Czech Republic and Austria, (Day 7). Saturday 9th February 2019.
The first European trip of 2019. I had a two-day NFP Rail tour starting from Prague mainly around the south west of the country and crossing the German border at Železná Ruda Alžbĕtín. I then decided to do a trip around most of the major Austrian rail centres crossing the full length of the country crossing the Italian border at the top of the Brenner Pass, and returning to the Czech Republic and Prague for my flight back to the UK.
Rail tour Route: Day 1, Sunday 03.02.19: Praha hln – Praha Smíchov (pick up) – Rudná u Prahy – Beroun – Ejpovice – Stupno (reverse) – Radnice (reverse) – Stupno (reverse) – Ejpovice (reverse) – Plzeň hln –Staňkov – Pobĕžovice (reverse) – Domažlice – Janovice nad Úhlavou – Klatovy. (296kms).
Rail tour Route: Day 2, Monday 04.02.19: Klatovy – Železná Ruda Alžbĕtín (reverse) – Klatovy (pick up) – Horažďovice předmĕstí – Strakonice – Ražice – Písek – Milevsko – Tábor – Horní Cerekev – Jihlava – Havlíčkův Brod – Kolín – Praha hln (terminate). (521 kms).
I woke up at the a&o hostel in Graz at 06.30, something was wrong, my alarm was set for 05.30, but the alarm didn’t go off, why, because the phone was missing, it had been stolen in the night and I think I probably saw the thief, who would have had to lean over my bed to reach my phone. He must have disturbed me in the early hours, but I only saw him going away. The thief had also taken a few other items from people in the hostel and on reporting him to reception, they told me someone had left our dormer at 03.30 in the morning, so his details were given to the police and I left my details with reception, but haven’t heard anything back so far.
I was however determined not to let the incident spoil my holiday, I had hard copies of my boarding pass and details of my next two nights accommodation, it could have been a lot worst, but fortunately I lock everything away when staying in hostels, apart from the phone which I use as an alarm, strangely I usually keep it under my pillow, but failed to do so on this occasion, lesson learned.
I was however back onto Graz Hbf as dawn was breaking and had a few hours photographing the depot and station movements and also went outside to photograph the trams in the undercroft. I caught a Zurich train back as far as Selthal and changed here for a direct service to Linz, arriving back into Linz late afternoon and again taking the opportunity to photograph some more passing freight.
My next train was a CD Czech class 380 which took me back into the Czech Republic, I was going as far as Ceske Budejovice, a town I`d visited before, and one which had a large locomotive depot. I was staying in the town with a lovely private room above a pub booked at the Cuba Bar and Hostel, just a short walk from the station. I arrived in the town just after dark. It had been a day of rail travelling again and I had covered quite a few miles around Austria, I now felt like I was back on home ground in the good old Czech Republic. I slept very well in the Cuba especially after a few local Czech ales in the bar, it turned out to be a good day, even without the phone.
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