Dates: from 20/02/2011 to 24/02/2011

Flight details: London Stansted – Brno-Tuřany (BRQ) non-stop flight with Ryanair. Flight time was 1h 40m. Price was £162 with one checked bag, bought 25 days advance (Ryanair web). Plane was a Boeing 737-800. Brno airport is small and cute, when we landed we were the very only plane in the whole airport, what was a rare sight.

Accommodation

Hotel Europa

Ad: Trida kpt. Jarose 27, Brno       Ph: +420545421400    booking@hoteleuropa.cz

http://www.hotel-europa-brno.com/

I chose it because of  good reviews and feedback in different webs. Price was very reasonable (50€ per night, breakfast included) and location was excellent, just 5 minutes walking from the old city center. Recently refurbished it was clean and tidy. Rooms had good size. Breakfast was good. There is free high speed internet plugging a LAN cable. I was quite happy with it, recommended.

Eating and Drinking

Sherlock Holmes Pub

Czech style pub with very english name. In the historic city center just by Freedom Square. Nice atmosphere and some of the most popular beers from the tap (Gambrinus, Urquell Pilsner, Dark Velko). Around 35CK per half a litre. They also serve food (did not try it) and the menu is in english.

http://www.sherlockholmespub.cz/

Restaurant Dávné časy

Starobrněnská 20, 60200, Brno          open 11.00 – 23.00         Tel.: 542 215 292             E-mail: info@davnecasy.cz

http://www.davnecasy.cz/restaurace.aspx

Czech cuisine. The name means “Old Times” and it is located in a basement in the heart of the old town. It is structured and decorated as a dungeon, it is quite atmospheric. In fact we ate in one reserved area in a cell. They have the menu in english. The food has names matching the environment. The meat was simply great. And the amount really crazy. A huge main plus a side dish plus 2 beers were just around 600 CK. For que quality of the food and the amount we had I found it very reasonable. Highly recommended.

Hotel Pub Restaurant Pegas

Ad: Jakubská 4; 60200, Brno      Ph: 542210104    http://www.hotelpegas.cz/

One of the most popular spots for beer in Brno, they brew their own beer. It was very busy on a monday night. Beer was excellent, they have 4 types: normal lager, wheat beer, dark and the special Gold with 16% alc vol. Food was good, but not as good as in the Dávné časy. Menu in english. Also recommended.

Restaurant Skanzeen

Pekařská 80, Brno          Tlf: +420 543 244 962           http://www.skanzeen.cz/main.php?startmusic=no

Another place for Czech cuisine. It was ok but nothing special. Not as good as the other two above. Dishes were very heavy. It is some 10 minutes walk out of the historical city center.

Restaurant Středověká Krčma

Ad: Česká 6, 602 00, Brno       Tlf: 542210021          http://brno.stredovekakrcma.cz/

Another very popular venue in the heart of the city center, not far from Pegas. It is a medieval tavern sitting in a basement. Very well decorated and set up, staff wear costumes and there are live shows, all related to the middle ages. Food was good but not great. They serve special beer mixed with liquor called Korma. I expected it to be very touristic but in fact it was packed with locals.

Mamut Pub Cafe Bar

Bašty 8, Brno 602 00     tel.: 542 210 136           http://www.mamut-pub.cz/

Very nice pub where you have a tap in the table and you pour your own beer (Urquell Pilsner). Big and spacious it has a screen where you can see the amount of beer each table has had sorted by the amount, so you can “compete” to climb up to the top position. Talk about extreme sports. Very recommended. Price per litre of beer was around 60 CZK

Sightseeing in Brno

Brno is the capital of the region of Moravia and the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Visitors normally come here for business (my case) and I could hardly see any tourists. It does not look like a smaller Prague, in fact its architecture is more related to Vienna, as many architects worked in both cities. Almost all the interesting buildings are in the city centre, which is small and compact, oval shaped and mostly pedestrian, with Svodoby (Freedom) Square at the heart of it. Brno has a very lively universitarian life, what makes nice to go out for to drink and dance at night.

The most impressive building is the neo-gothic Cathedral of St Peter and Paul, located on top of one of the hills. During the Thirty Years War Brno was being under siege by the swedish for months. The swedish commander gave his troops one last chance to take the city and said that he would give up exactly at noon if the city had not fallen by then. When defeat was close the french commander of Brno decided to ring the noon bells one hour early, at 11, making the swedes desist in their attack and saving the city. Still today the bells ring at 11 everyday to commemorate the gesture. The cathedral can be seen in the 10 crowns coins

The other open space in the old city centre is Vegetable Market Square (Zelny) where people came to buy or exchange goods for centuries. It has a baroque fountain in the middle.


Other remarkable buildings are the Old Town Hall (the oldest building in Brno and from where the city was administrated for over 600 years)

And the New Town Hall, and old Dominican Monastery

In general strolling around the old city centre is very pleasant, with some art nouveau interesting buildings, plenty of churches, a couple of theatres. Worth visiting and staying a day or day and a half.

The are 2 building that are worth visiting but are not enclosed in the old city limits. One is the infamous Špilberk Castle, who used to be one of the worst prisons under the Austro-Hungarian empire

And Villa Tugendhat, a UNESCO World Heritage place (I did not visit it).