Brno is a lovely change after the Mediterranean where we have spent the last 2 months. The people are of course all wrapped up in thick padded jackets, almost all in black. The buildings look very northern - all cut stone, turrets, and pale colours. The weather is of course much colder, a scary -8 this morning when we woke.
The streets in the centre of Brno are very wide, open and clear. There's not much street furniture, very few parked cars, and mostly no kerbs. It seems very open and plain compared to elsewhere we've been this year. There are plenty of pedestrians but no cyclists at all - with the recent snow and all the ice and snow still on the streets they'd be a nightmare to ride. All the squares, even the smallest ones, have Xmas stalls selling drink, food and Xmas goods. Drink is clearly a big thing here. There are clearly many different types of hot alcoholic drinks available apart from mulled wine, and many stalls sell types of slivovitz.
We breakfasted in to allow the temperature to rise a little and let the sun came out. Good ploy, as it was very pleasant heading off on a walking tour of Brno. We are fully kitted - here's what I had on... Hiking boots and merino socks, merino underwear and t-shirt. Merino long-sleeved shirt and merino jacket. Down jacket, and another thick down vest. Woollen scarf and merino beanie. I was warm, but I needed all of it. A bit of wind and I would have needed another layer, which I don't have available!
We began the day with a coffee in a lovely cafe, then headed off around Brno. Stops on our walk included the two biggest churches, and the town hall where the tower didn't open until later. Much is closed on a Monday here.
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| Town Hall, town dragon (actually a crocodile) hanging in the entrance passage |
The Capuchins crypt was a bit of an odd one. It lies underground of course, and contains the mummified bodies of monks and various nobles who chose to be left there. The nobles were in glass-topped coffins, the monks lying in groups directly on the ground, with one or two bricks as a pillow. They were mostly nude apart from a cover over their hips, and were black and dessicated. A fascinating if not very pleasant sight. From there up to Spilberk Castle overlooking the town. We may revisit the castle tomorrow when it opens for visits inside.
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| In the Capuchins' Crypt |
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| Spilberk Castle |
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| Looking over Brno from Spilberk Castle |
For lunch we bought some nice fresh rolls and fillings at a supermarket and retreated to our pleasant studio to eat them and take a little time out before a second trip around Brno.
In the afternoon we followed a trail of the best modernist (between the wars) buildings of Brno. The architecture here is rather like Prague in that almost all buildings have at least some architectural merit, without the random mix of styles, fads and short-lived buildings that most cities seem to have. Here there are really only two main styles - the slightly baroque more ornate buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, then the cleaner modernist ones from the 20s and 30s. The latter, which were very innovative when they were built, have picked up a lot of cues from the older buildings, and the two styles combine together extremely well. All the buildings have been built to last, and the quality shows.
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| Crisp, clean modernist buildings |
We did manage to have a look in a few second-hand and antique shops we found during our tour, finding one lovely little Moser glass to add to our collection of small glasses.
By evening we'd walked some 15 interesting kilometres, so stopped off for a piece of cake, a hot chocolate and a coffee in the same cafe as in the morning.
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| Look at the colour of that hot chocolate! |
We finished off the day with a Vietnamese meal and Pilsner Urquell beer in a very nicely decorated restaurant.
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| Evening Xmas market |
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| We didn't realise that an elephant was part of the nativity scene? |
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| Svarak is the local mulled wine, hot and spicy. |
