.com

We had a terrific time and I hope to get this posted fairly quickly.  If you'd like to see Viking's official video ad for the cruise you can see it here.