Belated TR: Middle East and Central Europe Dec 22-Jan23

[SuePa]

That pastry scroll looks so good!!

 

[Seat0B]

Berlin Friday 9 December 2022

Woke early today - must be catching up on my sleep, and spent some time planning our attack on Berlin. we have decided to go with a themed approach for this trip (our second together, and my 4th time), and will concentrate on WW2 history and DDR history.



Our main activity today was the Berlin Story Hitler Bunker: How Could This Happen exhibition. Entry with Welcome Card discount was €9 and totally worth the fee. This is an extensive, thoughtful, thorough, well-researched, interesting documentation of Hitler's life and all the experiences and social circumstances that resulted in his rise to power and his actions in WW2 and the Holocaust. It was very challenging and thought-provoking, as well as being very sobering and moving. Some of the things that really struck me

• the deliberate planning of German expansion in the period leading up to WW2 to fill resource and agricultural needs and not just for the Lebensraum that we have heard about
• the festering legacy of the Peace of Versailles after WW1, particularly in terms of borders that no longer represented ethnic, religious and cultural groupings and the loss of national pride that lead to ultra nationalism
• the Allies assuredly knew about the concentration camps by around 1943 but took no actions

We ended up spending over 5 hours there. At the end of the visit, I found my mood lifted by the "first ever in the world" display of memes of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were incredibly witty and very harsh against the Russians. we were in need of sustenance after this rather harrowing morning, so Mr Seat 0A googled up an excellent little coffee place just a few metres from our hotel, so we had a flat white made by an Australian barista (yes really!) and a snack.

Our evening activity was a visit to the Potsdamer Platz Weihnachtsmarkt which was great. Bratwurst mit Senf and Apfelglühwein in cute mini steins that found their way home with us for souvenirs. We enjoyed watching all the families out and about having fun together.




Edit: Typos

 

[Seat0B]

That pastry scroll looks so good!!

It sure was! Crunchy, flaky delicious pastry with sweetened cinnamon apple inside. Divine.

 

[Seat0B]

Berlin Saturday 10 December 2022

Busy day today - shopped on the way for lunch supplies so we can keep on the move. An army marches on its stomach!

We walked to the Deutsches Technik Museum this morning. It was about 1 km through what is effectively now wasteland that has been allowed to re-wild covering the ruins of the old Anhalter train station, which we know know was central in the mass deportation of Jews to concentration camps, particularly to Treblinka, during WW2. The remains of the old platforms were still clearly visible, and again it was a very sobering reminder of this period of history.

Arrived in perfect time for museum opening at 10 am and entry was €6 with welcome Card discount . It's a very impressive museum but due to time constraints of our booked tour of the former Stasi prison of Hohenshönhausen later today we could only allocate 3 hours to this activity. We saw a lot of historical transport exhibits, including trains, ships and specially interesting for Mr Seat 0A, many aircraft, including a lot of famous WW2 aircraft such as Junkers, Heinkels and Messerschmidts plus a V1. I ws a bit slack taking photos today.



It was snowing lightly as we ate our lunch on the walk back to a convoluted set of public transport arrangements to get to Hohenshönhausen. This was a former secret Stasi prison (featured in the Netflix show Kleo) operated to contain political prisoners from 1946 (under the Russians) and from the early 1950s until 1989 under the East German regime. We had prebooked the English speaking tour for €6 each. The tour started with an orientation movie that really helped to get an overview of the purpose of the prison and life under the Stasi. Our guide was a former Ossi who was 30 when the wall fell, and very passionate about the privilege of living under democracy and rule of law. Again, this was a most sobering visit, and much of the place looked like the East Germans just literally got up and walked out, leaving everything behind when the wall fell. The treatment of prisoners here was unspeakably cruel, and included medical experiments as well as psychological torture. It was by now a very cold and damp day, and when we finished the tour at 4.30pm it was already pitch dark. I was glad to get into the light and have a snack and warm up. I did not take any photos at this stop. Photos were permitted, but it is labelled as a "Gedenkstätte" (memorial place) and I didn't feel right taking photos. It was the same way I felt in the Berlin Story Hitler Bunker too.

Edited to add today's step count: 14,546

 

[Seat0B]

Berlin Sunday 11 December 2022

No milk for my morning cuppa today, so I said "no worries, I'll just pop down to the Lidl and get some" .
Lidl doesn't open on Sunday, nor does Aldi, and despite trying many different places all day, spoiler alert, we did not get milk! And not just grocery shops were shut - Mall of Berlin - shut. Many shops at Berlin Hbf - shut. Wow, who knew shops closing on a Sunday was still a thing. Another one for the travel mistakes thread!

