No pics yet because my phone’s running out of juice and there’s only wifi down in the hotel restaurant.

A train day today (as is tomorrow) as it takes a surprising 9 hours to get direct from Berlin to Vienna – those of you who, like me have a rudimentary grasp of geography south or east of Calais, might have imagined that Germany and Austria were right next to each other so it was probably a bit like London to Cardiff – well it is except London to Cardiff via Edinburgh.

Thankfully, the Northern Czech countryside between the border and Prague is as stunning as South Wales (yes, that’s a compliiment!)

Otherwise until Prague, in our compartment we had a German emo couple and German chap with an oriental girlfriend who couldn’t do anything for herself, a noisy Czech family with us from somewhere unprounounceable in the middle down to the still unpronounceable but memorable Brno in the south. And then a couple of female scandi navian interrailers from Brno down to Vienna.

I was not in the boy’s good books when we found that I’d chosen the hotel for it’s proximity to the Mitte station and we came into the Sud and because I hadn’t looked at the map properly, I decided it was walkable. I won him back with a large doner kebab.

I’ve also promised him a taxi when we arrive in Milan tomorrow – little does he know what Italian driving is like…

Tomorrow is our longest single journey door to door though it includes an hour waiting for a connection in Innsbruck – we leave at 9.40 in the morning and don’t get there until 8.35pm.

So we’ve been as far east as we’re going to go, now we’re heading south west. And no I haven’t published the full itinerary yet, I like to keep you on your toes.