Travel in the Eastern Block

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We arrived in Berlin today about 12:30pm today by plane. Believe it or not, we didn’t get charged excess weight fees! But more on that later.

We left off on our last day in Prague. It was a pretty good day. The weather remained dry and we did two tours. The “underground” tour and the Communist tour. The underground tour was first and covered the same ground as our ghost tour. While the guide was basically reciting a script, we did see everything with the lights on and actually covered all of the open underground chambers. It was quite interesting in the light! We even managed to be in the Old Town Square on the hour and watched/heard the clock chime the hour. It was very good ending with a live musician trumpeting to us.

We had 2 hours between tours and needed to make decisions! We headed for an open air market and did our souvenier shopping. Then back to the Tour Office for the last foray!

This guide was very good. His English was decent and he was passionate about the subject. We walked about 3 km as well as taking a tram ride to the largest underground bunker in Prague. At the end of the day, Maryanne and I both concluded that we had one unnecessary day in Prague. However, we didn’t waste the day and learned more in the process. The tour ended at 5 pm back at the starting point. We quickly made our last Prague purchases and headed to the hotel where we picked up our luggage and took a taxi to the train station. We keep back enough to pay the taxi and buy a latte. Maryanne went to the grocery store at the train station to buy water for the trip and had to use her credit card.

The packing plan was to pack all the “take homes” in the silver suitcase (mine) and the needed stuff in Maryanne’s suitcase with the overnight stuff in my carry-on. The weight in the big suitcases was NOT evenly distributed. In addition, we were lugging a 1.5 L bottle of Sangria which we hadn’t tried yet, a litre of orange juice and a bottle of cherry wine in the carry-on. Maryanne was carrying a second carry-on with our purchases for the day plus the grocery order!

It was tough just rolling the (damn) bags but the thought of putting on the train made me quake with fear. The platform is announced about 15 minutes before take-off and we were the last car. We go like crazy down the underground passage to the track then (thankfully) an escalator took us up. Then we run down the track until we hit the last car. Maryanne checks the tickets (it has the coach number on it) and we discover the last car isn’t our number! We start making our way forward - there are three sleeping cars in the train. At the front of the line of sleeping coaches is our number. We show the porter our ticket and HE lifts the bags into the car. I was a very, very, very happy camper (OK, train traveller!). We pull the bags down the length of our car to our “cabin”. It is definitely for two people. The top bunk is very high and there is a possible 3rd bunk between us. The room is old, shabby but clean. In the little “medicine cabinet” over the wash basin is two bottles of water and 3 containers of water - all drinkable. There is a lid over the wash basin so it does double duty as a counter top.

When the train starts moving - we are the last car!! The other cars were removed. Lucky we didn’t attempt to get on them!!!

The room was tight but we had no trouble fitting our luggage and ourselves in. The porter brought us complimentary bottles of water, so we were blessed with PLENTY!Maryanne and I played cards, Rummy - best out of 3 games, then to bed. I asked the porter to lower Maryanne’s bunk which he did. We each had reading lights which was nice. The only complaint was the heat. With the window open, the noise was loud especially when passing another train. We started with the window closed and I slept on top of the covers. In the middle of the night, I woke up and we were stopped. This was a long stop because a connecting train was late. I opened the window and cooled the cabin. There was an announcement that because the train was so late, they were connecting a faster engine was interesting. What I didn’t know until morning was that the “late train” had cars that were connected to our train and the fast engine was connected to our train also. We actually arrive 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

At 6:30am, a cup of coffee and a cup of tea arrived, along with croissants (filled with chocolate). The drinks were very good and I enjoyed the croissant. Given that Maryanne dislikes chocolate, she didn’t try it. Within 15 minutes of breakfast arriving we got the announcement that we were arriving in Krakow in 5 minutes. Maryanne and I quickly dressed, packed and got ready to leave. Thankfully, our friendly porter transported our bags from the car to the platform!

We arrived in Krakow Poland. Another east European city. Perhaps a little less progressive than Prague. At least, at the train station. Stay tuned for the next installment!

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Photos

Underground
Mom in the living quarters.

Well
Mom looking in one of the many wells that were vital to the Prague people.

"In Case of Nuclear Attack...
Please don your gas mask and proceed to the nearest nuclear shelter"

Over Night Train
The train that we took from Prague to Krakow. At least the car that wasn't taken away or added on during the night.

Train
It is hard to see but there was not much space, luckily their was a lid that could be put over the sink to make it a table.