Sunday 27 December 2009

UK 2.0: Train - Prague - Vienna

Early 24 Nov, we went to Nadrazi Holesovice Train Station north of the city to board a Eurocity train bound for Vienna. It was a four and a half hours journey with many spectacular sights both natural and men-made. The 6 person cabin was much more comfortable compared to the Eurostar I took between London and Paris.

The train began to pick up speed as we left Prague city center. The sun was gentle and warm colored as we left. Fields, woods, mountains, rivers, lakes, farmland, villages and cities, we passed all of them by.

This was at our first stop and I saw some Elefants. one speed by us in the opposite direction.

We did not make many stops and before long were full speed ahead.

Near the Eastern Bohemian city of Ústí nad Orlicí, we saw these colorful children skipping on the lane.

Slightly further, some on another train waved at us.

We traversed more agricultural plains and gentle wooded hills.

And then, we were in the mountains.

Approaching Brno, the large frontier city between Czech Republic and Austria.

Not too long after, we entered Austria. Some travelers in online forums had suggested observing the changes of houses' architectures between the border. One remarkable difference I can spot besides the change of language in the signage is the change of animals. No more rampaging blue elephants, now red weasels ran rampant.

Now in Austria, I also noticed a lot of these interesting pom-poms on the trees. I hadn't seen any of these back on the other side of the border. I'm not sure if these are natural leafs, bird nests or some parasites. These were not the last pom-poms I saw on the trip. Many grew in Vienna too.

We sally forth, witnessing gathering clouds and a storm in the distance.

The rain promised in the weather forecast never came to us. For that, I was very glad.

Although this was a long trip of swaying in the carriages and listening to the hypnotic and trance-like rumbles of a cross-country train, the thrills of possible interesting scenery kept my eyes wide open for most of the trip.

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