Prague – Trutnov – Hostinne – Klasterska Lhota – Liberec – Jilemnice
I’m journeying into Bohemia to research my family history, but I could just as well be researching train culture.
Leaving the cities (or the CITY, in the case of Czech), train culture changes dramatically. It feels a bit like journeying into Frontierland.
Train stations in the Czech Republic can be tiny home-like outposts. The attendants appear from the outposts to wave a hand-placard, signaling the train can depart.
The trains are often one car, perhaps two, that remind me of coal trains. They brush along trees as they snake through forests. And perhaps the most surprising, some teenagers tell me, is that these local trains serve as their transport for school. No school buses; they have school trains, taking the village children to the larger towns for class. Watch the trains fill-up in the morning and afternoon with children carrying backpacks.
At any station in Frontierland, you walk across tracks, looking for the white placard telling you the destination of your chug-chug train. (Confirm your destination; the placards can be placed haphazardly.) I see men in knee high boots with bait and poles and tackle take the train one stop to their favorite fishing hole. I see sheep herders pacing through fields with their loyal friends. I see children disappear down mud paths, and overall-ed men emerge from factories. I see women tending garden, carefully nurturing each plant as daylight allows. I see deer dart closer to the train in circumspect, then dart away. It does feel like Frontier land, and it’s worth the ride.
Benjamin Thomas
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