Blogs from Brno, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic, Europe

Skore ranne vstavanie a smer pesibusom centrum brna. To je obehnute zachvilku, kedze je malicke. Na zelenom trhu uz kopa predajcov ovozelu a aj burcak sa uz objavuje. Katedrala sv.petra a pavla obrovska ale odfotit ju neni sanca, nakukujeme dnu ale moc nas to neocarilo. To je tak ked je uz clovek namlsany inych bombastickych interierov. Ulice su dost plne. Ludia tu vyzeraju taky divny a niesu ani moc priatelsky. Stupame k dalsej dominante mesta, hrad spilberk. Koncime vsak pred hradbami. Dnu nas to nelaka. V prilahom parku su uviazany ponici. Pri nich sa zastavuje ciganska skolka. My parkujeme v prijemnej kaviarnicke cafe podnebi . Kde davame kapucinko. Tu som bol minuly rok s filipinku a atmosfera sa mi tu pacila. Prijemna zahrada, obsluha mila. Odfoteni velky cierny vibrator na namesti slob... read more

It's always a surprise and thrill to run into a friend from home when in a faraway place. When we came upon this young Wollomi Pine at the university botanical gardens in Brno, that's how I felt. For those of you who don't know, the Wollomi is a recently discovered species of tree, found just in a tiny cluster a few years ago in a remote part of the Blue Mountains of Australia, and it is now being cultivated by eager botonists around the world. Dear Martha Kaiser, remember our days of doing horticulture together in college? I rarely enter a greenhouse without recalling the sweet little old (English?) lady who used to search the undergrowth in our greenhouse for a fallen ponderosa lemon with which to make her lemon curd. No matter where Phil and ... read more

After being first in the breakfast room for the second day running, I selected the premium table with views towards the Castle to enjoy my feast. I headed out early, keen to make the most of the morning light and I arrived in the city centre of Brno before 8 am. There were few out and about. The late night clubbers were weaving on their merry way home to bed. The church going fraternity of Brno scowled at them to show their disapproval, as they noisily meandered along. The views last summer of the Main Square were always obscured by the stage for the music festival, so I took the opportunity of photographing the Bank of Moravia whilst few folk were around. It might not look much, but it is an icon in modernist building from ... read more

Brno was the first of the three zoos that I visited as I was staying in the city centre of Brno itself (which is very nice, by the way) and I had the pleasure of being shown around the zoo by a local resident and fellow zoo enthusiast. Brno is a decent sized zoo, not huge by any means, but quite a nice general zoo with a fairly diverse collection ranging from mammals to fish. It's quite easy to see that the zoo has improved in recent years and continues to improve as there are a fair few old, out of date enclosures, such as some very old primate enclosures, as well as some very nice new enclosures such as the excellent Kamchatka Bear exhibit and the African area where there is further development going on ... read more

Our hotel sits just under the hill upon which Spielbek Castle sits. We climb our way up winding paths through the park, finally reaching the back of the castle. Another five minutes gets us to the ticket office, where we are excited to discover that we do not have to go round on a guided tour. Our excitement dissipates as we find that the castle was primarily used as a prison, and has little or no architectural merit and next to nothing in the way of historic contents. Instead we work our way round a series of exhibits that cover archaeology, the prison (the section on torture is gruesomely fascinating), its use as a prison by the Gestapo who were headquartered here, and then becomes an art gallery. We make our way carefully back down the ... read more