T+134: CATCHING UP

disembarked the train in prague on sunday 9.10 around 8pm-ish into a very unwelcoming train station, definitely built under communist rule. as always, i was a little nervous arriving in a new city and not knowing the lay of the land, but more so here in prague because i had read quite a few reports that the area around the train station is fairly dodgy, especially after dark. i managed to navigate my way to the tram stop without incident and made it to my hotel which, although not in central prague, was easily reached by short tram ride.

spent a nice few days in prague, but really didn't do too much. some sightseeing of the usual suspects: charles bridge, prague castle, astronomical clock, etc. i did not go to any opera in vienna but i did see don giovanni in prague - at the national puppet theatre. very interesting and entertaining production. for some reason, i'm having trouble writing about prague. please do not misunderstand: prague is a fantastic city and much to commend it, not the least of which is the delicious, plentiful and cheap food and beer. i think i'm just getting medieval-city-castle-churche-ed out at this point. they are also mad for mucha here, prague's favorite son alfons mucha is everwhere and i visited the mucha museum with some incredible examples of his art nouveau poster art for la divine sara bernhardt. i also toured the prague municipal house which is home to the largest concert hall in town and was the setting for the proclomation of the independent state of czechoslovakia in 1918. it is the most prominent art nouveau building in prague and includes the mayor's hall, a stunning room designed completely by alfons mucha, right down to the beautiful tapestries around the doors. unfortunately, no photos allowed on the tour so you will just have to see it for yourself. which i do recommend highly. they are also kinda hot for some guy called franz kafka in prague. apparently he was some kinda writer or something.

saskia and greg mentioned that there is a small town nearby called kutna hora with an incredible ossuary - bone church - that sounded suitably macabre: a 15th century church erected in a cemetery which took the bones from the abolished graves and deposited them under the chapel. the half blind cistercian monk charged with the task in the 16th century took to arranging the bones - of some 40,000 people - in various sculptural forms, including a chandelier which contains all of the bones of the human body. there are organized tours to kutna hora and i had planned to take one but i found out that they only spend maybe 15 minutes at the ossuary before they herd you to the other sights in kutna hora. i looked into just going by myself on public transport, which is actually pretty easy, but by this time it was my final day in prague before taking the night train to zurich and so being a 'travel day' i was in major anxiety mode and had all kinds of nightmares that the train back from kutna hora would be delayed or if i took the bus, it would breakdown, or some other combination of horrors would conspire to make me miss the night train. so i didn't go to kutna hora. instead, i had a very relaxing day wandering through prague and got a much-needed haircut and instead of a photo of a creepy bone chandelier, you, my loyal and devoted readers, are rewarded with a photo of me and my new do by phil of prague :)

and so i caught the night train to zurich without incident and wound up having a few drinks and chatting with the conductor until about 2am so was even more tired than i usually am after a night on the train. i had thought that i would spend a few hours wandering around zurich before heading to luzern but it was raining so i just pressed on and wound up spending the night in jail. well, former jail, actually. that i had reserved. the former lowengraben jail in luzern is now a boutique hotel and for 69CHF you too can spend the night in a cell. no phone. no tv. no internet. i was unusually grumpy from lack of sleep so was quite peeved when the guy at the front desk told me i wouldn't be able to check in until 3pm, especially since i had already emailed them that i would be arriving early and requested an early check-in which they said wouldn't be a problem, provided my room was ready. this guy didn't even ask my name to check if my room was ready. anyway, i was hungry so i went for a rather expensive lunch and had a wander before coming back around noon and was finally able to check in (but not before having to summon the manager) and pass out.

luzern is a pretty sleepy swiss town and not much to do except spend a night in jail so hopped on the train early in the morning and headed for my real swiss destination, the tiny alpine village of gimmelwald. enroute, i met janna, leif and eric from spokane (formerly from bend of all places!) who were also going to mountain hostel and hiked up to muerren with them to get groceries and a bite to eat - as well as a couple of well-needed beverages. weather was perfect but unfortunately, did not last and the next two days were cold, grey and fraught with some mild cabin fever.
after two days of grey weather, the sun finally showed itself for most of the day so everyone was able to break free of the hostel confines to enjoy the fresh air and mountain trails. i headed out with a val & steve, a brother & sister from philly, to check out main street gimmelwald. main street didn't take long and we soon found ourselves enroute to nearby muerren so steve & val could get some groceries and a bite to eat. steve was pretty bagged so headed back to the hostel with the groceries while val and i ran into another girl from the hostel, alison, and decided to take the 5km circle hike to winteregg and back. not too strenuous which suited me - and my non-terrain-suitable footwear - just fine. that night, a blues jam session broke out with a young kid from australia on guitar and a pensioner from white rock on piano. fantastic stuff! the house was full, not only with hostel patrons but also people staying at nearby b&b's and the 'sleep in the straw' authentic barn up the road.

wednesday morning, my last day in gimmelwald, dawned without a cloud in the sky. enfin!! the perfect weather to head up to schilthorn and partake of the views from piz gloria, aka blofeld's secret lair in my favorite james bond film 'on her majesty's secret service.' joy! janna and i went up, enjoyed some hot chocolates and watched the alps go by from the revolving restaurant. the rainy weather of the previous days had deposited some snow and after some mixed weather the day before, it was a little icy and still quite cold and we had inadequate footwear so we headed back down after seeing the james bond display. a few clips of the movie but nothing special. there was also a panorama film of the alps which was quite stunning, but the james bond stuff was weak at best. we decided to stop at the next station down the mountain, birg, and were treated to having the station all to ourselves without any snow and some pretty warm sun. i lay like on a bench and soaked it up like a little cat. meow!! :)

took our time getting back down to gimmelwald where there was more laying about in the sunshine before i reluctantly left gimmelwald and the very friendly mountain hostel wednesday afternoon and headed for interlaken to catch the train to basel and connect with the overnight train to utrecht. i was concerned with the 8-minute connection window at basel; however, the chap at the ticket window assured me that as they were connecting trains, it would wait at basel if my train was late. as promised, i made it on time to basel and was safe in my bed in no time. my two other roommates, had gotten out earlier at german stations so i had the place to myself and awaited my breakfast. the conductor informed me that we were stuck at the station waiting for another locomotive to take us from the german border town into holland. and unfortunately, there would be no coffee or breakfast as promised because without the locomotive, there was also no power. alore!! as they say in italy. after trying so hard to get to germany from switzerland and not being able to find anywhere to stay, all of a suddden, i found myself unable to leave. oh well, i was able to move into a nicer compartment to wait it out. eventually, some breakfast bars were provided and at last, we were herded off the train and onto another intercity because we would not, in fact, be getting the locomotive promised. the train was already fairly full but i managed to find a seat and made it to utrecht to see saskia & greg again and enjoy some more cakes!!