The day was easy. Catch a bus to Telc. Michael, our host, printed off a bus timetable and we had a leisurely last look around the beautiful streets of Mikulov.
The bus was a short walk down the cobbled road - clicketty, clack, clicketty clack - then we waited with the smoking queue. You are smoker, like it or not here, everyone smokes everywhere, even inside in restaurants.
The modern tourist bus pulled up on time and we paid our $7 fare each for the hour ride to Brno to change immediatey to our Telc connection. Fields of corn, acres of wheat, avenues of cherries and tall forests for miles and miles and miles - green and gorgeous - punctuated by pretty villages and tall steeples, golden crosses guarding the high places, touching the clouds.
Brno, like the outskirts of any large city, a seedy underbelly. Five minutes to the connection....10 minutes late though. Next bus leaving for Telc in three hours. Store the luggage if anyone will acknowledge our presence, toilet stop if the attendant will accept our money and head for the shiny spires. Rush past pockets of 'toi toi' smells, reminders of homelessness and despair, noting landmarks - allrisk, erotic shop, crystal corner. The centre loomed and the centrum everything the train station was not.
Our cameras flashed, our jaws dropped and our hearts were lifted as high as the tall spires that graced the old buildings. Dark gothic churches, apartment facades, tortured statues, apostles of old, stood sentinel, juxtaposed against the brash and bland of now.
Why had we never heard of Brno! We may have sailed past never knowing! What a treasure - more precious than Vienna thinks Richard.
We caught the Telc bus and arrived after two hours of more fields and vineyards and rain. An accidental and convenient taxi took us to our pension and Patricia, lovely Patricia, greeted us so warmly! Weary travellers. We were not to stay in the pension, rather in a room in the house for her family, fully set up for independent living - magnificent, antique, kitchenette, original oil paintings on the wall, a view from the window onto the market square.A meal at the pub, indoors with the smokers, chicken, steak, vegies, then hot raspberries and ice cream - so much nicer than a banana and bagged croissant shared on the steps of a Brno church.......but then again.....maybe not.
The bus was a short walk down the cobbled road - clicketty, clack, clicketty clack - then we waited with the smoking queue. You are smoker, like it or not here, everyone smokes everywhere, even inside in restaurants.
The modern tourist bus pulled up on time and we paid our $7 fare each for the hour ride to Brno to change immediatey to our Telc connection. Fields of corn, acres of wheat, avenues of cherries and tall forests for miles and miles and miles - green and gorgeous - punctuated by pretty villages and tall steeples, golden crosses guarding the high places, touching the clouds.
Brno, like the outskirts of any large city, a seedy underbelly. Five minutes to the connection....10 minutes late though. Next bus leaving for Telc in three hours. Store the luggage if anyone will acknowledge our presence, toilet stop if the attendant will accept our money and head for the shiny spires. Rush past pockets of 'toi toi' smells, reminders of homelessness and despair, noting landmarks - allrisk, erotic shop, crystal corner. The centre loomed and the centrum everything the train station was not.
Our cameras flashed, our jaws dropped and our hearts were lifted as high as the tall spires that graced the old buildings. Dark gothic churches, apartment facades, tortured statues, apostles of old, stood sentinel, juxtaposed against the brash and bland of now.
Why had we never heard of Brno! We may have sailed past never knowing! What a treasure - more precious than Vienna thinks Richard.
We caught the Telc bus and arrived after two hours of more fields and vineyards and rain. An accidental and convenient taxi took us to our pension and Patricia, lovely Patricia, greeted us so warmly! Weary travellers. We were not to stay in the pension, rather in a room in the house for her family, fully set up for independent living - magnificent, antique, kitchenette, original oil paintings on the wall, a view from the window onto the market square.A meal at the pub, indoors with the smokers, chicken, steak, vegies, then hot raspberries and ice cream - so much nicer than a banana and bagged croissant shared on the steps of a Brno church.......but then again.....maybe not.
Your host sounds lovely! And nice to find a beautiful treasure after yuckiness.
ReplyDeleteFond memories of Telc. A smallish town and easily managed, few tourists and beautiful walks to be had. Had cherries - big, fat, juicy cherries, straight from the tree.
ReplyDelete