Monthly Archives: July 2013

Prague

I took a picture of the departing train schedule in Krakow. We had to figure out which train was ours and what track. We already figured it was not the arrival schedule.

We had a lower bunk on the train and both of us slept like babies. We arrived in Prague (Praha) about 8am. We went to an ATM to get Krona so we could buy subway tickets. We accomplished that and got to our hotel. They were kind enough to let us check in that early and let us eat breakfast there. The had mixed veggies -peas, corn and carrots on the breakfast buffet. We took our luggage to our room and headed for town. We did not know how far the Old City was so we walked-big mistake. It was at least 4-5 km and it was hot. It is supposed to be near 100 degrees tomorrow. At least our walk was all down hill. I have a pic from our hotel at night that us not very clear but should give the general idea of how large Prague is. Prague is also very beautiful-every building is pretty and of course there is a river running thru town. The whole town is just gorgeous. I took a lot of pics on the camera. We attended an organ concert at St Katherine’s church that was excellent. After the concert we walked around some more. There are pics of the Old Town and Astronomical Clock. We think we really have walked across Europe.

Then came time for the menu review and restaurant search. We of course wanted Czech food. My appetizer was “lard with lard cinders”. I had to see what it was and it was good. I had pork with potato and bread dumplings and white cabbage ( sauerkraut ). Marsha had potato pancakes, pickles and a salad with goat cheese. Of course it was way too much food. There are very few American tourists a here and all the Europeans eat all of the food on their plates. We don’t know how they do it. Again it is late and we definitely need our beauty sleep.

Krakow -Day 2 -Thursday 7-25-13

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast is included with the room price and it is a great deal. I had Polish sausage and pickles – hey we’re in POLAND. They both are great! We booked a tour to go to the salt mine in Wieliczka. The tour picked us up at the hotel and took us to the mine. The salt mine is huge. The tour lasted 3 hours and even though we descended initially on wooden steps a lot is the stair cases in the mine are made of salt. I took pictures with my camera, but am not sure of the quality because of the lighting. I urge you to go to the website: www.kopalnia.pl to see some of the rooms in the mines. I went to that address and finally just googled polish salt mine. The Wikipedia page opens with a picture of the large chapel made entirely of salt, even the chandeliers. I only have one pic so far.

We were dropped back at the hotel and are busy charging phones etc. in preparation for our overnight train trip tonight. We are also going to spend all of our Polish money since we will not be able to use it anywhere else. We don’t have much Polish money left, which is good. We decided to walk to the train station which is not that far. All was OK until we ran into construction so we crossed the street. Unfortunately the sidewalk was cobblestone – very picturesque but a nightmare when you are pulling a suitcase. Then the sidewalk ended at stairs (also dreaded). So we climbed
the stairs and to our joy it was the plaza with the train station. We checked our luggage in a locker (9 zlotsky – Polish money) and walked around looking for a place to get a decent meal for 73 zlotsky (approx 23 US dollars), we checked the menus at several restaurants and we finally decided on a Georgian one. No it was not collards and corn bread, but the Russian Georgia. We ordered – I remembered to take a pic of the bread and dipping sauces but forgot to take a pic of our meals until we had eaten most of them. See pics. I took a pic of the menu so you could get an idea of what we had. It was delicious! We had our dinners plus a pitcher of wine for 63 zlotsky. We left a 5 zlotsky tip which left us only 5 zlotsky. We headed to the grocery store to buy some iced teas and still have .02. Zlotsky left. This was worth less than one penny. We are now killing time until we board the overnight train to Prague.
I finally got WIFI at the train station so I can send this.

Krakow – Wednesday 7-24-13

We arrived in Krakow at 6:30am. We needed to find our hotel and get some Czech money. We went to the tourist info booth and they gave us bus directions, but we needed local money to get a ticket. We found an exchange place and got some money then we headed to the bus stop to buy a ticket from an automated ticket booth. A man from Canada helped us and with tickets in hand we boarded the bus. While on the bus a woman told us we were going in the wrong direction so we got off and crossed the street to get the bus in the other direction. In Krakow you need to run thru traffic to catch a bus which makes this really interesting. We decided we had initially been going in the right direction so back across the street we went and got back on a bus going in the original direction. Finally we found our hotel and since it was early asked them to keep our luggage until we could get into our room and we headed on foot to the old city of Krakow. Krakow is a very pretty city and we headed across town to see the castle – see pics of and from castle-

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We toured the castle – no pics allowed of course- and then we walked the entire old city. We stopped at a chocolate shop and decided to take a break – see pics – a delicious break it was. Then we continued walking some more – as I said Krakow is very pretty and has nice city parks. We decided to have dinner before we returned to the hotel. We just walk along and read menus until we find a place we like. We saw a restaurant down an alley and liked the menu so we stayed for dinner. No one spoke English or any other language except Polish (there are many German tourists here). It seemed very much for locals. Marsha had pierogis and I had potato pancakes with au shroom sauce. It is late again and we have to be up early.

Travel – 7-23 to 7-24-13

We boarded the train in Berlin to get to Prague. We decided to have dinner on the train – see pics of dining car. It was really nice and because we were going to Prague they served Czech food. Actually the dining car seemed like it was out of an old movie. Marsha had a salad and I had a steak in a cream sauce with bread dumplings.

We got to Prague and got on the sleeper train for Krakow. We had reservations in a couchette (6 bunks per compartment). Marsha and I had the upper bunks. See pics of us making our beds.

We actually had a good night’s sleep and arrived in Krakow at 6:30am.

Potsdam – Tuesday 7-23-13

Today we took a regional train to Potsdam to see the Sansoucci palace. We did not tour the inside because we would have been assigned a time that would have made us late for our train in Berlin. But we were able to tour the gardens. See pics. I should tell you we had planned to check our luggage in a locker at the Berlin station. We followed the arrows to the lockers but we were walking in circles around the train station. Every time we followed an arrow up the escalator when we got there the arrow pointed down. Very confusing. For a train station that was clearly marked, new and nice we just could not figure out why the arrows for the lockers were so confusing. When we finally found them, they were all full so we decided to take our bags to Potsdam and see if they had lockers. Fortunately they did. I took pics of the Berlin station so you can see how large it is. The pics were taken from the bottom floor and there are 5 floors.
We are now on a train from Berlin to Prague – where in Prague we will catch an overnight train to Krakow. We know it seems like we are backtracki
ng sometimes because we will stay in Prague later. The reason is we are trying to keep the amount of train changes per trip low. If we went the most “direct” way we may have to change trains 7 or 8 times. There is also a cost factor as our rail passes are not valid in Poland and we try to keep the trip on Polish soil short because of cost.