The Journey – Praha to Egham in less than 24hrs
In case you have been under a stone for the last four days or engrossed in the UK election drama (not) there has been a slight issue with a volcano in Iceland. This has caused the off airport and airspace to be closed completely for flights.
Having headed out very early on Wednesday morning leaving home at 4.30am for Gatwick and the joys of Easyjet. All went well and we arrived completely knackered at 9.15am local time at Praha Airport.
We realised that there was an issue when I saw a reference on twitter that UK airspace had been completely closed for the first time since 9/11. Having seen the odd false alarm etc we didn’t worry about it until it became clear on Friday morning that we might not be able to get a flight home on Saturday as scheduled. The adventure began that Friday morning while out and about in Praha we were check websites contacting family and looking at options.
It became clear the only option would be to get the train north and get a lift back to the UK via Eurotunnel.
After completing our research we decided it was time to book our travel and prepare for the trip. We went back to the hotel after lunch and got hunting for those train tickets. Unfortunately we couldn’t book the train tickets online which was a shame, but had identified a sleeper service from Praha to Koln and onto Brussels. We spoke to the hotel who recommended a trip to the central station to buy our tickets. The station was packed and the ticket office was worse, so we joined a queue and waited in line. After about 5minutes we spotted a sign being moved around stating another ticket counter was opening. CJ rushed off to check and a minute later mine phone rang instructing me to get to her quick as there were only two people in front of her in the queue.
The ticket office checked around and it became clear that no services out of Praha that day were available, but she checked for Saturday and there was a Praha – Nurnberg – Frankfurt – Brussels route available. So we booked it immediately without firstly worrying about what was 8000 Czech Koruna and was leaving at 5.04am.
We arranged with CJ’s Dad to get Eurotunnel tickets on the Saturday to do a same day return that had increased from the morning price of £29 each way to over £100 each way.
Saturday
Saturday morning started early we us getting up at 4am (3am BST) to grab our taxi to the station at 4.30am. This was on time and a reasonable 250 CK (about £9) given the unearthly time.
We arrived at what seemed a very empty station and went to find the departure boards so we knew which platform the train was going to depart from. Our train the R350 Karel ?apek left about 2mins late but hey ho. The train was pretty full with most seats taken in our carriage. The chatter was amazing a real international service on this little four carriage train heading to Germany and Nurmberg. We have a Belgium family, a number of Czechs, three English, some italians, an american, a chinese man just sitting around us. But not a sound of german to be heard.
Our train stopped at the following
- Praha hl.n. Metro
- Praha-Smíchov
- Beroun
- Ho?ovice
- Rokycany
- Plze? hl.n.
- Domažlice
- Furth i Wald
- Cham(Oberpf)
- Schwandorf
- Amberg
- Nürnberg Hbf
Total Distance 355km in approximately 5 hours.
The journey was smooth and the sunrise was excellent over the Czech countryside which was proceeded by a beautiful mist. Unfortunately I was very tired and the windows very dirty so didn’t get any pictures. We had some food on the train from the trolley service and I was almost covered in hot water when the urn fell off the trolley.
My phone welcomed me to Germany at 8.11am around the time we stopped at Furth i Wald. We arrived at Nurnberg at 10am and spotted a train on the opposite platform going to Frankfurt. We checked with the guard and yes it was good for Frankfurt and got us there an hour early than scheduled so reducing the risk of missing the connection. Now Deutsche Bahn know how to comfortable travel with the second class seating on an ICE travel really good. CJ had a bit of a run in with a german man who thought that his ticket gave him rights to the whole table and all the legroom under that table. Fortunately for us a nice woman offered CJ her seat and then tore a strip off the man.
We got delayed outside Aschaffenburg for 15mins. The train stopped at Würzburg Hbf, Aschaffenburg Hbf and then Frankfurt(Main)Hbf. The driver told everyone onboard that the train would terminate at Frankfurt airport instead of going onto Koln. We had covered about another 15okms. We should have known that things would change on route.
At Frankfurt we got some Euros and grabbed a traditional snack, OK we had hot dogs 
before heading to the platform to wait for our train to arrive.
I took the chance to take some photos as a record of the journey and I like this one as we have been traveling since 4.25am by Taxi and two trains so far 8hours into the journey.
Took this of the ICE service to Paris that was departing from the same platform as our Brussels train would be. The train we would be getting would be splitting at Koln with half going to Amsterdam and half to Brussels, so we double checked we had the right half. We managed to find unreserved seats with a table so we could make ourselves comfortable.
The train was due to leave at 13.29 but it was held for some connections to make Frankfurt thus allowing other travellers to get to Brussels. We could see streams of people get on and before long it was packed with plenty of people standing.
The train was stopping at the following stations:
- Frankfurt(Main)Hbf
- Frankfurt(M) Flughafen Fernbf
- Köln Hbf
- Aachen Hbf
- Liège-Guillemins
- Bruxelles-Nord
- Bruxelles-Midi
It was clear very early into the journey thanks to our fellow travellers that we were taking the scenic route to Koln along the Rhine. We had some interesting characters on the train who helped the extended journey pass by a little quicker. So instead of 65mins to get to Koln it took 120mins. The train finally arrived in Brussels at 6.20pm after 4hrs 30mins and about 300kms. We rang CJ’s Dad and he met us by Sam’s Cafe where we grab some supplies and headed out to drive to Calais to catch our EuroTunnel this time 200kms in a car.
Got the nine o’clock train and arrived in UK about 8.40pm and hit the motorway only to get stopped by the police. After a short delay we were back on the way to Gatwick to pick up the car. The airport was very quiet and strange but made getting the car and heading off to CJ’s parents. We eventually arrived there at about 10.45pm and the end of an epic journey of 19hrs 18mins, one taxi, two cars, four trains, five countries and 1054kms (655 miles)….
Future travelling tips:
- Carry some Euros
- Carry Driving License
- Don’t go on short breaks
- Be prepared
Tags: Ash, Belgium, car, Czech Republic, Egham, Flying, France, Germany, Iceland, journey, Planes, Prague, Praha, Taxi, Train, travel, UK, Volcano
