September 16, 2026

Wednesday

Travel Day

Praha, Czech Republic > Wien, Austria

Good morning! A travel day. The adventure continues. We are taking the train from Praha to Wien. It is about a five-hour train ride. I booked us if First Class so we could be assured of having assigned seats and a table between us for playing cards.

Getting to the train station isn’t difficult. We probably could have walked it, if it weren’t or the cobble stones and traffic. I looked at the rates using Uber and compared them to Bolt (the European version of Uber). The difference is surprising. Uber was twice as much as the same ride on Bolt. 99 CZK vs 198 CZK. Ok, be honest it is $4.50 vs $9.00, but still.

We used the Bolt app and ordered a car expecting something used and banged up. What we got as a fairly new Mercedes. Very nice. The guy didn’t speak English, but hey the app already told him where we wanted to go. The trip in the car to the train station is a bit of maze of one-way streets and traffic. We got to the train station just after it had gone 11:30.

Our train is at 12:37. It isn’t even on the board yet, but we really didn’t expect it to be. We walked around the train station killing time. Sadly, there was a Burger King and Starbucks in the train station. And is it always seems, in large European cities, there is construction going on, and the Hlavní nádralži (Praha main train station) is no exception. The noise of the construction is almost deafening.

Finally, the nástupiště (platform) is posted – No. 7. We grab hold of our bags and head down the hallway towards nástupiště 7. We go up the escalator to the platform. It is filled with people. Normally, at least in Italia, they only post the binario maybe 15 minutes before your departure. Here we have nearly a half-hour.

Mary points out that once on the binario you have small additional signs indicating which carriage number is approximately were. At least you know where the 1st Class and 2nd class cars will be – in testa or in coda (at the head of or tail of the train). Here isn’t anything we can see to help us out. We know from our ticket that we are in car 373.

We are pretty sure there aren’t 400 cars on the train. So, it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out which car is ours. As the train is pulling into the station I am reading the numbers. 364, 360 … they appeared to be counting down as the train entered, which implied that it is at the head of the train and I just missed 373.

We take off like a shot and head towards where we think we should be. The numbers are increasing so it appears we are going in the right direction. Then we get to the end of the train. Car 368! Nearly everyone is on board. Now what?

Well be board the train about car 364. Figuring, at least we are on the train. The train begins pulling out of the station. The sign says 253 and Wien HBF. Well the train number is correct, and the listed station is where we want to go. We walk the whole length of the train. The numbers just keep getting lower. We walk though the dinning car.

Hallelujah, the train numbers are increasing. The last car on the train, our last chance for salvation, Wagen 373. Now find Sitzplatze 11 & 12. The last two seats in the last car of the train. Now, while the train is moving through the railways, it trick was to get the suitcases in the overhead rack. With everything managed and settled in our seats, we took out the canasta cards and began playing.

A few minutes later the guy checking tickets comes by. We dutifully handed him our very nicely printed tickets. He immediately says, “Sir, these tickets were for yesterday’s train.”. WTF! Looking at the ticket it says 15.9.26 AND 16.9.26. Both dates. We inquire about what are we supposed to do. He responded don’t worry about it. You can just sit there.

Now this all sounds somewhat unbelievable. The train is completely full. 2nd class and 1st class; but somehow our two seats are empty and we can sit there? We don’t argue with him, we just keep playing cards for another four hours. Still not sure exdactly what happened. The tickets automatically loaded into TripIt which clearly shows the 16th. It automatically loaded into Google Calendar; which shows the 16th. Was he just yanking our chain? Who cares. We are in the seats and on our way to Wien (Vienna).

We arrived at Wien Hauptbahnhof just as the clock struck 15:00. A good on-time arrival. Rome2Rio and Google Maps says the taxi ride to the hotel should be €20. We went to the taxi stand outside the station and got into a taxi. All seemed good. But he didn’t turn on the meter. When we got to the hotel he asked for €32. Arguing with him seemed pointless, so I gave him just exactly what he asked for.

We went in and checked-in to the hotel. The clerk at the desk was an Italian and was really looking forward to speaking Italian with someone. I obliged him as much as and as best as I could. We are in room 306 on the 4th floor. Really nice room, above the noise of the street below. Really nice bathtub.

We asked the clerk for a dinner reservation so we could have the best Wiener schnitzel in Vienna. He made reservations for 19:00 at Weibel’s Wirtshouse. We went upstairs and unpacked and got cleaned up and just before 19:00 headed out to Weibel’s.

We arrive at 19:00. We were seated almost immediately and given English menus. It was thirty or forty minutes before they took are order. It was an hour and a half before we got our food. The food was very good, but the service was really bad.

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and called it a night. Monday and Tuesday were really good step days, over 10,000 steps each day. Today, we didn’t even break 6,000. We need to do better tomorrow. We have a four hour walking tour tomorrow so it shouldn’t be too hard.

Buonanotte & Ciao

Enrico and Maria