6-7 May 2022.
Although our alarm was set for 0700 we were both up and out of bed by 0600. We cleaned up, dressed and after coffee and breakfast Susie finished packing us up for our departure. Dishes done and put away, garbage and recycles taken out we grabbed our coats, left the apartment keys on the counter and headed out the door.
It was a short walk to the tram station and we no sooner got there than the no. 9 tram pulled up. We got aboard and in less than 10 minutes (per our dry run) we were at the central station. A short walk through a park and were inside heading for the lounge. The tram system is the way to go in Prague!
To enter the lounge we had to show our Eurail pass tickets for 1st class. I opened my phone and right away noticed that my Eurail pass was missing from my phone. The attendant kindley allowed us inside the lounge -- Susie’s pass worked just fine -- and I spent the next ten minutes in an agitated state of frustration trying to grasp what had gone wrong. (I never did.) Restarting the app and rebooting the phone, nothing seemed to work.
So, the next thing I tried was to add the pass again to my app. I had to go online on my computer to find my pass number, added it to create a “new” pass and voila! that worked! In fact, it still had all my original tickets. This made me wonder where all the Eurail data for each pass is in fact stored — on a server somewhere or somewhere on the phone. Who knows. What I do know is that if it happens again, we’ll know what to do.
We relaxed in the lounge until time to board. We found the platform with minimal confusion and our car number.
Once aboard we found our reserved seats and settled in for the next 6-plus hours. The journey would take us through Dresden and Berlin before terminating in Hamburg.
Passing through Elbe River valley we were impressed by the striking landscape of high rocky cliffs covered in black and nicknamed the dirty rocks by my traveling companion. In fact, we would track along the Elbe off and on during ,most of the trip.
A little after noon we crossed into Germany and were told to wear masks (the Czech Republic had no such restriction). Around noon the two of us had a lunch of sandwiches, which I had made the night before, accompanied by crisps (from Scotland) and a dessert of Ritter Bar chocolate.
It came as no surprise that once in Germany our tickets were checked three times and we passed three times.
The train arrived in Hamburg about 2 minutes behind schedule. As we exited the platform we were struck by the enormous crowds of people moving every which way.
normally we steer clear of foam and food but this was wonderful |
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