Getting Our Bearings in Brno

Well, that was the night from hell!!! So bloody hot. I woke up at 1:30 am feeling like I’d just run a marathon—or like I was sleeping in a rainforest. 🥵🥵🥵 We had shut the windows, fearing mosquitoes after Sarah’s previous encounter with them back in Corfu. We had insect repellent on, though, so I took the risk and opened all the windows. That, of course, let in the noise from the bars downstairs, but the earplugs helped with that. It was slightly better with the windows open. 🥵🥵

We woke to a much cooler apartment, but I’m pretty sure it won’t last long. The forecast is for 34 degrees today! After a quick breakfast, we headed out for a short walk around the inner city to get our bearings.

Now might be a good time to tell you why we’re even in the city of Brno—a place you’ve likely never heard of. Why? 🤔 Well, we had heard of it, but only recently, just before this trip. At that point, we didn’t even think we’d be visiting the Czech Republic. When Plan B was formed, there was another place nearby we had intended to visit, but getting there from Český Krumlov in a single day was just too far. So Brno became our stop to break up the journey, and we had plenty of days to fill before our next booked flight. Brno is the second-largest city in the Czech Republic, so hopefully there’s enough to see and do for three days. We’re happy to have some quieter days here.

The 4 km orientation walk gave us a good idea of where the significant landmarks are. We’ll probably start ticking them off properly tomorrow. The Warriors were playing at 10 am, so after grabbing a treat to have with our morning coffee, we headed back up to the sauna—also known as our apartment—to watch it. The room was hot, and the Warriors weren’t much better, yet they managed to win right at the end. A good result for them. 👍

We needed to visit the supermarket for lunch and dinner supplies. Instead of Lidl, we tried another one called Billa. It had a good selection of meat, veggies, and other essentials, but no decent lettuce or eggs in a half-dozen pack. A trip to Lidl was also required; they didn’t have eggs either, but they did have lettuce, and we made use of their automatic bread slicer on a nice loaf.

Back for lunch, and then an afternoon spent avoiding the heat as best we could. We needed to finalise our travel plan for the next two weeks and managed to get that substantially sorted—just one more apartment to book and two trains to arrange. At least now we know where we’re going. This time, we made sure to tick the “air conditioning available” filter. We can’t risk going without it, even this far north.

By 4:30 pm, the apartment was pretty warm again, so we escaped to a local brewery pub for a craft wheat beer and a cider, taking our books to enjoy their air conditioning. 😂

Eventually, though, it was necessary to return, cook dinner, and try not to cook ourselves in the process. Chicken and salad for dinner. We will certainly not be closing the windows tonight!