Riding the Rails: Prague to Paris

July 21-22, 2011 -- After two days exploring Prague, I took an overnight Deutsche Bahn City Night Line train to Cologne and then transferred to a Thalys high-speed train that took me to my next destination on this summer's rail trip through Europe -- Paris, France.

Prague's modern train station is attached to the historic early 20th century Art Nouveau booking hall, which is now a cafe named after the Czech architect who built the station -- Josef Fanta. The station hall is well-preserved and is an excellent example of Art Nouveau architecture.

At the cafe you can order Mattoni mineral water from the spa town of Karlovy Vary, which is famous for its health benefits.

There is a memorial plaque to former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson with his quote that "the world must be made safe for democracy." From 1945 to 1953 the Prague railway station was called Wilson station (Czech: Wilsonovo nádraží).

On Oct. 5 a memorial statue to Wilson, who helped the Czechs gain independence in 1918, will be rededicated in front of the railway station seventy years after the original statue was destroyed by the Nazis.

The couchette cars of the overnight train feature four beds and there was a fun group of Americans on their way to Amsterdam which helped pass the time to Cologne -- a college student from North Carolina, pictured left, and two friends from Texas touring Europe. We drank the original Czech Budweiser Budvar (called Czechvar in the U.S. and Canada) and had a great time into the night as we rolled through the German heartland.

After transferring to a Thalys high-speed train at Cologne, I finally arrived at Paris Gare du Nord railway station the next day and was ready to explore the City of Light.

Here are photos and video of the train trip from Prague to Paris. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.

Green Traveler: Prague, Czech Republic

July 19-21, 2011 -- There are tram traffic jams in Prague. Seriously. I've never seen so many streetcars at one time. There must have been at least twenty of them lined up one after another. Prague's tram system is huge, with over 900 tram cars running on 87.6 miles (140.9 kilometres) of track and serving nearly a million daily riders.

Prague also has an extensive subway system that serves 1.5 million passengers every day, which makes it the seventh busiest system in Europe and the most-used in the world on a per capita basis. The Prague subway began operation in 1974 and today it is a modern, efficient system with fast escalators that get you to the sometimes deep underground and rather large stations.

Besides streetcars and the subway, visitors and locals can zip around Praha with an electric bicycle. E-bike rental PREkolo offers fully charged bikes for a little as two hours for eight euros to as much as a weekend rental for 60 euros.

Click here for more observations of Prague on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here are photos and videos of this special city. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.

Riding the Rails: Berlin to Prague

Riding the rails along the Elbe River in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.

July 19, 2011 -- After visiting Berlin this summer, the next destination on my rail journey around Europe was Prague. I rode the EuroCity 171 Hungaria train from Berlin Central Train Station (Hauptbahnhof) to Prague Main Railway Station (Praha hlavni nadrazi). We traveled through the spectacular Saxony countryside along the Elbe River (Labe in Czech) and Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

The train was an older model and the Czech Republic isn't set up for high-speed rail yet so it didn't go as fast as most trains traveling through Western European nations. Czechoslovakia dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia rather recently on January 1, 1993 following two uprisings against the communist regime -- the Prague Spring of 1968 and the 1989 Velvet Revolution.  There are plans to construct a high-speed rail network in the Czech Republic, although operation isn't expected until at least 2020.

Prague Main Railway Station and train I took from Berlin -- EuroCity 171 Hungaria, whose final destination is Budapest, Hungary.

But traveling at slower speeds was actually preferable because it offered more time to enjoy passing the scenic countryside and historic villages, towns and cities in Saxony and Bohemia.

There are four seats to a cabin with a sliding glass door and I had it to myself for most of the trip. There is rolling cart food and beverage service as well.

As en environmental journalist and clean energy blogger, I couldn't stop snapping pictures of the wind turbines in Germany. Every time I looked out the window while traveling through the Saxony countryside I saw enormous wind farms with huge wind turbines.

Not to be outdone, while traveling through the Czech Republic I took this picture of a solar farm. That is a lot of solar panels supplying clean, renewable energy to citizens of the Czech Republic.

Another highlight was passing through Dresden. Almost completely destroyed by an Allied bombing campaign near the end of World War II, the city has been rebuilt since then and is now one of the most important cities in Germany.

Arriving at Dresden's main train station.

We finally arrived in Prague and I set out on exploring the next city on my European rail adventure.

Here is video of the rail trip from Berlin to Prague.



And here are more photos of the rail trip from Berlin to Prague. Click here to see the set on Flickr.