With Derek & Marketa both working, Michael & I headed to Brno.
We started our day in the Capuchin Crypts. While many local churches have burial crypts below the church, the ones at the Capuchin church had perfect conditions for natural mummification. The entrance to the crypts read “As you are now, we once were; as we are now, you shall be.” The monks welcome visitors to the crypts to help people reflect on the fragility of life. The bodies are from the mid 1600’s to early 1700’s. The Grimm brothers (not those ones!) and their families were the last to be interred here as the burial of bodies within the city limits was banned from 1784. The monks, priests, highly religious persons, and significant donors were laid here.
A strange story – the thumb of a notorious, Baron Franz von der Trenck, who late in life repented, was for some unknown reason stolen from his mummified body in the 1800’s. It surfaced in 1880 in a Franciscan museum and was finally returned to the body in 2017.
Our next stop was to St. Peter and Paul Cathedral with its two “new” peaks. They were originally asymmetric and had to be modified to make them visually equal. We walked up the tower where you can look across to the other tower through the “sub-roof” of the cathedral – a very interesting perspective. The 5 bells which are now controlled by computer were above you. The towers provided very nice views over the city.
We had hoped to visit the “bluff top” villa, but a visit to the tourist info veto’d that idea – you need to pre-book a month or two in advanced. So we walked to the astronomical clock and had a nice lunch of open sandwiches, eggs Benedict, honey cake and tea at a Swedish university-crowd packed cafe. It was quite difficult to locate and even the owner of the cat cafe which was practically next door didn’t know where it was. Turns out, we had walked right past it as the sign outside was simply ∅. It was worth the struggle.
Next off to the historic 1860’s Villa Low-Beer and Villa Arnold (which was newly renovated). Both had the brass plates on the sidewalk outside the home indicating the Jews who lived their. Some of the family at Low-Beer had escaped to South America, while the current owner of Villa Arnold, Cecilie Hoze, died in a concentration camp in 1942. It was past 3pm and near closing time so we had to skip the tours and just enjoyed the gardens.
Back to the bus to Olomouc and train to Hlusovic. My poor pronunciation made ticket purchasing a challenge, but we eventually communicated our needs by writing down the names! We even managed to find our way back to D&M’s house in the dark by retracing our steps back to the offices.
Tuesday night is Pizza Night! So off to the local pub with Martin and Rafka for some great pizza and of course beer. Back at the house we tried out the Gretzky (we still liked him back then) rye with maple barrel aging – very yum.
Finally the big news of the day – Brittany just won a gold medal in BC micro-brewing competition. Their British style ale beat our 150 competitors – Very Nice!!
