by Joji
There is no direct train from Krakow to Prague so the best we could find was a morning train that left Krakow Glowny at 9:44am and arrived at Katowice at 11:44am. From Katowice we changed trains at 12:15pm for a 6 hour train ride into Prague. It is a good thing that our train was on time as this was the only day train that was going to Prague!
Poland in general is very flat and only in the south did we witness a mountain. However, the ride from Krakow to Katowice was very beautiful with rolling hills and lots of farmland. For a while, in the flatter areas we saw many amazing golden pheasants perching their heads above the grass as the train went by. They looked just like the ones I used to see growing up in Northern California, but now thinking back … I don’t think I had seen one of those in the wild since I was a teenager! Today, I have seen many :).
Throughout Poland and now into the Czech Republic the terrain is very green and sometimes the fields are covered with yellow flowers, as they get rain all year around. This is a stark contrast to the dusty and dry fields of India we witnessed just a couple of weeks ago.
We would not have even known that we crossed into the Czech Republic had we not stopped in the city of Ostrava. One thing that did change was that the announcements were in both Czech and English. Never in Poland did we hear an announcement in English. This is a nice bonus!
Click below to see a video of the scenery from the train:
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A couple of minutes ago we passed a small community of tiny houses (reminds me of ginger bread houses) all neatly manicured with little farms, then we passed a meadow with a meandering stream with young pine trees sprucing up all around. The scenery is similar to Sonoma county in the rainy season with tree covered hills, except there are no redwoods here and no wineries. Just beautiful country side :).
As I type Heidi is getting some much needed sleep in the chair directly across from me while 2 Czech men are having a friendly conversation in the seats next to us, at least it appears to be friendly (since they are both smiling) as we have yet to learn any of the Czech language ;). But I think it is similar to Polish.
More beautiful lush green country as the train continues to follow a meandering river with a paved footpath alongside with mothers pushing their baby strollers and hillsides on both sides covered with pines and other evergreens.
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After a pleasant eight hour train ride we arrived at the Hlavni Nadrazi (Main Prague Train Station).
Heidi,
The yellow fields in the Czech Republic are those growing rape weed from which Canola Oil is made. It must be a bood cash crop since many fields were changed over to rape weed after the changeover in 1989.
Thanks for letting us know! The yellow flowers look similar to the mustard flowers we have at home, but we were not sure what they were. They make for beautiful scenery!