Riding the rails, redux

Our train pulled out of Vienna only half full. Of the six seats in our compartment, only three were occupied. At Breclav, on the Czech border a few more people boarded. A half hour later at Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the place packed full with people, even standing and sitting in the aisles,. I felt guily that I had a comfy seat while others suffered; not guily enough to surrender my place, but guily enough to avoid eye contact.

Brno looked lika a city worth exploring. Keeping in mind that trains rarely traverse the ritzy sides of town, many of the building I saw could have used a coat of paint and a new window pane or two, but there were hints of an impressive city. A stones throw from the hlavni (train station), high atop a hill was the Brno hrad (castle) with an amazing cathedral. And if you looked carefully, you could spy stately old buildings in fine repair. Sure, there were some of those concrete monstrocities of the communist era mixed in, but frankly the architecture of the 50s, 60s and 70s was unkind worldwide. Brno did not escape the travesty.

We headed north out of Brno through a myriad of villages and towns, both picturesque and not-so-picturesque. (Okay, a couple were butt-ugly.) Some clung to hillsides and others filled valleys. Some had their own hrads on precipices to protect them from the pillaging marauders, others had quaint churches and there were the smokestacks attached to industry. Some towns appeared stagnant and decaying while others were bustling with new construction.

Give me a bicycle, a month and a fistful of Czech Koruna and I will give you a more detailed report!

Our last full day in Vienna

Sadly, our time in Austria is coming to a close. Vienna is pretty special. We've had amazing food, met friendly people and had more fun than I thought possible.

I loved our side trips to Bratislava and Sopron. Richard gives Sopron a thumbs up, but said that Bratislava made us even for the play in Salzburg. (Sorry, not even close!)

We've cruised the Danube, taken every subway line in Vienna (the U Bahn, or U Tube as I call them, much to Richard's dismay), done more museums than I can count and made major memories!

Tomorrow we head back to Prague and leave on Tuesday for home. I do miss the kids, so there is a minor victory there.

Sopron, Hungary

Today we had an amazing traditional Hungarian lunch at Papa Joe's Saloon and Steakhouse in beautiful downtown Sopron. I cant make stuff like this up.

Sopron was wonderful. Even Richard liked it.

More later!

Greetings from Vienna

This place is amazing, but internet cafes are few and far between... this is the first one I have seen since Salzburg.

We are well and I will catch you all up later!

Riding the rails with the Goths, Visigoths and other marauding hordes from the north.

Our train out of Prague was very young. I don't mean the train itself; it had all the earmarks of a Soviet era classic. No, I'm in reference to the passengers. For all intents and purposes, we rode the rails with a trainful of drunken Czech frat boys. It was great fun. Richard and I blended right in.

From Prague to Ceske Budejovice, we were on a quasi-express train, stopping at only the largest of burghs. Tabor was particularly popular with our travel mates. They all chanted "Tabor, Tabor, Tabor" at full volume the entire time we were stopped. When the train pulled out of the station, they discontinued the chant, much to Richard and my (and the entire town of Tabor's) delight.

At Ceske, we all popped off the sorta-express and transfered to a local. We stopped at more flipping villages than you can shake a stick at. I don't mean to disparage the quaint settlements such as Vyhen, Kaplice or Umlenice (Czech town names look very differnt with their accents and squigglies), but at each stop the fratboy frenzy grew sharper. As we pulled into Rybnik, I was nearing desperation, searching my pack for something that could end my pain and suffering.

Then a miracle happened: two carloads of hyperactive young men disembarked. The rest of the train ride to Salzburg was wonderfully uneventful. One might even say eerily quiet.

But if you hear of a quaint village in  Southern Bohemia that was devestated by a plague of inebriated youth, you now know more of the story.

Salzburg

We have arrived safely in Salzburg. The Germanic keyboards are much, much kinder, and our hotel has a computer for guest use... but only until 7PM, and it is 6:55PM in Austria, so I will tell more later.

Greetings from Praha

The town is wonderful, but the keyboards are crazy. Czech has 42 letters, so typing is, at best, an exercize in frustration. Y and z share the same key. I have no idea how I did it, but I did get them both to type at one time, so now I cut and paste. Oh, and the exclamation point and the apostrophy do not work as I expect them to. But I know how to avoid those little pests. With that said, I am hoping the German keyboards are much kinder. 

Our hotel has no guest computer, and internet cafe are few and far between. I am sitting in the attic at a train station right now. It is hot and I am sweating, so do not expect great whit or earthshaking commentary. But do expect some errors.


Traffic in Prague is pretty amazing. The Czech seem to be opposed to stop signs or traffic lights or anything else that makes crossing the street safe for toddling old men. We just toddle as quickly as we can.   We visited Terezin or Theresienstadt today. I would use parantheses, but they do not work, either. Terezin was a Nazi concentration camp, but not an extermination camp. It was a transport camp. It was very moving.   I will tell you more when I sweat less and can keep the letters straight.