Author: Navygray

After a lazy 8:00 am wake-up, a clean up, a little pack up, and light breakfast, I was ready to board my train for the 4-hour ride to Prague.  However, the train was cancelled just before departure time and I had to wait another 2 hours for the next one.

So I eventually arrived in Prague at 3:15 pm after wasting away in the train station all morning. So much for German efficiency!

Fortunately, the train followed the lovely Elbe River on the way to Prague. Most of the towns and villages along the river were incredibly beautiful and picturesque, so at least the scenery was worth the wait. And I chatted with Anna, a young woman from Chicago, who is also on a 3-week solo trip around Eastern Europe. We compared travel adventures stories and talked about things we hoped to see on our trips.

When I arrived in Prague I took a quick taxi to an area in old town where I needed to pick up my 2-hour bus tour at 4:00 pm. I made it with 15 minutes to spare! And the bus was a good way to see the highlights around town and identify places I want to hit tomorrow.

And wow, Prague is certainly a beautiful and a busy city!  There must still be a lot of tourists in town with tour busses, vans, and cars all around.  And the streets and sidewalks are packed.

The famous Prague Castle sits in a bluff several hundred feet above the Vltava River and the rest of the city on the other side.  The Czech Republic also has the unusual distinction – no other European head of state still governs from a castle that their forefathers also ruled from.  Follow the link below for some more facts about Prague Castle. I think you’ll find it interesting!

https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/prague-castle

After the bus tour I hopped on an electric scooter (cheap and fun) to head to the train station to reserve a seat on Saturday’s train to Vienna. You do not generally have to reserve seats, but doing so guarantees a window seat facing forward (if that’s your thing…me, too). And the seats are usually cheap, only $3 or $4.

By the time I finished it was 7 pm-ish) and getting hungry, so I hunted down a Czech cafeteria for dinner. My first Czech meal consisted of Moravian pork sparrow, potato dumplings, sweet cabbage, and Czech beer!  All delicious, especially the pork and gravy! 

OBTW, did you know that beer is cheaper than soda here… maybe time to relocate and become an expat?

Tomorrow will bring a full day of sightseeing around Prague so more to follow.

Words of wisdom, or just to amuse…?

Sure, I drink brake fluid. But I can stop anytime!

Although I have traveled through Germany before, I had never stopped in Berlin. So this trip gave me a good excuse to see some of the sights of this historic former “bridge / wall” between east and west. And on a hot, sunny day to boot!

After WWII, the Allied forces divided Berlin into four sectors, with the Soviets occupying the east side of Berlin, and the Americans, British, and French occupying three sections on the west side of Berlin. And as tensions between the west and the Soviets increased, the Soviets (and their East German proxies) built the Berlin Wall in 1961 that separated West Berlin from East Berlin and from the rest of West Germany. As a result, West Berlin became an isolated island in Russian controlled East Germany until 1989 when the wall came down. (More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall)

As a Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin has an almost 5 acre site on undulating ground that contains 2,711 rectangular concrete blocks of varying heights.  Because of the uneven ground and varied block heights, you feel lost while walking through. More info at: https://www.visitberlin.de/en/memorial-murdered-jews-Europe.

I listened in on one group of Danish students talking about the memorial whose English speaking guide asked them, “how many Jews died in the Holocaust?” A student responded, “six million” Then the guide asked, “how many people there are in all of Denmark?” One of the groups’s teachers responded, “somewhere around 5.5 million.” The guide was making the point that more than the entire population of Denmark had been wiped out by the Nazis! A pretty profound comparison to help the students understand the magnitude of the genocide.

And a few more pictures from my day.

On to Prague tomorrow!

Words of wisdom, or just to amuse…?

I knew a guy who collected candy canes, they were all in mint condition.

Well, the train out of Gdańsk was not quite as uneventful as hoped. From Gdańsk, I headed to Poznan, a good sized Polish city in the northwest. That train was OK, although crowded. But the next train on to Berlin was hot AND crowded on a day in the low 90s!

On top of that, our engine broke down about 45 minutes from Berlin. We were waylaid at a station for more than half an hour with no A/C while they changed out the engine. And no A/C the rest of our delayed trip! So we ended up almost an hour late, hot, sweaty, and grumpy! Fortunately, the other five people in my six person compartment were friendly and spoke better English than my two word of Polish and my smattering of German.

But all is not lost, my hostel is only a block away from the main train station where I arrived. And as I write this I’m sitting along the nearby Spree River at an outdoor cafe. It’s finally cooling off, there’s a mild breeze, music is playing, and I’m drinking a Berliner Pilsner and enjoying a light “pizza” – hard to beat!

Oh, and…my hostel doesn’t have A/C either. Rats!

Words of wisdom, or just to amuse…?

What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator.

After a short car hop across town, I boarded the airport bus for my 2+ hour ride to Washington Dulles to catch my 10 hour flight to Gdansk, Poland (via Copenhagen).

Thankfully, the first three legs were completed without problems and I arrived in Gdansk around 9:00 am Tuesday (3:00 am East Coast). The airport was amazing I fly easy to navigate, with enough English and colored lines on the floor to take you to train, bus, or car options. And the weather was spectacular! Warm, clear, and sunny!

Then with the help of a couple locals, I jumped on the train at the airport to head to the main train terminal in Gdansk. Once I got there I was directed onto another train – that took me right back to the airport! So I took another train back into the main terminal in town and boarded the right train OUT of town and on my way to Germany! Good thing I had plenty of time and a prepaid rail pass!

So eventually I got the right train for my 6+ hour ride to my first overnight stop – Berlin, Germany.

Words of wisdom, or just to amuse…?

Treat your Mom to a Margarita, since you’re probably the reason she drinks.

I’m heading out on another travel adventure! This time it will be for three weeks of sightseeing in north Eastern Europe and a bit of Scandinavia. I depart on September 2, 2024, for my first stop, Gdansk, Poland. Then on to Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, back to Poland, then north to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and finally, Finland. I have visited Germany and Austria in the past, but the other eight countries are all new stops for me. So I am very excited to get on the road, or actually on the plane, and then on a train – with my Eurail pass.

I appreciate you checking in on my blog, and hope you enjoy the photos and my descriptions of the sights along the way!

Words of wisdom, or just to amuse…?

The Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages because there were too many knights.