Sunday, August 23, 2009

Czech Republic: August 23, 2009

Well, I think I am going to stop talking about the breakfasts. Unless I write otherwise, just assume that they are great. This is Alexis’ birthday in Malaysia and would have been my Granny’s 99th. After breakfast we went for a walk up the hill behind the hotel. It looks like high end housing estate is being built on the hill overlooking Zlin (zleen). Marisa took many pictures of the flowers and fruits that we saw this morning. We plan to walk another route after breakfast tomorrow morning.We went to Tescos to get a few provisions and also managed to get a card for the cell phone. So we now have a Czech number.

In the afternoon we drove to Brno (pronounced Broon). Using the GPS made things so easy. We got to the Spilberk castle in about an hour. We walked around the grounds firstly and then bought tickets for entry. We toured the dungeons, which were used from everything from state prisons to barracks for Nazi soldiers. In fact, there was even the remains of the Nazi telephone exchange. Then we went to the main part of the castle, where we climbed the lookout tower, which gave a great view of the city below and also to the main exhibition halls. Marisa, I think, liked the 19th Century Baroque Apothecary best. The castle has seen a lot of history and this was documented in detail within the exhibition halls, from wars with the Swedish and Prussians to the history of the different additions to the castle itself by its various occupiers.

There was also a rehearsal by the European Youth Orchestra for a concert to be held this evening. Unfortunately, we were unable to stay, but it was an incredible sound. The conductor was Vladimir Ashkenazy. We then headed home, via a very different route, which ended up entering Zlin from the east, which was very interesting. It avoided driving through the town, which appeared to be quicker. At one point I thought I would try my own way, but ended up adding 10 mins to our journey via a detour, but at least I proved the system worked as it found me back on the right road very quickly.

We had another quiet dinner in our room and another relaxing evening.








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