The dragon of Brno

So if you walk through the Old Town hall Gate to the courtyard, you find this lovely touristy "dragon". As you can plainly see, it's not really a dragon. The rumour is that, the loclas had never seen a crocodile before. But this thing looked scary and probably the scariest scaliest thing they could think of was dragon. close enough I guess.

So here's the abridged version of one of the legends of the dragon of Brno. There was a village nearby. Something was eating the livestock. Help was sent for. Help came but before it arrive it got scared and went back home to get someone else to do it.

A butcher said he would do it if he was given a bull's skin and some lime
(the mineral not the fruit).
He sewed the lime into the skin, set the bull's skin up for the dragon to eat. The dragon ate it, went to the river for a drink, the lime inside it swelled and killed the dragon. Said dragon was then stuffed and is now hanging behind the old town hall gate.

Old Town Hall Gate

JOrdan is standing under the Old Town Hall Gate of Brno. The decoration was made by Anton Pilgram in 1511. The story goes that he was unhappy with the amount paid for his work so, out of spite he bent the middle spire. If it was me I would have bent all of them. Anyway, I like it.

In the background is the "dragon of Brno". It"s head is obscured by the light. You're not missing anything because it's actually really not that interesting to look it. Some of that is because it"s hung up close to the ceiling, you can't see much. The other part is, it's not visually exciting.

Stupid Hotel

We had a fabulous time in Brno, marred only by the bad service of our hotel.

It was in a prime spot. Just 5 mins from the city centre and there was a Christkindlmarkt on the corner. We had to stop and get a trnewsknewski-(actually I don't know what it's called but that looks close.)for lunch before we checked in.

Dr Gregory Bruce Ewing in Brno

Greg and Ingo had a teaching gig in Brno, Czech Republic. It is just under 2 hours away and costs..I don't know, something cheap. Just before Christmas it was going to become part of the E.U. so we were very eager to try and get stamps for our passport. Which we did which made Jordy and I very happy.

We were seated by a nice lady from Denmark who was bemoaning the fact that because she has a European passport she never gets any stamps.

Anyway, Jordy and I joined Greg for the weekend. We went in to give him a bit of support while he was lecturing. Especially since he reassured us that it would only be for 50 mins. 1 and a half hours later my brain was starting to leak and I didn't know how much more it could take.

Hangman came to the rescue. To be fair, all our words were based on the lesson, so Greg can't say we weren't listening or taking notes.

The Cave Church

Although it's quite small inside it is very sweet. I found it quite lovely.

It is cared for by the Hungarian Paulite order of monks. During the communist years, the Hungarian secret police broke in, arrested everyone, condemned the superior Ferenc Vezér to death, and then the chapel was blocked up with a 2.25m-thick concrete wall.

It was only recently opened in 1989.

Gellert Hill

Recommended for one of the best views of Budapest. It was especially lovely to walk up the hill surrounded by the autumn colours.

At the top is a restaurant and a wax museum. Not a wax museum like Madame Trussauds. One that depicts the war, with relevant historical blurbs and other paraphernalia. I really appreciated it even though it wasn't so big. I felt it offered something a lot of other cities didn't.

On our way down we came across a hot wine seller. Perfect. He gave us a huge cup and it only cost us something like 1 or 2 Euros.

Statue Park

Although it takes a little bit of getting to, I deem the park well worth the effort. But Greg wasn't so sure. And Jordan? I don't think she cared one way or the other.

For me, it was an opportunity and insight into the past that we are unlikely to see anywhere else. It's a collection of Communist monuments and statues. Understandably, after the fall of the communist regime in Hungary the statues were immediately removed. Equally understandable is the controversy generated by such a park.

Buy the guidebook for the park before you go in as the signs are only in Hungarian. I didn't see the guidebooks until after we had finished our tour. %(

Lost in Budapest

Day trip to Budapest. You gotta love Europe. It's a while since my last blog as we now have internet at home, so we haven't been into work for almost a month;and all my photos are at work.

Yes I could blog without posting pics but sadly, my memory meeds the photos to remind me what we did. It was autumn when we visited Budapest and I was constantly taken aback by the beauty of Budapest in autumn.

We decided to start our sight seeing tour with the Statue Park. It didn't look so far away on the map. But then, the clue should have been that it wasn't marked/included on the free city map. That's the inadequate map in my hand that I'm frowning over.

Eventually, we realized that we had been led astray by the construction/road works. no-one had made any adjustments for them, so the signs still pointed through the construction site. unfortunately for us, it was right next to a pathway that seemed to led to another bus depot. But it didn't.