Tuesday 8 July 2014 Brno

Hot 30C

We have had a very relaxing day – I think the first one since our trip began. After a leisurely breakfast at the apartment we went for a short walk around the town and picked out some of the points of interest listed on the tour map. It is particularly windy today and we hoped to visit St Thomas' Church but it was closed.

The fruit and vege market was open so we wandered around and decided to return later in the afternoon to collect some fruit for after dinner. The prices are quite inexpensive and the berry fruits look and smell great.

We walked down town to the station to check arrangements for our early journey tomorrow to the Karst and we stopped for an iced cappuccino – not heard of one? Neither had we but it was great, a strong coffee with ice and thick cream on top. Excellent!

I found a place that did pedicures and for 300czk or AU$16 I now have baby soft feet :)

We passed by the Old Town hall again to get a photo of the Brno Dragon that I mentioned yesterday.

This afternoon we returned to the markets and bought some blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and cherries - about 1.5kg for AU$5. We have dessert for tonight and tomorrow. I went to the supermarket to get Cream but as nothing is written in English I returned with Sour Cream and was immediately sent back to get Whipped Cream. I did manage to find it however – not a popular item for the locals.

We notice there are no cars in the centre of Brno, it is all trams and the few taxi's (for millionaires only) as the advertising tells us on the tourist map!

On every square there is a church but it is a fact that the Czech population is not religious, they are however spiritual!. It turns out that the Czech people lost all interest in religion when it became a political ploy by those in power to manipulate the people. So why are there so many churches? Don't know and probably won't find out until we learn some Czenglish. Probably won't happen this trip.

We had a local beer and glass of Moravian Rose at a bar downstairs from our apartment, and accompanying it we enjoyed some local delicacies, sausage with mustard and horseradish and Omouloc aged cheese from a small town about 50km from here.

Another world cup match - semi final's thank goodness - just two more matches to go. Congratulations to Germany on last night's demolition job on Brazil....