Prague to Krakow - by overnight sleeper train

We reached the station well before time. The hotel had called for a taxi. Just a little distance away, outside the pedestrian area. This leg of our journey had been the most difficult to organize and the most costly as well. We had decided to visit Krakow in Poland, instead of Warsaw, because Krakow is the historical centre and it is near the border. Kraków remained relatively undamaged at the end of World War II, sparing most of the city's historical and architectural legacy.

The train tickets for this journey, could not be bought from Internet, the official rail sites were showing the train schedules but not selling the tickets. After trying several times Shaleen was able to get reservations through the Internet for sleeper berths from the official railway site of the Czech republic, but we could not purchase the tickets. So we had to buy them on reaching the station. While Shaleen was buying them, we were waiting and doing people watching. I discovered that almost every 4th person was accompanied by a dog.

Numerous cyclists going down the escalator with their cycles.

We reaches the platform and the train was standing there. We boarded it comfortably half an hour before time.

We had two sleeper cabins of two berths each. It was an air-conditioned coach. The cabins had wash basins inside them. But toilets were outside the cabins. (In contrast to the train we had taken in Spain, last year which had a bathroom with shower, basin, and WC.) It was equivalent to A/c first in India.

They had shower facility in the train, but the coach attendant said that it was not in use. So our planning of having a shower early before leaving the train was foiled. We had a full day of excursion planned directly from the train.

We were to reach Krakow early in the morning at 6:30 am.

We reached the Krakow on time. We got a cup of coffee and a croissant complimentary, from the coach attendant.

As the train reached the platform and we took out our luggage. I got a call, from the driver who had come to receive us, on my international number. He said he would meet us at the platform. His name was Phillip and sure enough he met us with a placard. We had arranged the car, for pick up from the station and then proceed straight away to Auschwitz & Birkenau and then to the Wieliczka Saltmine, and then back to Krakow. This was through KRK Krakow tours. As I had badly wanted to visit both the places and we calculated that it would be impossible to cover both of them through public transport in one day. The idea of hiring a car for the trip, came from Trip Advisor.  I liked the railway station, Krakow Glowny as we just had to take the elevator up from the railway platform to reach the parking. It was very convenient.

2nd day in Prague

We had breakfast at the hotel. The only hotel where we had breakfast included with stay.

We checked out of the hotel kept our luggage with the concierge. And then asked the receptionist as to how we could reach the Prague castle. She suggested the metro. We walked down to the Mustek metro station and bought tickets from the machine 3adultsx24Kr, 1childx12Kr (1Kr equals Rs.3/-), for half an hour for three regions. The Mustek station itself was nothing great, though its listed on trip advisor as one of the places to visit. The escalator was steep, like the King’s Cross station in London, even more so.





We caught the green line and got down at Malostranska metro station.

The same ticket was valid in the tram. Taking the tram 22, we got down at Prazsky hrad,  and walked to the castle with the rest of the people, who had got down, all were heading for the castle (dashing all our hopes of beating the crowd). Just inside the castle entrance, towards the left was a small ticket room. We got the family ticket for circuit A for 700kr. We took an audio guide from the office inside for 450kr for the whole day.

As it was Sunday. The St. Vitius Cathedral was open to tourists at 12noon. We saw the other exhibitions till that time. The Royal Palace (exhibition I) , was just ok.




The story of Prague castle was a detailed Exhibition II, and required more time, though we rushed through it. Just outside the exhibition there was a courtyard which was of particular interest for children. There were people dressed in medieval times clothes with different stalls.

The St. George's Basilica was exhibition III. That did not require a lot of time. Soumya and I were sharing the audio guide.

St. Vitius cathedral which was exhibition number V, was a lovely cathedral and requires more time. If you go through with the audio guide it will take around 2-3 hours. It is a grand cathedral.









After that we were feeling hungry so we ate just outside the cathedral at a nice cafe. They were quick at serving.

After that we walked to the Golden Lane. But we should have given back our audio guide before that as we had to get back a deposit of 250 kr also from the same place where we had rented it, and not just drop it off like we usually do at other places. So we walked downhill.


We returned the same way we had reached. The tickets were bought from a machine at the tram stop. But as it accepted coins only and we were short we lost around 45 mins arranging the change.
And because of that we missed the free walking tour we were supposed to join at 3pm from old town square.
On reaching old town square, we met a man who asked Nalin if he wanted a free Segway ride. Nalin was more than happy to try it. As it is, he had been after us to take a Segway tour.

After the free ride, we decided to take a Segway tour of Prague from the stranger. He gave us a discount and it cost us 55€ per person for 2hrs. His office was near our hotel, so we walked till there.
The Segway tour was fun and adventure, though I felt quite out of my league with the Segway, would have been more comfortable on a bicycle, but the children were comfortable. I fell down once , and Shaleen too fell off once. I was so scared I did not try to take any pictures.

In the square, after the segway tour. We went to see the Jewish quarter but there was not much to see.

After buying some souvenirs, we ate a nice meal from an Italian restaurant, in the old town area, we were sitting outside, another table was occupied by two girls. We saw the danger of sitting outside on road side cafes. The shopping bag of one of the girls was kept on the floor. A pet dog, very cute,  almost peed on it, though she saved her "Mango" shopping just in time.
We took our luggage from the hotel concierge, and called a taxi there, a little way off as it was a pedestrian only zone.

1st day in Prague

We were dropped outside the station by the IC bus 375. From there we took a taxi to our hotel 'Residence Leon d Oro' in the old town area. It was on a pedestrian area so the taxi had to stop a few meters away. Shaleen used the ATM to get the local currency Czech Korunas(1 Czech Koruna is worth Rs.3/-). The hotel checking in was smooth with Barbara at the desk. We asked her how to reach the National Opera Theatre, "Narodini divadlo" as we had tickets for the opera at 6o'clock. She said it was best to go on foot, would take 10 mins.

So all of us got ready really fast and put on our formal clothes for the opera. We were around 5 mins late. It had already started and our tickets were for the upper balcony, so we had to climb a lot of stairs, running up in heels for me.Our seats were right in the back but we still got the full view of the stage.

We watched Enchantia. All of us liked the opera. There was a live orchestra playing. It was easy to follow the dialogues with the help of subtitles, which were being displayed at the top.

From there we walked along the Vltava river to the Charles bridge on the way we bought water,which we could have avoided, as here the water in the hotel taps was drinking water, unlike in Krakow.

In the setting sun the whole city was glittering gold.

We walked down at the other end of the bridge and there was a sort of no. Stall of eateries. Shaleen and Nalin decided to eat something from there while Soumya and me walked a little way further off to the park.

Then we walked back to the old town square to the astronomical clock. Every hour, by the hour, a large crowd gathers in front of the clock, to see the parade of the twelve apostles.

We sat down outside at a restaurant at the square. The white horse.

They had heaters switched on, which made me more comfortable as the night air was chilly.

Salmon with potatoes

Goulash soup which was served in a bowl of bread.

Consommé soup. And pasta. The food was good. And two drinks
The cost of the meal was around Rs. 3000/-

After that we walked back to our hotel. The hotel had a lovely open to air terrace on the sixth floor, room no. 505. The view of the city was good.