So while we were at the Hbf, we decided to do trip admin and make some forward seat reservations for the rest of our trip. Foreshadowing here - it did not save us future trouble with the Eurail - more on that later. Were served by a very efficient clerk who spoke outstanding English at the DB Reisezentrum. Got chatting and it turned out his son had studied at the ANU in Canberra and he had been to Cooma. We reminisced with him as he processed a lot of seat reservations for our planned Eurail trips. Bought another 48 hr Welcome card from a much frendlier and more helpful clerk at the Tourist Info. I really like the architecture of the Berlin Hbf.



Walked over to the Reichstag building hoping to ascend der Kuppel which I had done on a previous trip, but learned that you have to register on line and receive an invitation to take this tour now. So we registered for tomorrow night, which was the earliest slot available. wlaked under the Brandenburger Tor and along Unter den Linden towards the target for this afternoon - the newly opened Cold War Museum. Feeling the cold again (I must have acclimatised to the UAE idea of winter ), so diverted to the Green Rabbit restaurant where we enjoyed a great chili con carne roast potato each, a salad and 2 coffees for the very reasonable price of €25.



The Cold War Museum was incredibly disappointing. We went with great expectations prompted by its marketing "see if from both sides USA/USSR" but this museum was more style than substance. It had lots of screens with photos and videos of cold war memorabilia, but very few real objects to view. On the real objects, you had to scan a QR code on your phone, select English and then find that all it said was "spy camera, Russian version, 1953" - no details of the use of the item or its provenance. Many screens were out of order, and quite a few things not captioned in English. It was expensive too at €16, and the advertised Welcome Card discount was not honoured. They said that didn't start until next month. We left feeling that this was a great opportunity lost, and I wouldn't recommend going to this museum. Looks like others agree.

COLD WAR MUSEUM

Finally, experience this important historical era in the heart of the Cold War capital in a forward-looking way as a high-tech museum 4.0.

coldwarmuseum.de

Edit to add today's step count 14,691

 

[Seat0B]

Ok that's me done for today. I am actually really enjoying re-living this trip and it's boosting my morale to post. Thanks for following along.

 

[OZDUCK]

I am really enjoying your trip report. We will be in Germany in 6 weeks time so it is interesting to see what it was like in December. We will be travelling 2nd Class on a few ICE trains and I haven't currently bothered with seat reservations as in August last year we had reservations and they were not really necessary. I will have to talk to our German friends and see what the situation is on the routes we will be travelling - none of our trips are much over 2 hours.

With regard to the shops not opening In Berlin on a Sunday, it always amuses me when locals here in Perth complain about restricted shopping hours on a Sunday and how this "doesn't happen overseas". I often feel like telling them to visit Germany and France on a Sunday and see what happens there.

 

[ellen10]

Thoroughly enjoying your trip report!
I'm glad it is boosting your morale to post this great trip report. Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[Seat0B]

Berlin Monday 12 December 2022

A nice leisurely start to the day and a spot of shopping for some clothes and snack foods.

Our next stop for the day was the DDR Museum which was good, although several of the exhibits getting a little tired and over-loved. We passed a good few hours enjoying the ability to be hands on with the exhibits and considering the changes that would have amounted to total culture shock that people must have experienced when the Wall fell in 1989. We unfortunately shared our visit with a school group of Italian teenagers who were very loud, unruly and quite obnoxious.

Took the U Bahn a couple of stops to visit the Alexander Platz Weihnachstmarkt for a late lunch/early dinner of Krakauer mit Senf for €5 (yet another of the many varieties of sausages in bread rolls) and more Glühwein €5 + €3 for the glass - makes a cheap and lovely souvenir. Similar mini-steins that joined our collection of Christmas market mugs. Delicious as always. The atmosphere at Alexander Platz was much more adult being focused more on eating and drinking, with some more "premium" food offerings, than the vibe at Postdamer Platz which felt very fun and family friendly. Still, I did my best to get into it



A couple more stops on the U Bahn and we were back to the Brandenburger Tor, which looked very beautiful at night. It was really cold though, so we decidec to try our luck for early admission for our reservation at Der Kuppel. It worked and we were admitted before 7pm for a 7.30 reservation!



