Sunny afternoon in Prague

 Arriving at Prague central station at about 11am, we grabbed our backpacks and tried to find our way to the tram stop... Google maps struggled to recognise that we were on a different level to the trams and buses. However, we eventually managed to get to a tram that would take us to our apartment.

Because the apartment owner was friendly, we were able to get in early and drop our bags, and we actually were able to stay in the apartment as we agreed to finish off the laundry from the previous guests - how nice are we? But we were able to crash for an hour or so, and eat some leftover train snacks before heading out to see what Prague had to offer.

The apartment was a traditional city centre space, first floor, overlooking the Vltava - an excellent place to start exploring from. Within 10 minutes we had reached the Charles Bridge, having already seen a statue of Bedrich Smetana (you know, the guy from the Music GCSE, who wrote Ma Vlast). Charles Bridge was really busy - many tourists, many trinket stalls and many people visiting shrines at statues. 

We made it safely to the other side of the Vltava, and decided to try a little local delicacy - Chimney Cake.

It's ice cream and fruit and sauce, but not in a waffle cone... oh no, this was in a cone made out of donut. Oh yes, said all the Buckleys. They were delicious! And exactly what we needed to fuel our walk up a really steep hill past the large and well-protected embassies and on up to the Petrin Gardens, and the Maze Museum.

Tried to take the Funicular down the hill, but it was closed for refurbishment. So we walked down again, and found ourselves a restaurant selling possibly the world's largest single-serving pizzas.

Thank goodness for take-away boxes!

Full of beer (or lemonade) and pizza we made it back to our apartment and fell into bed.

 

The Buckleys are off again!

 After a whole lot less planning than our previous adventure (but it still took a decent amount, let's be honest!), the three intrepid Buckleys packed their small backpacks and headed for Birmingham Airport. Not because we were flying anywhere exciting, oh no... we were letting the trains take the strain!

Train 1 (not sure if this counts as a train) - the monorail linking Birmingham Airport with Birmingham International Station. 2 minutes.

Train 2. Definitely a train... Birmingham International to Euston. 70 minutes.

Then a short walk to St Pancras, including a very shiny car

Lunch at St Pancras, and then Train 3, an exciting under-the-sea kind of train, St Pancras to Brussels. 2 hours 5 minutes.

Time for a light tea in Brussels and then Train 4, Brussels to Prague. 15 hours 30 mins.

We had 3 couchettes in a compartment with 2 others. It was not massively spacious - there wasn't much space between the berths at all, and when the berths were down there was no room to sit up on them... lie down please!

And as it was dark for the vast majority of the journey it was also slightly less exciting... Note to self: next time you plan an adventure, think about it first!

However, there was something a little magical and certainly very different about sleeping/dozing on a bed on a train, feeling the motion of the train through your whole body. And also peering out of the curtains to see sleepy towns and cities go by.

The route was Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague (with a few other smaller town stops in between).

The last couple of hours of the journey were probably the most interesting, for me at least, as we were following the Elbe river through former East Germany and into the Czech Republic. And then the final sweep into the city of Prague, again mostly following the river (now the Vltava, which feeds into the Elbe, as I'm sure you knew!).

We arrived in Prague, not very refreshed but certainly ready to stretch our legs!