While we needed to spend some time before boarding our City Night Line service from Berlin to Heidelberg (another story), we decided to take the Ringbahn service that acts as a city circle line around the city of Berlin.

Map of the Berlin Ringbahn

When viewed on a map, the circuit has a shape reminiscent of the head of a dog, thus the colloquial name of Hundekopf (literally dog’s head) given to this line.

It is possible to travel around the loop using Berlin’s S-Bahn service on either route S-41 (clockwise) or S-42 (anticlockwise).

Travel around this service (of nearly 38 km) takes the best part of an hour, and we find this circuit of the city very interesting, not just from the point of view of the scenery that we pass through, but also in terms of studying the local people using the train at different stages of the journey.

We accessed the Ringbahn at Gesundbrunnen (at about the 12 o’clock position), and decided to take the trip in a clockwise direction from that point. By travelling in the way, we move deep into the eastern parts of Berlin before reaching Sonnenallee (at about the 5 o’clock position) and then travelling through the western parts of Berlin.

This line has gone through many disruptions since its construction was finalised in about 1877.

Bombing during WW2 resulted in a part of the Ringbahn (Südringspitzkehre) being closed in about 1945. This section has never been re-opened. After the end of the war, trains were again able to run in a complete circle around Berlin up until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, when it was cut into two parts.

As a result of a number of agreements made by the WW2 victors, the S-Bahn throughout the Berlin region came under the control of DR (Deutsch Reichsbahn) – the German Democratic Republic railways, and this situation continued until well after re-unification of the two Germanies.

From about 1980 until 1993, services on the western section of the Ringbahn were suspended, following a major strike by the West Berlin based S-Bahn drivers.

Upon re-unification of the country in 1990, the Ringbahn operation continued until 1994 when Deutschbahn (DB) was established and took control of the S-Bahn system in Berlin. It wasn’t until 2002 that full Ringbahn service under the control of DB was eventually achieved.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson!

Amongst the things which we noticed was that, despite the passing of many years since re-unification, the distinction between what was once West Berlin and East Berlin is still very noticeable.
Some of the aspects are very obvious, such as the blocks of very drab high rise apartments that still have the look of socialist “sameness” about them, but others seem to be on a much more human level. Instances of this are things such as the level of graffiti and lack of apparent care and cleanliness around the line and stations in some the parts of Berlin, whilst other areas along the line offered a significantly different outlook.

Ringbahn train near Friedrichshain

Another issue of interest related to the types of travellers as our train progressed along the Hundekopf route. We travelled on a weekend, so that there shouldn’t have been much influence due to evening rush hour traffic or anything similar.

Nevertheless, those people who were travelling into the eastern parts of the city seemed in general to less well dressed and somewhat less positive in mental outlook than those we came to see late in our trip.

This observation may simply relate to the fact that accommodation in these parts of town is perhaps much cheaper, and thus attracts a different group of residents, but our knowledge of this part of the world isn’t sufficient for us to accurately apply socio-economic factors to Berlin.

This is a unique and interesting trip around Berlin to take at an extremely low cost.

It is possible to travel on a single Zone AB ticket for 2.10 euros for up to two hours, but if using this, don’t use this ticket to both enter and leave the system at the same place – they are treated as a one-way, and not a return ticket, and therefore you are advised to validate the ticket at a different station to that at which you started your journey. Perhaps a safer way to ride the Hundekopf  is to purchase a day ticket (the rate is of the order of 5.80 euros for a full day ticket, so that you can get on and off the train as often as you like and explore many interesting parts of Berlin.

Prague's Old Town Square

Prague is a European city with a fascinating past.

When visiting Prague, you really need to participate in one of the tours of the old town in order to acquaint yourself with the layout, history and vibe of the city and of the Czech Republic itself.

We took advantage of one of the free tours that are offered starting at 11:00 each morning from in front of the astronomical clock in the Prague’s Old Town square.

Prague New Tour group

We were lucky enough to join in with the free tour offered by Sandemans New Prague. For information about these tours you should visit http://www.neweuropetours.eu where you can find out much more about these tours, not only in Prague, but in many other European cities as well.