Der Kuppel is a spectacular piece of architecture, inside and out, and feels quite futuristic. We enjoyed a review of German Parliamentary history from unification in 1971 through WW1, Versailles, Weimar, naz_s, WW2 and re-unification in 1990. Genuinely interesting. And the night time city veiws from the top were gorgeous.



Home for a pack up in preparation for our trip to Prague tomorrow.

Today's step count: 15178

 

[Seat0B]

Berlin-Prague Tuesday 13 December 2022

Today we needed to be at Berlin Südkreuz to ctach ICE 379 to Prague departing at 1123. This time, we had seat reservations, so expected everything to run smoothly. Off to a good start, arriving early at Südkreuz with enough time to have a coffee and stock up on lunch snacks for the 4 hour long train trip, expecting to arrive in Prage at 1535. Up to the platform still with 30 minutes to spare - to walk straight into DB/Eurail cough Show part 2 being confronted with the dreaded sign "Zug fällt aus" = "Train cancelled". So off I went to Reisezentrum to see what could be arranged.

The best they could manage was a train to Dresden and then another train to Prague with revised travel times 1245-1735. And of course, all our seat reservations fell over. I was served by the original "Mr Happy" and was unable to get new seat reservations on the 2 hr Berlin to Dresden leg as it was "too close to departure time". For those following along, our previous trip from Munich to Berlin had involves some guy apparently getting a "last minute reservation" for one of the unreserved seats we were sitting in, so one of them was telling porky pies. We did manage to get new seat reservations for the Dresden to Prague leg, but there was no refund for the inability to get reservations to Dresden. Best I could do, so let it go.

Back up to the platform, which grew ever more crowded as we froze ourselves in the -2 degree temperatures. We were reluctant to go indoors as we now knew from bitter experience that getting a seat without a reservation might be a challenge and wanted to be first to board if we could. Next announcement was more bad news - the ICE after ours to Prague was also cancelled, so even more people were displaced to the Dresden train. When this arrived, it was already packed and we were squeezed in like sardines. Mr Seat 0A took one for the team and stayed downstairs with our bags and had to stand the entire way to Dresden (2 hrs) in the corridor of the 2nd class carriage. Further, wehn the conductor came to check his ticket, there was no internet (and we had local SIM cards) and he could not get his (compulsory) electronic Eurail pass to load. Conductor not sympathetic and read him the riot act about it being his problem to produce a ticket on demand. Pretty piss poor when you've paid for a reserved 1st class seat. I made it up to the 1st class seats, but there were none to spare, so I also stood for 30 mins before a couple of nice people in their 40s squished up a bit and made a perching place for me to precariously sit. They picked up that I wasn't German but that I could speak a bit and so we got chatting about allthe various DB horror stories and they said "Wilkommen in Deustchland" and offered me a beer! Things got a bit loose after that!

Anyway, we made it to Dresden and expressed our delight that at least we had reserved seats for the last leg of the journey. When the train arrived, we made our way to the correct car, correct seats - only to find 2 Americans sitting there, claiming that they had these seats and flashing an app around that I couldn't read without my glasses. They were 100% in our seats as per the DB reservations. Anyway, we gave up and took 2 other empty seats and vowed that we were NOT MOVING from these, no matter what happened. First class travel on DB with Eurail is absolutely NOT what it used to be, that's for sure.

Ate a very late lunch on the train and got some coffee and pastry to go with it. Felt a bit better with some food on board. Trip otherwise uneventful and we enjoyed beautiful scenry with snow on the ground from shortly outside Berlin all the way to Prague. When the train arrived in Prague, the loudspeakers patriotically played the haunting Ma Vlast by Smetana, which was very moving and set a good atmosphere.

Caught our first ever Bolt to our hotel in heavy traffic for CZK 155 = $10.03! Had a luxury splurge at the Hotel Century Old Town M Gallery for two nights for CZK 7528 = about $420. Very well located 10-15 mins walk from the main square. Felt shattered after our day of travel woes, so just enjoyed our Accor Plus/ALL welcome drinks and a couple of bar snacks and called it a day.

