Back in the summer of 2019, I went to visit Brno, a pretty city in the southern part of Czechia.
Did you know that the Czech Republic has changed its name to Czechia? However, it seems that the rest of the world is struggling to accept its new name because the Czech Republic is still being used to reference the country. Renaming a country is always a tricky thing.
My trip to Brno was actually a business trip, and I went there together with a colleague. He was travelling from Milan. Because Brno has a small airport, which mostly caters to charter flights during the warmer months, we had to fly into Vienna, the nearest international airport. It is about a 1-hour-and-45-minute drive from Vienna to Brno, so it was not bad at all.
As I will be away for 3 days, I parked my car at the Long-term parking at Schiphol, and I usually take a picture of the row where I parked the car so I don’t forget.
I have a funny story about forgetting where I parked my car many moons ago in Manila. I went to SM Megamall (shopping centre) and parked the car on the right side of the mall parking. The mall has parking on both sides of the building. It was closing down at 22:00, so I was rushing back to the car but couldn’t find it. I panicked. Someone stole the car! I quickly alerted security, and everyone was on their walkie-talkies when I realised that I actually parked the car on the other side. Ooops. Haha.
The flight from Amsterdam to Vienna is 1 hour and 50 minutes.
It is interesting to note that I have been to the Vienna airport many times but have never visited Vienna, the city itself (yet)! I need to plan a trip when I have the chance. Below you can see the city of Vienna under the wings of Austrian Air.
Upon arrival in Vienna, I went right away to collect the rental car. I had booked a car ahead of time for the drive to Brno; this is the fastest option to get to the city, as there are no trains between the cities.
I remember the drive being okay, nothing exceptional happening except for the occasional traffic when we reached built-up areas. We were driving with a GPS, but my Italian colleague served as my lookout. We had to buy a vignette on the highway just before we entered Czechia.
Brno is really close to the border. It is very close to Vienna and Bratislava. Prague, Krakow, Budapest and Graz are not too far away as well. All cities I have been to except for Graz, which I would like to visit one day.
We have arrived in Brno and were able to find our hotel in the city centre with no stress. We also managed to get a parking spot in front of the hotel. Because part of the hotel’s facade was under maintenance, I didn’t take pictures.
My colleague made a joke to the hotel receptionist that I should get something extra, something nice, as it’s my birthday. Oh dear, I almost forgot my birthday! But my colleague has a photographic memory; he remembers everything.
Not really a fan of getting attention for myself, so I kept quiet, but the hotel made a little extra effort and gave me 2 small bottles of white wine to enjoy in my room. Not sure if I can finish it all up during the whole stay, though. And you normally drink wine with meals; not in your hotel room, at least that is how I do it.
After a quick freshening up, we hit the streets for dinner. It was almost 21:00, and we were somewhat famished. We didn’t check out restaurants ahead of time, so we had no idea where we would eat. We decided to walk around and see if we could find something to our fancy. We were in search of local cuisine, if possible a restaurant that looked nice with people eating inside for the cosiness factor.
I managed to take a few photos of the city centre as we searched for a restaurant:
This is the equestrian statue of the Margrave of Jobst of Luxembourg. He was born in Brno and had many titles such as King of Germany, Duke of Luxembourg, and Margrave of Moravia. This statue is very catchy.
Church of St. Thomas on Moravske.
Then we came across this beautiful building. Half of the ground floor is a restaurant, which also occupies the rest of the first floor. The restaurant is called “Stopkova Plzenska Pivnice”. I have no idea how to pronounce this!
The indoor hallways of this restaurant looked very promising, like it’s in some Bavarian basement in Germany.
Alas, we have decided. This is it! We have found the restaurant where we will dine tonight. The place was jam-packed, and we were led upstairs, where there are more tables.
We ordered an English menu as our Czech is super rusty. When you are hungry, you want to make sure you ordered the correct dish. I remember our waiter being very helpful, explaining to us patiently the ingredients of the dishes we asked for and how they are cooked. My Italian colleague surely knows his food.
The starter was some local cheese, and Czech beer, of course. My colleague went for a blonde, and I fancied a dark. I love speciality beers, but I drink 1 glass, maybe 2, when I am in a good mood.
Our mains arrived. Beef sirloin steak, I think (Czech Rotensky) and a Bohemian roasted duck (Pecena Kachna), a lovely speciality from the region. This was quite enough, so we skipped dessert.
Coffee was at the hotel in the lobby before calling it a night. We needed to wake up early the next day for a long day’s meeting with the customer. For this trip, we have a day and a half of back-to-back non-stop meetings lined up.
One of my pet peeves is staying in a twin room when I am travelling by myself. I prefer a queen or king-size bed, not 2 beds! Well, you cannot have everything in life, even if it’s your birthday.
Stay tuned for the second and last part of this Brno trip with more more food and city architecture.
Travel Period: June 2019
Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)
