We began our day with an amazing breakfast prepared by Laney's mom (by the way I should mention that her parents are watching our girls the entire time we are gone!). The breakfast gave us a great start and we checked through Portland on our flight to Amsterdam with no hassles. We briefly contemplated accepting an offer by the airline for $1500 in vouchers if we would take a bump to the next day, but decided that we were too ready to go and didn't want any kind of delay.

Our first flight was non-stop to Amsterdam. My (Dave's) dad and step-mom had flown this very flight just over a month ago and they raved about the incredible new plane they were on with on-demand movies on individual monitors and larger than average seats. We were excited by that news! As we boarded our plane it quickly became clearl that this was not the same plane that they had a month ago. It was a very slightly updated one with tiny seats with the pleather head rests. Oh well! We're mostly going to sleep on the flight anyhow right? The answer is yes if you're Laney, but no if you're Dave. I just couldn't get to sleep on this plane! The elderly couple in front of us were hearing impared and she just had to narrate every thing on the projection screen to her husband. He was about the only person that didn't get the clue to close his window and it was light outside for our entire 10.5 hour flight (which boggled my tired mind because we left at Noon from Oregon and arrived at 7:30am in Amsterdam - the Earth is round).

When we touched down in Amsterdam Laney was decently rested and I thought that I was going to pass out flat on my face right on the terminal floor. We had to queue up to go through what must be the most unorganized airport security checkpoint in the EU (but it was entertaining to see the fellow face down spread eagle being aggresively searched by security) before we arrived at our gate to wait five hours for our connection to Prague. By now I was pretty much doing that head bob thing falling asleep each time I blinked my eyes. Thankfully in Amsterdam Schipol Airport there are some full length lounge chairs set up for long layovers. I found a vacant one and almost instantly fell fast asleep complete with snoring and drool. Did I care? Heck no! I didn't even know that I was still alive at that point. I was out cold! We hung out there for about two hours (Laney got the lounger next to mine at some point during my nap and snapped the photo) catching up on our need to be horizontal for a bit before we caught the quick and very scenic flight to Prague over the German and Czech countrysides. That was a nice lead-in to Prague itself which, so far, is very majestic and beautiful.

After we deboarded the plane, grabbed our bags, and were pounced on by a very aggresive female customs officer (think Eastern German Olympic weightlifer circa 1984) ,We caught the bus closer to the city center and entered the metro. We don't have photo evidence, but the escalator that we took up from the metro was at least 250ft up at a 45* angle - It was intense and I must try to get a picture tomorrow! After a short tram/street car ride we found our apartment. One of the reasons that we chose the apartment is that it has a nice terrace to sit outside and enjoy the air. The negative side to that feature is that only the apartments on the top floor have terraces and so we had to lug our bags up five flights of stairs. That darn near killed Laney by the third floor and I grabbed her backpack to boost her up the rest of the way. Our apartment is exactly what we had hoped for. It has an internet connection, a full kitchen, a washing machine, all close the terrific public transportation lines and a large park. We are very pleased with it. After getting familiar with the appartment we unpacked some of our stuff and settled in for a quick nap. When we woke up we used Skype to phone our girls and then headed off for dinner.

After walking about ten blocks and checking out our options we chose a pizzeria for our first meal in Prague. We did so mostly because we were too tired to be brave and risk a mistake while deciphering a Czech menu. Pizza on the other hand is pretty much a universal language. We ate our meal outside on the patio enjoying the beautiful evening and pizza too was very good. We ended up sitting there chatting and people watching for about an hour before paying the check and starting the walk back the apartment. This city is really gorgeous. Every street and sidewalk that we have traveled thus far is cobblestone. The architectural features of the most bland building match the most ornate in downtown Oregon City. Walking around Prague is a real joy and we've barely even begun to see the real gems this city has to offer. On the way we decided that we had better get some groceries since the stores may be closed on Sunday. We filled a hand cart with some basics and headed back home. We briefly discussed heading back out to check out the lights on Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge at night, but Laney just didn't have it in her to go out again and in fact is sound asleep beside me now.

So far Prague is everything that we hoped for and tomorrow we'll dig into some of the more popular destinations here. More on that tomorrow.