 

[Seat0B]

Prague Wednesday 14 December 2022

It's been snowing lightly overnight, and the footpaths are slippery, very slippery, so we carefully picked our way around the old town looking at the sights - the old shot tower, the astronomical clock, the gothic cathedral, the Christmas Market in the main square, the Charles Bridge and the Castle (hrad), stopping for coffee when we were cold (it was -4 degrees) and a lot of photos. Coffee was expensive - $8-9 per cup for Australian style. It was so crowded everywhere we went, and I don't think there could have been a single Italian left in Italy as everywhere we went we were surrounded by very loud groups of Italian tourists - we saw why the school excursion we met in Berlin acted as they did because so did all the family groups and tour groups of adults and even senior citizens - blocking the streets, yelling at each other, pushing and jostling. Wow! I was surprised.



Just before the Charles Bridge, we noticed a poster advertising a Christmas concert in the main Catholic Cathedral, with a program that looked tempting and very accessible, so we made the spur of the moment decision to go - 2 tickets for $80 total for tonight. I'm looking forward to that as this is something we try to do when travelling if the opportunity arises.


We've been following the Honest Guide on YouTube for planning for Czechia - he really wants people to have a good time in his country and not get ripped off - so we decisde to try one of his "not a tourist trap" restaurant recommendations for a very late lunch/early dinner at around 4pm. It was Kantyna, built in the vault of an old bank. It offers a limited menu of daily specials appealing to the Czech palate (lots of pork, potatoes, cabbage etc) and you pay by the weight of your food at CZK 115 (about $7) per 100g for mains and CZK 65 (about $3-$4) for sides. When we arrived we were tired, cold, footsore and over it all - but we cured our ills with pork, carbs and alcohol! I ahd small serve pulled pork, steamed veg, two slices of thick, robust delicious bread (free) and nice local red wine. Mr Seat 0A had medium pulled pork, potato pan cake, wodge of bread and local beer (and a swig of my wine). Total cost was less than $40. We were very happy little campers after that! The other menu options were Meat loaf, mashed potatoes and dumplings (which looked very doughy to me). Great place and I would defintiely go there again.


Walked back to the hotel for a rest and some warmer clothes before our concert tonight.

 

[marki]

Berlin-Prague Tuesday 13 December 2022

Today we needed to be at Berlin Südkreuz to ctach ICE 379 to Prague departing at 1123. This time, we had seat reservations, so expected everything to run smoothly. Off to a good start, arriving early at Südkreuz with enough time to have a coffee and stock up on lunch snacks for the 4 hour long train trip, expecting to arrive in Prage at 1535. Up to the platform still with 30 minutes to spare - to walk straight into DB/Eurail cough Show part 2 being confronted with the dreaded sign "Zug fällt aus" = "Train cancelled". So off I went to Reisezentrum to see what could be arranged.

The best they could manage was a train to Dresden and then another train to Prague with revised travel times 1245-1735. And of course, all our seat reservations fell over. I was served by the original "Mr Happy" and was unable to get new seat reservations on the 2 hr Berlin to Dresden leg as it was "too close to departure time". For those following along, our previous trip from Munich to Berlin had involves some guy apparently getting a "last minute reservation" for one of the unreserved seats we were sitting in, so one of them was telling porky pies. We did manage to get new seat reservations for the Dresden to Prague leg, but there was no refund for the inability to get reservations to Dresden. Best I could do, so let it go.

Back up to the platform, which grew ever more crowded as we froze ourselves in the -2 degree temperatures. We were reluctant to go indoors as we now knew from bitter experience that getting a seat without a reservation might be a challenge and wanted to be first to board if we could. Next announcement was more bad news - the ICE after ours to Prague was also cancelled, so even more people were displaced to the Dresden train. When this arrived, it was already packed and we were squeezed in like sardines. Mr Seat 0A took one for the team and stayed downstairs with our bags and had to stand the entire way to Dresden (2 hrs) in the corridor of the 2nd class carriage. Further, wehn the conductor came to check his ticket, there was no internet (and we had local SIM cards) and he could not get his (compulsory) electronic Eurail pass to load. Conductor not sympathetic and read him the riot act about it being his problem to produce a ticket on demand. Pretty piss poor when you've paid for a reserved 1st class seat. I made it up to the 1st class seats, but there were none to spare, so I also stood for 30 mins before a couple of nice people in their 40s squished up a bit and made a perching place for me to precariously sit. They picked up that I wasn't German but that I could speak a bit and so we got chatting about allthe various DB horror stories and they said "Wilkommen in Deustchland" and offered me a beer! Things got a bit loose after that!

