The Czech Republic is comprised of two regions, Bohemia and Moravia. Bohemia is the bigger of the two and encompasses the western two thirds of the country. Moravia is the eastern third.
Brno is in southern Moravia. It is 140 miles SE of Praha and about an hour from the Austrian border. With a population of 350,000 it is the second largest city in the Czech Republic (CZ) and the capital of Moravia.
Hanka is a pitcher on a softball team. They had one game on Saturday (June27th) and another game on Sunday (June 28th) against two teams in Brno. Both Mike and Hanka also took the following Monday and Tuesday off so we could tag along and see a little of the Moravian country side. It was also the end of the month and we needed to renew our 30 day maximum stay in CZ by leaving the country and coming back in. The Austrian border was close enough so we could easily accomplish this.
The playing field was within the city limits, but off the beaten path. A narrow road that eventually becomes a dirt two track took us to the ball field. It was a good thing Mike and Hanka had been there before. We only took two wrong turns. We now knew why it took them over an hour to find the park and field.
Hanka’s team won both games. Hanka pitched the Sunday game for a few innings. With working and Marek she doesn’t get in as much practice as she wishes she could. In softball they use the windmill type pitch. As you can see, I know nothing about softball. I’m amazed anyone can control the ball.
Saturday evening we stayed at a hotel close to the field. The other members of the team were staying in a dormitory type pension that has large rooms with ten or so beds to a room. Mike and Hanka stayed with them the last time. Mike said never again with Marek. They could not get him to settle down with all the activity in the room.
There was a wedding reception being held in one of the banquet rooms of the hotel. After dinner Hanka and I had to peek in to see what the bride was wearing. As we were standing in the hallway looking in the bride noticed us. She brought Marek a piece of chocolate that was wrapped in gold foil to resemble a silver dollar size coin. He thought this was just great.
The game got over just before noon so we set out to tour the city of Brno. Hrad Spilberk is 13th century fortress on top of a very large hill. We walked it as none of the information or maps that we had indicated auto access. Naturally, once to the top we discovered the access road on the other side of the hill. The fortress itself is under reconstruction so we knew parts of it would be closed. What we didn’t anticipate was a TV crew was also filming inside and the entire interior was closed. Oh well, the views alone we spectacular. Brno, like Praha, is set in a giant valley.
We walked back down and through the city center and up to The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul. Notice I said up. The cathedral is also on a hill. Luckily it was much smaller than Spilberk’s. Jack kept questioning why it seemed we are always walking up hill? The church dates back to the 12th century. However, only part of the original foundation has survived. The current structure is from the 1700’s. Typical of all churches it has incredibly tall ceiling, many side alters, and very ornate frescos and wall paintings.
Above the entrance of the town hall are five long columns or turrets with a statue at the base of each spire or turret. Town officials supposedly reneged on their original payment off to the builder in 1510. The builder took his revenge by bending the turret above the Statue of Liberty. We have a great picture of it. Also inside this same entrance and hanging from the ceiling is the “Dragon.” It was given to the city in 1608 by an arch prince. When Jack first saw it he said “That’s no dragon. That’s an alligator!” Marek replied with “A big alligator!” We don’t know all the details behind the meaning of why he gave the city this “dragon”. Hanka said it is just referred to as The Dragon of Brno.
Monday we set off towards the Austrian border. We crossed the Moravian Highlands. This is a reealllly big plateau. For as far as you can see were crop fields surrounded by mountains off on the horizon. This is the largest agricultural area of the Czech Rep. Most of the crops appeared to be wheat fields. We saw some corn and soybeans. Hanka said a lot of potatoes were also grown in the area.
We arrived in the early afternoon. We knew being a Monday the Mikulov Chateau would not be open, but we wanted to see the view and just walk around the courtyard. Yes, it was up hill once more! The original chateau dates back to the 1700’s. The outside is rather simple, but very large. It was used as an archive for the Nazis. In 1945 as the war was ending instead of shredding or just destroying the documents stored there - they set fire to the entire chateau! Reconstruction has been going on since the 1950’s as funds became available.
We found a very nice hotel for the evening. It also had a bar and TV where we could watch the World Cup games.
As we were checking in we met a couple from the Chicago area. His family had left CZ when he was a child in the 1940’s so he spoke Czech and still had cousins in the Moravian area. After mentioning that my sister lives in Geneva west of Chicago they replied that their daughter lives there. In fact the orchestra from one of the schools in Geneva was in Brno a couple of days earlier and they were able to take in a concert. Their granddaughter plays in the orchestra. Small world.
At breakfast the man from Chicago gave Marek a US silver dollar. Not a real silver dollar, but everyone still calls them silver dollars. He brought a bunch of them along to give to his cousins’ kids. Marek was engrossed with turning it over and looking at it. Finally he handed it to Hanka and said “Open it”. He figured it was like the chocolate one the bride had given him!
The Tuesday morning we drove the whole mile or two to the Austrian border. We could see the border buildings from the park area at the Mikulov Chateau. A half mile from the border crossing, we were in the Austrian town of Drasenhofen. This was a very small neatly kept farming community. We took a couple of pictures then headed back to the border, got our entrance stamp and headed for Lednice back in the Czech Rep.
The Chateau Lednice is in our opinion a mansion not a chateau. It has undergone many alterations and additions since its beginnings in 1544. The last being a wing added from 1846-58. The chateau was built by the Liechtenstien family as their summer cottage. Whata cottage!! We took a tour of the first floor interior. Every room was ornate and intricately carved wood ceilings, walls, and staircases. We only saw 1/100 of the gardens and park area. Creation of the gardens, surrounding park, ponds, and lake began in 1790 and continued for 21 more years with minor changes off and on until 1880.
After a couple hours at Lednice it was back to Praha. We had a great time traveling with Mike, Hanka, and Marek.
But, I have to tell you one episode that Hanka & I will always remember and Mike & Jack will prefer to forget. This goes back to Monday night in Mikulov. While we were in the bar before dinner watching the World Cup Football (Soccer) Game a man came up to Hanka and spoke to her. At dinner Hanka told us that the man had said there was a wine garden near the hotel. It was - of all places - up the hill a ways. But this wasn’t really up a hill, it was a long incline. The next soccer game didn’t start until 8 or 9pm so the guys were open to the idea of going for a walk and trying to locate the wine garden (at first). Well we learned that “up the hill a ways and then left at the vineyards” can mean anywhere from a mile to five miles. We were in the town limits the entire way so we had a sidewalk, but we walked at least - at the very least - a mile on this long incline. Mike was pushing Marek in the stroller so at one point he basically said enough is enough, let’s turn back. Jack has walked nothing but uphill for the last two days and he figured he should be in heaven about now. Hanka and I talked them both into waiting until we got to the end of the block. I really wanted to find this wine garden. Moravian wine is thee most popular thee best wine and I’m right in the middle of the greatest vineyards in the country! I really wanted to find a local winery. So we get to the end of the block. The vineyards are - no exaggeration - at least another mile away. . .and we really had no idea where it really was other than ‘left at the vineyards’. So Hanka and I conceded that it was best to retreat back to the hotel. At least it was downhill.
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