We woke, ate, and left our luggage at the hotel while we headed over to the Olympic park to swim. The entire Olympic swimming stadium was open to us, and there were maybe 25 others also swimming. We changed in the locker area and then headed out to the pools. It took some time for us to figure out where we could swim, as there seemed to be groups of older people using the lanes. The girls ended up jumping and swimming in the diving area, while I swam a lap in the pool. Never realized it before, but an Olympic pool is really big. I felt like I had a real workout just from one lap.

We then spent some time in the hot tub area, only it wasn’t really hot, just warmer. After, we went out onto the lawn area by the lake to dry off, and then headed back.

Phyllis, Kaitlin and I picked up the bags from the hotel, and then we boarded the train to Prague. The first leg was an ICE to Nurenburg. Only after we were on the train did I realize that the second leg from Nurenburg to Prague was by bus, not train, and that reservations were required. Our only choice was to wait in Nurenburg for three hours and then catch a late train getting into Prague at 11:00. This option worried me, since it is always hard to get oriented in a new place, and finding our way to the hotel, which was not close to the station, might be difficult.

While in Nuremberg, we ate at a McDonalds, Amber and Kaitlin had crepes, and we loaded up on food. Then we boarded the train and took it to the transfer point at Schwandorf. There we waited 20 minutes for the train to Prague, only to discover that there was a strike in Czech, and no trains we’re running. That left us stranded in a small town with no hotel. A young German train conductor named Marco helped us out, explaining the situation, suggesting alternatives, and even speaking to a cab driver and a hotel to find us a place. It turned out that he was traveling to San Francisco with his girlfriend the next week, so I think he was especially sensitive to the troubles that a traveler might have. 

There was also one other traveler, a girl from Korea, who was also stranded. Her English was only so so, so she was in even worse shape than us. Eventually, we all decided to take the train back a station to Regensburg, which is a larger town, and Marco suggested staying at the Star Hotel, which we did. Storms were threatening as we walked from the station to the hotel, but the rain held off just long enough for us to get inside.

We were unable to get in the room at first because of a problem with the key, but we finally got it settled. The Korean girl, Jung Suk Lee, stayed with us as well, and we had an informal dinner around the seat cushions before turning in. No wireless, so we couldn’t do anything about finding a hotel for tomorrow. We went back and forth on whether to go on to Prague the next day (and risk another strike) or skip ahead to Vienna. We eventually decided to go with Prague as planned, and then went to bed.