Brno; Saturday, 27 July, 2013

Unfortunately, with the temperature quite high and a hotel room with no air-conditioning I didn’t get the greatest of nights sleep, so I was up relatively early and out into an already baking Brno to do a day’s sightseeing.

First stop was the cathedral on the top of Petrov Hill. Quite a hike up in the weather, so I’m not quite certain why I then compounded it by climbing up the Cathedral towers to take in the views over the city, and to see the Cathedral treasury.

Having already been up one tower for the morning it made sense to go up another one, so I headed over to the town hall and climbed the 170 or so steps to the top of their tower, where there were not only good views but also an amazingly beautiful breeze.

After a quick pit stop for lunch I wandered down to the square by the theatre to pick up the tour bus that runs round the outskirts of the city taking in the views and some of the history of the town.

Back in the city centre I wandered over to the Capuchin church to take in their decidedly creepy crypt with the mummified remains of nobles and former monks.

Just around the corner is the entrance to the labyrinth of cellars underneath the vegetable market, into which you can go on regular tours. Not only are the tours very interesting, but on a day with the temperatures heading through the roof, the cold temperatures underground are blissful.

After a tour of the labyrinth I decided to seek somewhere a little cooler for the evening so I headed out of town to the Brno Reservoir which is where all the city’s residents had clearly already disappeared to. The reservoir was formed by damming the river and allowing it to flood a valley. During the summer months ferries shuttle up the lake and into the river canyon that forms the head of the reservoir, with a full round trip taking around 2 ½ hours.

I did the last round trip of the afternoon/evening and on the way back as we left the river canyon and entered the top end of the lake the whole area was bathed in the glow of a gloriously clear and hot summer’s sunset.

I caught the tram back into town and headed back over to the hotel where, after about 15 minutes of waving a rolled up magazine around, I dispatched the mosquito that was buzzing round the room and turned in for another sticky and disrupted night’s sleep.