We were lucky enough to have Kate as our guide for this tour. Kate is an Australian who left home to travel the continent in 1991, reached Prague then stayed. Kate has a husband and 3 children, and so good reasons for getting to know Prague very well indeed.

We felt very comfortable having Kate as our guide, because she has the ability to tell some really good stories about Prague’s past whilst managing to maintain the typical Australian trait of sardonic humour that always seems to add to the story telling experience.

The concept of free tours may seem a little strange to many readers, who feel that something offered for free won’t be as good as something that has been paid for. However, the rationale that is used by the people running this and other tours works in two ways:

• As far as the free tour is concerned, the guide is remunerated on a tips only basis. This means that there is a great incentive to make the tour interesting as well as informative, and to ensure that participants stay until the end and don’t simply drift off before the end of the tour.
• Secondly, your guide is also able to persuade participants on the tour into participating on further (paid) tours that specialise in other specific aspects of Prague, such as the tour of Prague Castle, Kutna Hora and the Bone Chapel (to say nothing of the New Prague Beer Challenge that includes 3 free 0.5 litre beers).

Prague has some of the most romantic streets, soaring towers and best priced beers in all of Europe. The free tour allows participants to travel back in time as they wander the streets of this special city, discovering the highs and lows of life in the country now known as the Czech Republic back over the centuries.

The first reported settlers of the Czech Lands were the Celtic Boii tribe who inhabited the region from about 2,400 years ago. Germanic tribes also moved in and in about 600 AD, the Slavs reached the region. The Greater Moravian Empire was established around 830 AD, lasting until the Hungarian invasion of 907 AD.

It was during this time that the Premyslid dynasty was established, marked amongst other things by the establishment of the Prague Castle in about 880 AD, the first stone bridge over the Vitava River and the establishment of the Prague Old Town. The dynasty dies out with the death of King Wenceslas III in 1306 (not to be confused with the “Good King Wenceslas” of Christmas carol fame, who lived some 300 years earlier).

This period of growth was followed by rule from John of Luxembourg and his son Charles during most of the 14^th Century. King Charles IV was a great ruler, and during his reign Prague became a centre of culture, and one of the most prosperous cities in Europe.

However, much of this background information is somewhat dry and of interest only to those with a particular interest in the background of this part of Europe.

This is where our guide made the learning process really interesting with her stories and her simplification of the history so that what we remember from the information isn’t the dates and names of past rulers, but their impacts and effects on the people of Prague and the region.

We heard stories about the attempts by Jan Hus to bring protestantism into the Czech Lands (many years ahead of Martin Luther), and how he was eventually burned at the stake as a heretic.

We were told that as a result of this act a group of his followers became more and more upset at the relationship between church and state, and how this resulted shortly thereafter in the First Defenestration Of Prague, in which 7 councillors of the city were thrown to their deaths out of windows in the town hall. As a result of this action, the Hussite wars began, and for 14 years, the country was rocked by a violent religious civil war. Eventually an agreement was reached between the Protestants and the Catholic Church, and the two groups lived peacefully side by side for many years.

However, some 70 years later another upheaval occurred, resulting in the rule of the Habsburgs in the Czech lands. During this rule, the protestants once again found themselves under pressure from the Catholic Church.

Prague Defenestration Re-enactment - courtesy Dacid Cerny

Eventually another protest reached fever pitch and rebels stormed the castle, resulting in the Second Defenestration Of Prague. On this occasion, 2 regents of the Emperor were thrown out of a castle window, landing on a pile of manure, and surviving but perhaps with a substantial loss of dignity. As seems to be the case in Prague, this resulted in the start of another war.

The thirty year war that resulted from this act eventually spread across Europe. This devastated much of Europe, with a reduction in the male population in Germany of almost 50%, combined with the loss of about one third of German villages. In the Czech lands, the result was the expulsion of all German protestants. The period following this war is referred to as the Dark Ages of Prague.

However, the beginning of WW1 saw the end of the Austro Hungarian empire.

Following WW1, the Czech Lands and Slovakia jointly declared the formation of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia.

