It was far too early to be walking back through Nové Mêsto to the train station, and as it turned out un-necessarily so. Not only had we mis-heard the pilot when we landed in Prague and set our watches an hour fast, but the train was later than we thought. It took a while to find the correct information though. We were heading for a small town 80km or so to the North called Jicín. We had to go to one place to find information on train times, then back to the ticket office where we discovered (thankfully now and not later) that our pronounciation of Jicín sounded rather like another town, Dêcín. This sorted out, we got the correct tickets and a printout of the route and waited for the train.
Just before the train arrived we realiesed we were on the wrong platform, and hastily went to the right one. The train was smooth and comfortable, and we watched the countryside roll by. At Nymburk we changed trains and got onto a tiny diesel powered local train. This stopped at every little nowhere station - some of the places looked like all they had was a train station. I began to worry just how desolate Jicín would turn out to be.
I needn't have, Jicín is a fair sized town albeit very quiet. The route from the station to our hotel was not obvious, but not far from the station we found a tourist information map. We had booked ourselves in to Pension Bohemia the previous day at a very helpful tourist centre in Prague. This was about a thirty minute walk (with heavy bags) but well worth it. The room was superb - complete with comfortable sofa and satellite TV. A snip at £20 a night. Our plan was to relax on our first day here, and walk out to Prachovské Skály tommorow.
We spent the afternoon exploring the town, of which the main attraction is the pretty little town square. This is lined with shops and there is an indoor market. In the evening we ate at the restaurant of our hotel. The food and service were excellent, and we stayed up quite late drinking there.
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