Direct Train-whatever!

Our tickets from Prague said:

Train 207 Departing Praha 17:20 Arriving Zurich 6:04

No connections, no via stations, nothing.

Just to be sure (you know our Czech luck with trains) we double checked online. It has no connections just get on the train and go.

In reality this is how it worked-you let me know if this sounds direct to you.

We got on a train that said Salzburg on the sign (train 207 departing 17:20). The train attendant came through in Ceske Budejovice (still in the Czech Republic) saying all done, get off. We are maybe halfway to Salzburg and no where near Zurich. When we couldn’t communicate with her and couldn’t understand why we were told to exit the train, she drew us this map:

This is the point where I know we've become more savy at train travel-we were able to execute the hardly understandable map. We had to leave the station in Ceske Budejovice and walk 400 meters to a bus pickup. Then we rode that bus for over an hour. We arrived in a no name Czech city after dark (station hardly existed) and crossed 2 tracks to climb up into what a paper sign said was a train to Zurich. There we found our couchette (un-airconditioned).

I don’t know about you, but I think some of those steps would be worth mentioning on the online itinerary. But hey that’s just me.