97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

Greetings from Prague!

We are wrapping up our 3 days in Prague and are heading to Austria tomorrow morning to meet my mother and Mr. and Mrs. O. It will definitely be good to see some familiar faces, so we are really looking forward to it.

The Czech Republic was our first foray outside of the EU, which meant the first border crossing and a new currency. Let me start with the border crossing. We crossed over from Germany on a very small road and the border guard asked us to pull off the road while he stamped out passports. After we waited for about 5 minutes, a different border guard approached my window and asked me to turn off the engine. He then asked us where we were coming from. Stating the obvious, we answered in unison "Germany". This confused him a bit. 'Where before that?" "Netherlands". We then detailed our trip in reverse all the way back to Boston before he asked why we did not have a stamp in our passport from when we entered the EU. We can thank the lazy French customs agent in Degaulle airport for that. The border guard dissapeared again for a few minutes, returned, and wordlessly handed our passports back. The two guards followed our car with their gazes for as long as I could see them in the rear-view. Perhaps that was an omen...

After driving a few hours on a tiny country road to Prague, we were entered the suburbs at a speed that was my best guess of the speed limit (slower than the guy in front of me who was DEFINITELY speeding) when I noticed a parked police car in the rear-view. And when the lights came on and the car pulled out, I mentioned to Taice that we were getting pulled over. Hoping that he was after someone else, I slowed so he could pass. No such luck.

The police officer came to the window and told me that I had a 'grusse problem'. I assumed this meant I was in big trouble but I could only shake my head like the clueless tourist I am. He took my passport, my international permit and my Mass license and motioned for me to come back to his car and walked away. Knowing how American cops react if you exit your vehicle during a traffic stop, I remained in the car. He returned and asked me to get out again. Certain I was not going to be arrested for it, I got out of the car and walked back to the cop car, where the officers partner was sitting int he passenger seat with a tablet PC. In extremely broken english, they showed me the evidence. On the computer there was a picture of the Kangoo, clocked at 65 km/h. The unposted speed limit was 50km/h. I was then informed that this indiscretion would cost me 1000 kroners. I asked if I could mail it to them. They said no, i would need to pay them right then. Hmmm, am I being extorted because of the red license plate on the car? Either way, I have no Kroners on me. It took me another few minutes to explain that and after they conversed with each other, they told me that I could follow them to the nearest ATM. OK....

The closest ATM was in the parking lot of a large suburban store, picture Home Depot. When Taice tried to get out of the car to get the cash out, she realized that her pants were still unbuttoned from an illegal pee stop on the side of the road a few kilometers before we were apprehended by the cops. So picture her discreetly trying to zip up while two Czech police officers watched her from their rearview. Once the cash was in hand, I walked it over to the police car and received a reciept from the police and we were on our way. I wish Taice had photographed this encounter, but when I asked, she said she thought they were going to beat me with their clubs. Oh, and 1000 kroners is approximately 50 bucks.

Once we got to Prague, things were much easier. The city is lovely and we lucked out with our hotel- great location. Prague is smaller than we expected so we have been able to walk across most of the city in 3 days. I will let the pictures and Taice's captions tell the story:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=159737835/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Here is the scene on Prague's King Charles bridge, one of the oldest and most impressive stone bridges in Europe:

We also found time to hit a beer hall:

I can explain that look of disgust that Taice gave by saying we ordered a plate of Beercheese and Onions. This is basically the smelliest snack you can imagine. It actually smells worse than the bag of dirty laundry we have been carrying with us.

Hope the Sox have a big weekend! We had a chance to watch last night's game online - can Beckett pitch every night? We like their chances at home if Schilling can pretend it's 2004 and Dice-K pretends it's the World Baseball Classic.

Till next time...

Chris & Taice