Austria and Prague 2019 - A Bus Called Leo

Returning to the hotel after our trip to the fortress we felt we as if we had been on a dead run since we landed in Vienna 4 days prior. We had tuna fish and a croissant, enough for a meal, and decided a late afternoon and night spent in the hotel room would be restful and restorative before hitting the road again the next morning. We had to get up early to catch the bus to Prague we had booked.

While researching the trip we had some difficulty finding a way to get from Salzburg to Prague. The train took 7 hours plus, depending on the time of day, and required us to change trains in Linz with only a 30 minute window to do so. Digging on the internet we found a bus line called Leo Express. It was a 5 hour trip, cheaper than the train and would not require a layover or change.

The trip was a delight. We had, for a modest charge, upgraded to business class and upon arriving at the bus were provided with a small bag of snacks and liquid refreshments. As we departed there were shadowy silhouettes of mountains. One came into sharp relief as we neared it. It rose above a lake, it's image mirrored in the still water. We passed small villages dominated by church spires nestled between the mountains. Balconies in the small towns held flower boxes overflowing with colorful blooms.  At one point the road narrowed and wound through one of the villages past the church and guesthouses whose balconies seemed almost as if they would buckle under the weight of the luxurious profusion of blossoms. Small stands of solar panels evidenced how far ahead of the U.S. Europe is in terms of renewable energy. The language as well as the architecture changed as we crossed the border into the Czech Republic showing that, even with the E.U., the separate countries continue to hold their particular histories, cultures and traditions in high regard. We enter Prague and found ourselves traveling down streets lined with Baroque buildings, their beautiful facades wearing a veneer of grit and grime, the only area we found that, the rest of the portions of the city we visited were clean, and were deposited at the train station.