After Old Town Square and the Charles Bridge, I had expected that the station would be housed in a crumbling relic, and there is an older part that is historic and ornate, but Praha hlavni nadrazi proper is modern and shiny with bright red pillars and blue accents. There are wide ramps that take you up and wide ramps that take you down. Quick and efficient, so long as you know where you’re going.

Mimi appears out of the crowd, holding a fistful of brochures. “I got the tickets and a map,” she says. “No guidebook, but these will tell us what we should see while we’re in Budapest.”

“We won’t get there until mid-afternoon.”

“That is correct.”

“So, we’re going to get off the train, look at bullet holes, and then get back on the train? That’s not much time to see the place.”

“Staying overnight isn’t going to kill us.”

“Overnight?”

“I found an interesting hotel in downtown Budapest.” Mimi hands me one of the brochures. “Hotel Astoria. The Nazis used it as their headquarters in World War II, and the KGB took it over when Russia invaded Hungary.”

“We can’t stay overnight in Budapest.”

“Stalinist chic and centrally located.”

“We have a room here in Prague.”

“And we’ll still have the room when we come back.”

We’re really going to Budapest? Kitty wraps her arms around herself. Do you remember what the Russians did to Imre Nagy?

There’s a large screen in the middle of the station that shows the trains and the platforms. Our train is not on the list.

“They don’t give you the platform in advance?”

“It’s announced about fifteen minutes before the train leaves.”

Kitty is turning around in tight circles. Why don’t we just go to Chernobyl or Fukushima while we’re at it?

“We don’t even know where the platforms are.”

The train doesn’t leave until just before eight, which gives us time to find something to eat. Mimi already has the Prague guidebook out and is going through the choices.

“There’s Salanda and Burger King, but neither of them gets very good reviews.” Mimi turns the page. “We could eat at Café Coffee Day, but it looks as though they only have coffee and muffins.”

“Any restaurants nearby?”

“Restaurant Zvonice is just outside the station,” says Mimi, “but they don’t open until eleven thirty.”

“Grocery store?”

Mimi turns more pages. “Billa. Let’s try Billa.”

THE LAST NIGHT that Mimi was in San Francisco, we grabbed dinner at Tad’s Steak House on Powell.

“Steak, garlic bread, salad, and baked potato.” I opened the door for Mimi the way gentlemen did in the movies. “Best meal deal in town.”

“And cheap,” said Mimi. “I like that in a man.”

“How about tomorrow we go out to Cliff House?”

“Can’t. Tomorrow I fly back to Toronto.”