Czech Republic
Špilberk

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    • Day 2

      Brno - 2. nap - Spilberk vár

      June 2, 2023 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      A 13. század közepe táján létrehozott királyi vár a 14. században morva őrgrófok székhelye lett, és később fokozatosan vált az Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia legszigorúbb börtöneként szolgáló hatalmas barokk erőddé, majd laktanyává.Read more

    • Day 15

      Brno

      July 12, 2023 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

      Leuke, compacte stad (2e grootste na Praag), met ook weer een vleugje artistieke sfeer, goede straatmuzikanten (alles bijeen een heel orkest tegen gekomen), grote pleine.
      Laf en drukkend weer, we staan na het Spilberk kasteel al volledig in het zweet. Nog wat rondgekuierd, dagmenuke gegeten in de schaduw van de kathedraaltuin (super plekje!), en daarna de koelte van het shopping center opgezocht waar de auto geparkeerd staat.Read more

    • Day 10

      A day in Brno

      August 14, 2023 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      We spent the day in Brno. Brno isn't really known as being a tourist destination site. In fact Rick Steves doesn't even mention it in his book. That said, Brno appears to be a very clean, safe and prosperous city. I find that Czechs don't smile a lot but everyone looks fairly content and healthy. I think when I initially planned this trip in 2019 it was because we could rent a car in Brno but not in the neighbouring city Oleomuc.

      Other than the Mendel museum and Bunker Z, the main 2 tourist attractions were St Peter's and St Paul's Cathedral and the Spilbeck castle in the centre of town. We walked up to the castle through a park with very moderately steep paths. The girls complained about the steepness but we had to remind them that they were mountain women from Alberta. The castle at the top was quite pretty and we walked around the embattlements at the top. The views of surrounding Brno were quite impressive. Madeline and Jada weren't terribly impressed by the Castle having only experienced Scottish castles. They thought it was rather a wimpy castle despite the fact that in 1685, it had withstood a 122 day siege by a Swedish army of 30000 people. That is correct, I said Swedish. After the castle we walked over to the cathedral which had some pretty impressive stain glass windows and a bell tower with a very narrow viewing platform at the top. We also heard the bell tower ring it's bell 12 times a 11 pm. This is a tradition going back to 1685 when the Brnites learned that the Swedes would call off their siege at noon on the 122 day, they rang their cathedral bells one hour earlier to trick the Swedes into ending the siege.

      There is a heat wave in Czech right now with daily temps of 31 degrees. Fortunately it has been cooling off at night. We decided the best place to hang out was the pool so we took a trolley to a public outdoor pool on a hill outside of town at almost the same height as the castle. The view looking over at the castle was also spectacular. Unlike the pool in Prague, it didn't charge per hour so we chilled out for about 3 hours. There was a nice breeze and after a dip in the pool it was very pleasant sitting on a chair in the shade on the grass. Interestingly 97 percent of the Czechs preferred lying around the pool in the sun. Jada and Madeline lay on the grass by the pool despite our warning them about the hazards of too much sun. After about 2 hours they came and complained that they were getting heat stroke and wanted to go. We told them to sit with us in the shade and bought them some waffles and they seemed much happier.

      We left the pool around 4 pm and after having a little break at the apartment headed off to the airport to get our rental car. I had booked it way in advance and at 90 Euro for 3 days thought it would be fun to visit 2 of the UNESCO heritage sites in the countryside around Brno. Google maps has been a great game changer for foreign travel. It tells one with very good consistency how to travel around using public transit. We entered into the phone that we wanted to go to the airport and it directed us to the bus stop at the correct time for the half hour trip. Our hearts sank a little at the airport when we arrived as many of the car rentals were closed as it was now Sunday at 6. Budget was open and the attendant was patiencely waiting for our arrival. We were his last pickup of the day. We picked up the car and everything went seemlessly. Google maps on our phone then helped us navigate back to accommodation. The most difficult part of the journey was finding the correct parking garage. There were 3 and we went to the wrong 2 first before finding the correct parking lot that would accept the QR code from the Air BnB. There was a lot of backing up but both Cheryl and I kept our cool.
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    • Day 23

      Brno Day 2 Spilberk Castle

      October 3, 2023 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

      Eversince a suggestion was made after lunch at the Kutna Hora tour, I have been on a quest for good ice cream. Firstly we don't come across many ice-cream vendors, when we do, either they don't have the flavours I like or they are brightly coloured, with multi flavours, which we have learnt in the past, is not genuine gelato. Today will be another day, in search of ice-cream.

