The campsite is pretty big and definitely cheap although it's in need of a little maintenance. For whatever reason though, the whole place was empty so I had the pick of their huge camping field to myself. At least right up until my final night...
The first thing on the cards was a new bike and after some shopping around I decided to go for the cheapest option at under £100. With seat and grips made from sandpaper, frame and brakes made from soft cheese, and lights and gears which simply didnt work at all, it was just 48 hours before I was pushing it back to the shop in the rain with a bent wheel and one remaining pedal for a refund.
I replaced it with what I should have got in the first place, a solid medium-range mountain bike - you can't go wrong with that.
Out with the old (new)...
...and in with the new
Brno is a great cosmopolitan city somewhere in between easy-going Olomouc and bohemian Prague. The centre is based around the old town while new tower blocks on the outskirts are built in a number of cheerful colours, not just concrete grey (Warsaw take note). The main square is nothing special, a mix of nice old Czech buildings but the occasional new glass structure kind of spoils it. It is certainly a place best viewed when strolling down the winding back alleys and little side streets instead.
Back on the square there is The House Of The Four Mamlases, an odd building with four troll-like blokes trying to hold up the pillars and their robes at the same time.
Just off the main square is the Town Hall with a bit of the city's history on show on the way up to the tower viewing terrace (better views are available from the castle and cathedral). At the bottom is a stuffed crocodile suspended from the walkway ceiling (no idea why), while on the front of the building the middle stone tower is deliberately carved wonky (allegedly because the craftsman wasn't paid the agreed fee).
Just across from the Town Hall is the Cabbage Market. This big square becomes a local fruit and veg market around the outside of the fountain while fish used to be sold from the fountain itself.
The first thing you notice as you head into town from any direction is the huge gothic St Peter And Paul Cathedral on the top of the hill and it makes it simple to get your bearings. As well as the main hall, you can visit the dull and preachy crypt underneath and the two bell towers above.
On the way up to the towers is the treasury but there is something wrong in my mind about showing off the gold thread woven into the old bishop's gown while there are people sleeping rough in the cathedral doorway. The bell towers themselves are quite good but the main reason to go up is the view down on the city below. Just down the hill is a cafe serving the monks' specially brewed beer.
The other big hill near the town centre is where the Spilberk Castle stands. The castle itself is alright with a look-out tower and a set of bells in the square which play different tunes at random on the hour. The best part to view however is the "Casemates", a network of prison tunnels under the castle foundations which you can walk around. Some of the tales are rather brutal while the tunnels were later adapted by the Nazi's to shelter troops at the end of the second world war.
Probably the weirdest thing in Brno is the Capuchin Monastry, and not so much the monastry as the crypt underneath. It contains over 40 bodies (originally there were over 200) which have been neither preserved or embalmed but left as they were to decay naturally and mummify over time in ventilated rooms.
Some of the monastry's benefactors and wealthy locals have glass coffins while the bodies of the former priests lay, en masse, in big chambers side by side. It is a bizzare thing to witness a body hundereds of years old where it has had no interferance except to be carried to the crypt and left. The chimney-sweep is still in his old boots.
I decided to stay an extra day in Brno (sorry it is at your expense Bratislava) in order to attend the Bohemia Jazz Festival that eveving. In the morning though, I took a day trip to the caves of the Moravian Karst. About an hour north of the city, near Blansko, are a number of caves, the largest and most popular of which is the Punkva Cave. This limestone metropolis of stalactites, stalagmites (and plenty which have joined together to form something completely different) is nothing short of breath-taking and a really different experience - something my naff camera fails to capture.
Where the cave emerges into the light of the Macocha Abyss sinkhole, there is also an underground river which you can ride back in a boat for over a kilometre. It has to go down as one of the best daytrips of the journey so far - and you don't mind the rain so much when you are underground.
That evening, I braved the elements for the Jazz festival in the city square. Having caught the end of The Ploctones, I waited patiently in the rain for John Scofield (who has played with the likes of Miles Davis and Charles Mingus) and his jazz quartet. The old man didn't dissapoint and that guy can still play!
When the music finally stopped and the crowd of umbrellas cheered and then departed, all that was left was for a long dark cycle home in the pouring rain. Luckily the rain didn't matter as I could refect on a great final day in one of my favourite countries.
When I returned to camp, it was suddently full and bustling (well, full compared to the previous days). A group of caravanners had formed a big ring, my my van included in it, and had very courteously decided to box me in to such an extent that I couldn't open the back doors of the van enough to get in. After one rather angry rant, one very apologetic Frenchman moved his caravan down the hill a few inches (with his family still inside watching TV) so that I could at last find shelter from the heavens.
After moving!
Thanks Czech Republic.
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