Anyway, we made it to Dresden and expressed our delight that at least we had reserved seats for the last leg of the journey. When the train arrived, we made our way to the correct car, correct seats - only to find 2 Americans sitting there, claiming that they had these seats and flashing an app around that I couldn't read without my glasses. They were 100% in our seats as per the DB reservations. Anyway, we gave up and took 2 other empty seats and vowed that we were NOT MOVING from these, no matter what happened. First class travel on DB with Eurail is absolutely NOT what it used to be, that's for sure.

Ate a very late lunch on the train and got some coffee and pastry to go with it. Felt a bit better with some food on board. Trip otherwise uneventful and we enjoyed beautiful scenry with snow on the ground from shortly outside Berlin all the way to Prague. When the train arrived in Prague, the loudspeakers patriotically played the haunting Ma Vlast by Smetana, which was very moving and set a good atmosphere.
View attachment 349053
Caught our first ever Bolt to our hotel in heavy traffic for CZK 155 = $10.03! Had a luxury splurge at the Hotel Century Old Town M Gallery for two nights for CZK 7528 = about $420. Very well located 10-15 mins walk from the main square. Felt shattered after our day of travel woes, so just enjoyed our Accor Plus/ALL welcome drinks and a couple of bar snacks and called it a day.

Conductor not sympathetic and read him the riot act about it being his problem to produce a ticket on demand

I have been through this dilemma many times and to be fair it is not only a German thing. Poland knows how to party as well. I did get reimbursed finally after some email exchanges and AMEX credited it back.

 

[Seat0B]

Prague Wednesday 14 December 2022 Part 2 - Christmas Concert and Christmas Market

Boy was that concert worth it. A soprano "famous in Czechia" sang Ave Maria. A string ensemble from the Royal Czech Orchestra played uplifting light classics including Vivaldi's Four Seasons, the Pachelbel Canon and of course Ma Vlast. For drama, there was Beethoven's 5th and on the magnificent churt organ the Bach Toaccta and Fuge in D Minor. Professionally played music in a beautiful and evocative setting. I felt very nostalgic for my dear old Dad, who died in 2018, who had introduced me to these pieces and would have absolutely loved everything about this concert experience. The arrow points to the soprano, just to give a sense of the scale of the place.



Walked home via the Christmas Market, which looked spectacular with the lights and gentle snow falling. Didn't buy anything as honestly still too full from Kantyna lunch, and the prices were high by Czech n standards - hot wine was CZK 90, Wurst CZK 100, which is similar to what we paid in Germany, and everything else here in Czechia is much cheaper than in Germany eg a litre of milk was $1.50, a litre of fresh apple juice $2, 500g vanilla yoghurt $2 and a plain bread roll about $0.25.



Today's step count 23,571.

 

[OZDUCK]

We watched an episode of The Honest Guide about an hour ago Though this time he was spruiking up Brno as a destination.

Unfortunately I am not too surprised by your problems with DB. We never suffered anywhere near as badly as you but never had a long distance train run on time. We meet several couples who had similar experiences to you.

Hopefully you had a good time in Prague despite the tourists. I would love to return there.

 

[Seat0B]

Prague to Bratislava - Thursday 15 December 2022

Took another Bolt to the station for our train departure to Bratislava. A sleek black Audi A6 for the grand sum of $6.45!

Turns out that the trains don't get assigned to a platform until the last minute, so there was a big crowd hanging round the departure board waiting for the big reveal, followed by an unholy crush as everyone pushed and jostled to get to the right place to board. yes, this train was also delayed by 15 minutes, but, miracle of miracles, out seat reservations worked as they were supposed to and we had 2 lovely window seats with a table in between. Hooray! Older rolling stock and a bit tired and dirty but it was so nice not to have to worry about seats on this trip. We just chilled for this trip and alternated looking out the window with chatting and doing a few emails.

Boy was this train overheated though! I stripped off hat, gloves, scarf and coat as soon as possible after boarding. Then my cardigan. Next was a pool deck style change out of my long john top. Put my hair up into a bun. Next layer was shoes and socks off (but I did not put them on the bulkhead or seats ) and finally driven by the heat to remove my long john pants in the loo - ewwwwww! And yes I put my shoes back on to do that, and I was still lathered. Could not get out of that train fast enough!