      We started our morning looking at which art gallery to visit so the first stop was to find the Information Centre. There are 5 galleries in Brno, and we settled for the Spilberk Castle Museum because it housed, some 18 century paintings and sculptures through to 1920s, an armory, archeological sites and historic documents of the prison, prison torture and political prisoners that were once held there. On the way to the Castle we found a bronze sculpture of Mozart with one wing with a child's body on a piano. This was to commemorate his performance at the Reduta Concert Hall when he was 11 years old and the one wing was to signify his tragic death.

      Whilst winding through the streets we ended up at the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul. A beautiful Gothic church with spires that seemed to touch the sky. A little boy was so taken to Ruby, invited her to dance with him and his grandma. We got free use of the toilet after the dance. A Brno quirk is that the longest church bell chime is at 11am, because Brno shortened the seige by the Swedish army by an hour, by moving the clock forward and since then it has become a tradition here to ring the noon bells at 11am.

      After the Castle, we were famished. We headed straight for a local Czech pub that served "the best pork knuckle". There were 3 men in three next table tucking into one knuckle each. The serve was humungous. Even though we were famished, we decided to share one knuckle and still had to take a third of the knuckle to take back to the accomadation. Too full even for dinner, we will have to have it with scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow.

      The quest for icecream is still to no avail.

      Distance walked 13.5km
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    • Day 91

      Brno

      July 7, 2017 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Its nickname is "Moravian Manchester". It is the second largest city in Czech Republic and it was dead the day we arrived.. I don't know if someone warned them we were coming but hopefully it was due to it being a Czech public holiday. This first day was largely taken up on the search for a chocolate crepe. They seem to like crepes here in Czech and as I do not share the obsession with Nutella with the rest of Europe, I dragged Stuart around the streets until we found actual chocolate.

      On the second day we did our first "free" walking tour here. Where you basically tip what you feel like. Definitely helped to add interest to the city and we learnt quite a lot about it and Czech humour. We saw a statue of two people fornicating on the side of a church, a huge horse that when you stand under it and look up it looks like a giant penis and their modernist astronomical clock which is shaped like a bullet but people think that it looks - again - like a giant...

      In Brno they ring the noon day bell at 11am and have done since 1645. The weary Swedish were close to conquering the city but agreed that if they had not done so by 12pm then they would leave and not return.. the sneaky Moravian Mancunians therefore decided to ring the bell at the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul an hour early at which point the Swedes promptly left and the city was saved.

      On the tour we met a lovely Finnish girl called Hanna, who was in Brno for a Bachelorette party. We ended up having lunch together and visiting a crypt under the Capuchin Monastry with Hanna. We also enjoyed a free Birdseye view of the city which we had learnt about on the tour.

      In the evening we headed to the coolest bar called Super Panda Circus. It is found behind a curtained doorway and you must ring the doorbell to be let in. You are then met by a doorman who explains how the bar works, shows you to a seat and brings a display of random items on sticks. You choose your drink by instinct (but you can see how much you are paying and the alcohol content!!).

      The drinks themselves were like works of art. Mine came accompanied by a lime and coriander ice lolly.. Hanna's had a marshmallow and an ice block branded with the bar's logo.. Stuart's came accompanied with a dish of enoki mushrooms.. All of this in a completely non-pretentious atmosphere. The bartenders were really friendly and the doorman didn't bat an eyelid at us in trainers and rainmacs. To top it all off the prices were half of what you'd pay at home. I would say this place is reason enough to stop over in Brno, and I don't even like cocktails!
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    • Day 1

      ... in Brno

      March 1, 2017 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

      Už zítra!
      Musíme sbalit hromadu věcí, kufry, batohy, kraťasy, trika, plavky a nic pokud možno nezapomenout. Ráno autobus, letiště a dál se uvidí.

      Telefony si vezmeme, ale dostupní na českých číslech nebudeme, 69 korun za minutu a 360 za megabajt dat našim drahým operátorům nikdo soudný nedá. Místní SIM karta bude jeden z prvních nákupů a pak budeme dostupní na Whatsapp, Telegramu a vůbec čemkoli, co funguje přes internet. Pokud bude signál, nebudeme zrovna ve vodě a tak.

      PS: Kočky budou mít krmení, hlídání a rozmazlování i bez nás.
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    • Day 1

      ... in Brno

      March 1, 2017 in Czech Republic ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

      Balíme. Už několik hodin.
      To je ta fáze, kdy bych nejraději nikam nejel. Netaháme s sebou hromady věcí, ale hodně z nich moc často nepoužíváme a teď je horko těžko hledáme. Ale už to vypadá nadějně. Letenky, jízdenky, pojištění a dokonce i pasy máme.

      A pak je tu hromada foto vybavení. Foťáky, kamera, zálohování, kabeláž, nabíječky, měniče napětí. Snad ty fotky budou stát za to!

      Dám si víno, je nejvyšší čas.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Špilberk, Spilberk

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