Prague March 2010

I am a geocacher and I have always wanted to go to Prague, so when my 45th birthday came along, I thought what the hell, and booked it.

I get emails from Travel Zoo and the offer was too good to resist! Also, as I had studied Smetena's wonderful music 'Vltava', I have always wanted to see the river.

As I was not going as a run of the mill tourist, but as a Geocacher (see www.geocaching.com if you have no idea what I am talking about)

I flew from Birmingham Airport on Friday 19th March in Ryanair which was ok, but it seemed that every two minutes they were trying to sell you something, from meals, scratchcards to smokeless cigarettes..

As I only took a rucksack, it was easy enough getting off the plane them straight into the airport to meet Tomas, a part of my freind's family. Tomas is a Czech, and was to be the most wonderful guide/translator/company ever. The fact that he is very pretty made it all the better!

Until then, I had never met Tomas, he was my friend on Facebook, and I had spoken to him on the phone. I did not see the sign with my name on as he recognised me straight away.

It may seem a tad complicated, but the transport in Prague is really well organised and very cheap.

Before leaving the airport, locate the machine where you can buy a three day travel ticket for 300CZK which is about £9-10. For this, you get unlimited transport on trains, metro, bus and trams. You need to catch bus number 119 which will take you to the nearest Dejvická metro station (line A). the main road, then catch the metro into the city centre. Total travel time is around 60 minutes. Remember to validate your ticket as soon as you get on the bus. If you fail to do so and an inspector catches you, you'll be fined 700 CZK.

My hotel was in central Prague, and the nearest Metro to that is the I.P Pavlova.

The Metro

The lines currently are:

Line A (Green) - running east to west from Depo Hostivař to Dejvická
Line B (Yellow) - running east to west from Černý most to Zličín
Line C (Red) - running north to south from Letňany to Háje

An extension by two new lines (D and E) is planned for the future.

Transfer Stations

There are three transfer stations in the city center where two lines intersect:

Můstek (lower end of Wenceslas Square) - lines A and B
Muzeum (upper end of Wenceslas Square) - lines A and C
Florenc (main bus station) - lines B and C

These are transfer points from one line to another. Each transfer route is clearly marked and takes 3-5 minutes walking.

Here is the timetable

Useful Words for the Metro

eskalátor - escalator (make sure that you stand to the right)
linka (A, B, C) - line (A, B, C)
metro - subway
přestup - transfer
stanice metra - subway station
trasa - route
vstup - entrance
výstup - exit

Trains run from 5 a.m. till midnight in 2-3 min. intervals during peak hours and in 4-10 min. intervals in the off hours and every 10 minutes on Sundays.