The year 1938 saw the signing of the Munich Pact by Germany, Britain France and Italy. This resulted in the transfer of the western parts of Czechoslovakia across to Germany. Some 6 months before the outbreak of WW2, Germany seized the western parts, and the nazis invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia and stayed for the next 6 years.

Following the cessation of hostilities in Europe, the allied forces agreed to the “liberation” of Prague and points east by the Soviet Army, whilst the Americans freed the western part of the country. However, the communists took over the whole of the country following a coup d’etat in 1948.

Prague and the rest of the region remained under strict communist control until the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

Following the fall of the Berlin wall, the people of Czechoslovakia eventually managed to oust the communists in 1989. In 1993, it was agreed that Czechoslovakia split into two countries, the (second) Czech Republic and Slovakia. Since that split, the Czech Republic has become a member of the EU and a member of NATO. Prague is of course the capitol of the Czech Republic.

All of this brings up the title of this piece.

Kate infirmed us that her mother in law had died recently aged in her late 90′s.

During her lifetime, Kate’s mother in law had lived in 8 different countries with 8 different names, ways of life, documentation and monetary systems.

However, she never left her family home in Prague or moved during this period!

Slovenian Railway Carriages

We are now on board a train from Ljubljana to Beograd (Belgrade).

This is an 9 hour sector, and we had hoped that the train may have been somewhat better than that provided for the last sector, from Villach to Ljubljana – alas, this was not to be!

The trip south from Ljubljana to the border with Croatia was very pleasant.

As we moved down from the mountainous regions of central Slovenia towards the southern part of the country, the scenery changed, although we followed the path of a rived for much of the way.

This river altered during our trip from being a very fast flowing stream with many rapids (presumably much of the water flowing based on ongoing snow melt from the alpine parts), to a much more sedate river wandering slowly (and no doubt more deeply) through some of the towns.

We have just traversed the border between Slovenia and Croatia, and are now reminded about what border crossings were like in the days before the European Union came into being.

A stop of some 25 minutes while the locomotive was changed was followed by the boarding of the train by three policemen (with handguns) demanding to see and stamp our passports, and another railway official (with very ornate gold braided cap) who requested our tickets once again (and added his on notation onto the ticket).

The train then proceeded another kilometre or so, at which time another group of policemen (in a different uniform) entered the train and again required that passports be supplied, and again stamped).

Following this, we have been allowed to proceed into Croatia, and continue our journey.

All we can now do is to wait until we move from Croatia into Serbia, and see if the performance is repeated once again.

This has reminded us of the need to collect some Serbian currency before we attempt to hire a taxi for a trip to the hotel.

The trip down into Croatia has been less scenic to date. We are approaching Zagreb, and have noted that the amount of graffiti on buildings, rail wagons, etc has been quite marked.

The area surrounding Zagreb is not what we would call scintillating. The buildings surrounding the rail track do seem to still have the look of a region that hasn’t progressed a very long way from its totalitarian past.

As we have moved further south from Zagreb, we’ve moved from the industrial to a much more agricultural zone, with areas of both braod acre and more intensive cultivation. There has been a significant amount of canola, some corn, market gardens with strawberries, although the soil doesn’t serem as fertile as we noticed further north.

We’ve had yet another passport check – this time at a place called Sid.

That may have been the nearest station between Croatia and Serbia, but we’re yet to discover if this is the case. The weather has been very kind for this time of the year, with blue skies, reasonably warm temperatures and no sign of rain.

Of the villages and towns we have passed through so far, there doesn’t appear to be a great evidence of wealth amongst the populations. Most houses are either single story or very basic double story structures. The motor vehicles have for the most part been significantly older than we noticed in Ljubljana, and the public buildings have not been in any way ornate.

The transfer from Croatia into Serbia has now taken place, and the result has been a further check and stamping of passports at a station on the border.

We did come across a most enterprising individual who, realising that the trip is of some 9 hours duration without the opportunity to seek any sort of refreshment, arranges to climb aboard and to offer beer and cold mineral water to passengers. Although the asking price was high, the cold drinks were well received, and we were happy to pay the asking price. This also offered us a way of converting some Euros into the local Serbian currency.

We are on our third locomotive and train crew, but unfortunately, the carriages have remained the same for the whole trip.

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