After a month of volunteer teaching at the little school in Valašské Klobouky, Czechia, the time comes all too soon for us to move on. It’s been a fun month, and has zipped by rather quickly. Now it’s on to our next destination, Prague.

The first thing we notice in the morning is that the clock in the kitchen is suddenly an hour slow. That’s odd. It was working fine last night. Then we get a message from our host reminding us (or technically informing us) that today is the beginning of daylight savings time. Huh? They have this crap in Europe too?? Yes, indeed. Not just in The Czech Republic but other countries as well. No matter, we still have plenty of time to make our train.

After packing up, we say our goodbyes to jovial janitor Jan, a self-styled “old hippie” (he actually spent a couple of years living communally in Arizona and New Mexico when he was younger), who’s been a delightful buddy during our stay. We also alert him that a (presumably) homeless man has been camping out for the past couple of nights with a sleeping bag on a sofa on the patio — and he’s there this morning.

Jan says he actually knows the guy and he’s harmless, although he gets angry when he’s drunk; but in any case, he’ll make certain he moves along before the day is over, so he doesn’t cause any concern among the parents when they drop their kiddos off the next morning.

And then we take our leave of Jan, the derelict, the school, and the quaint hamlet of Valašské Klobouky .

Catching a bus into Horní Lideč (about 10 miles away), we make our way to the train station, where we have more than an hour to wait and enjoy breakfast– especially since the train is running a little late. An agent informs us, with the aid of a translator app, that there is a disruption in service because of construction, so we will have to ride a bus for part of the journey. This is a bit of a bummer, since we don’t particularly like buses but love trains, our favorite mode of travel. And we were looking forward to taking in the Czech countryside entirely by rail.

Instead, we ride for half an hour on a train, then get off to a waiting bus, then ride half an hour before boarding another train. But then, at last, we can rail it the rest of the way.

We’re confused by the reservation system, and when we board the second train we find a couple of seats that look like just the ticket, as it were; but then along comes a young lady with multiple facial piercings who apparently has reserved one of the seats we’re occupying. She’s quite understanding, and willing to move elsewhere, but we don’t see another available seat for her in the car, so we mosey on to another car, where we find new seats for ourselves that don’t seem to be reserved.

Once we have settled into our new seats, Dennis starts looking for something in the bag of food, and an apple gets loose and rolls all the way down the aisle in a journey of epic proportions — even our food has the travel bug — and settles beneath a seat where some people are sitting. A woman picks it up and places it on the little foldup table in front of her as if expecting it to sing. But he goes to retrieve the truant fruit, and she does not try to play the Finders Keepers card.

After we pull into the station in Prague, we load onto an extremely crowded tram to the neighborhood where we’ll be staying, rolling past some of the city’s signature Baroque architecture.

Getting off the tram, we have a short hike up a hill to reach our Airbnb. A middle-aged couple who speak fairly good English, and seem to be coming home from work, happen along and offer to help us carry our bags, but we tell them we are accustomed to doing it ourselves and enjoy the workout. They are impressed that we are able to tote so much weight around (they don’t add “at your age”, but they might be thinking it). In fact, they say that we are an inspiration and they feel nudged toward getting in better shape themselves.

Our apartment, on the ground floor, has three beds, so we’ll each have one and a half. It has a well equipped kitchen, an ultra-modern washing machine, and a portable heater.

And we discover that there is a small supermarket (if that’s not an oxymoron) a short distance away. It’s going to be a comfy base of operations for our first-ever expedition to Prague.

Events occurred: 3/30-31/2025