Caught another Bolt. This was a Skoda something and a bit small and battered for $13.00 which saved a long walk or battle with public transport as we were staying at the Ibis Centrum Bratislava which was close to the town centre, but not close to the railway station. We had moderated our expectations after really enjoying the splurge at MGallery in Prague, but the Ibis was actually very fine. We paid €65 per night for three nights, which included breakfast, free tea and coffee on tap from the bar, and a great selection of Accor ALL welcome gifts of chocolates and mini bottles of local alcohols/liqueurs. The room itself was huge, if basic, and we had a full sized deep bath.

Tired tonight (I now recognise this as part of my at the time undiagnosed leukaemia), so could not be bothered to go out to eat. Just ate lunch leftovers and a couple of drinks and planned our first day in Bratislava tomorrow. We have booked a small group tour with a company called Authentic Slovakia - "the Post-Communist Tour" which will have the 2 of us and 2 other people on it. Hoping that will give some insights into the history of this interesting part of the world.

 

[Seat0B]

We watched an episode of The Honest Guide about an hour ago Though this time he was spruiking up Brno as a destination.

Unfortunately I am not too surprised by your problems with DB. We never suffered anywhere near as badly as you but never had a long distance train run on time. We meet several couples who had similar experiences to you.

Hopefully you had a good time in Prague despite the tourists. I would love to return there.

We were honestly shocked at the poor state of DB. We were last in Europe in 2017 and the standards then on DB were those we expected from earlier trips from the early 1980s to 2013 - trains were clean, staff were helpful, trains were extremely punctual, 1st class was nice, seats were plentiful, you could literally just hop on and hop off with a Eurail - no need to pfaff about linking particular trains or making seat reservations, and certainly no issues with an old fashioned paper pass not working. I was very dissatisfied withe this experience, and probably won't buy a Eurail again based on our results with it. For what it is worth, the Austrian trains (ÖBB) ran rings around DB in our opinion.

 

[marki]

Prague to Bratislava - Thursday 15 December 2022

Took another Bolt to the station for our train departure to Bratislava. A sleek black Audi A6 for the grand sum of $6.45!

Turns out that the trains don't get assigned to a platform until the last minute, so there was a big crowd hanging round the departure board waiting for the big reveal, followed by an unholy crush as everyone pushed and jostled to get to the right place to board. yes, this train was also delayed by 15 minutes, but, miracle of miracles, out seat reservations worked as they were supposed to and we had 2 lovely window seats with a table in between. Hooray! Older rolling stock and a bit tired and dirty but it was so nice not to have to worry about seats on this trip. We just chilled for this trip and alternated looking out the window with chatting and doing a few emails.

Boy was this train overheated though! I stripped off hat, gloves, scarf and coat as soon as possible after boarding. Then my cardigan. Next was a pool deck style change out of my long john top. Put my hair up into a bun. Next layer was shoes and socks off (but I did not put them on the bulkhead or seats ) and finally driven by the heat to remove my long john pants in the loo - ewwwwww! And yes I put my shoes back on to do that, and I was still lathered. Could not get out of that train fast enough!

View attachment 349069

Caught another Bolt. This was a Skoda something and a bit small and battered for $13.00 which saved a long walk or battle with public transport as we were staying at the Ibis Centrum Bratislava which was close to the town centre, but not close to the railway station. We had moderated our expectations after really enjoying the splurge at MGallery in Prague, but the Ibis was actually very fine. We paid €65 per night for three nights, which included breakfast, free tea and coffee on tap from the bar, and a great selection of Accor ALL welcome gifts of chocolates and mini bottles of local alcohols/liqueurs. The room itself was huge, if basic, and we had a full sized deep bath.

Tired tonight (I now recognise this as part of my at the time undiagnosed leukaemia), so could not be bothered to go out to eat. Just ate lunch leftovers and a couple of drinks and planned our first day in Bratislava tomorrow. We have booked a small group tour with a company called Authentic Slovakia - "the Post-Communist Tour" which will have the 2 of us and 2 other people on it. Hoping that will give some insights into the history of this interesting part of the world.

I understand the overheated carriages like a furnace. BBQ anyone?

 

[Seat0B]

And that's me done posting for today. Will post more tomorrow about our lovely time in Bratislava.

 

[Seat0B]

Oh I just found a couple of photos from the Prague to Bratislava leg so will add these now. First one is of the crush waiting for train platform to be announced.




The other two are of the pretty scenery on the way.

 

[RooFlyer]

I've studied catching long distance trains in central Europe many times, but never could convince myself. If there was ever a window, Looks like I've missed it!