Thursday, March 13, 2014

Travel From Germany to Prague

I have been really occupied and tired all these days. I have no idea what exactly I'm busy with, probably because I have switched to a new living place which take me longer time to go on and off work. My travel time have never stop though, just got really no time to blog about them.

Been arranged to work in Germany for a week. Decided to extend few days and travel to Prague (Praha), a beautiful city that I thought I should go if I only have one chance to go Europe. Have been searching the cheapest and fastest way to get to Prague from Germany, I was staying in Kassel for work and there was where I departed, at last my decided route: Kassel - Nürnberg - Praha - Nürnberg - Frankfurt

From Kassel to Prague: 39 Euro
From Prague to Frankfurt: 44 Euro 
If you are not traveling across many region, it's not worth to buy the Euro Pass, DB Pass or whatsoever pass. It does provide you the flexibility and you need not worry about missing the train/bus, but the price is much much much higher.

Choose to blog about this because I feel this was the most challenging part in that trip, and I thought that might help some people too.
The reason I choose Nürnberg route over Dresden:
1. There's no direct train from Kassel to Dresden. Need to travel to Frankfurt although I have a free train ticket to Frankfurt.
2. Total journey is shorter.
3. Less stops.

When my colleague in Germany saw the ticket, they were surprise the mode of transport from Nurnberg to Praha is Bus, a real bus. Looks like they have so used to the train usage.


Do not confuse with the different train station name for Nürnberg Hbf and Nürnberg Hbf Vorpl H, the train station and bus station. They are at the same premises for my case.

The confused signboard

I followed the Bus sign, it lead me to upstairs, off the track. it was correct until it lead me across the street and it was for all the public Bus, not the IC Bus to Praha. All you need to know is you need to go up to the main entrance. The IC Bus Stop is just right at the DB bahn station entrance. DO NOT CROSS THE STREET. There are 2 main entrance and it is at the entrance on the left hand side of the building.

Nürnberg DB Deutsche Bahn Station Entrance

If you cannot find it, you can definitely ask the Tourist Information counter. They totally understand you.

IC Bus Stop

This is how the bus stop looks like. Look for the Bus Stop sign - IC Bus. There's a bus schedule notice that you can confirm you are at the correct bus stop.

The schedule

10 minutes is sufficient for walking from the train track to the bus stop, provided that you did not get lost too badly (like me walking across to the main street). I allocated much longer transfer time for going Prague and 10 minutes transfer time when coming back.

The bus is here

There is a huge luggage compartment underneath the bus, we can't and we don't need to bring large piece of luggage to your seat. If you have short transfer time, my advice is to let others put in their luggage first so you don't need to wait too long when unload.

The bus is comfortable, with toilet, although not super clean. It takes quite some time to upload luggage but it arrive sharply or even earlier at the arrival time both to and fro. Obviously they have allocated the time in their schedule.

Get to see some nice view at different perspective from the bus. I hope you enjoy the route too if you are taking the same.