Hotel Avanti Brno

I'm actually typing this between Prague and Brno, but I will change buses a Brno, and head towards Vienna from there...<br><br>I love internet on buses, but this one isn't that great, and cuts out pretty often...<br>I'll bein Vienna around 3:30pm this afternoon<br><br>word.<br>

The queue for tickets snaked out of the door. We seemed to be behind a German biker gang, all keen to see the caves too. The cable car down to the entrance drops precipitously. It is far scarier than the one in Zakopane, because it is so steep. <br><br>We had to wait for the tour to start. I bought Mel a green adventurine elephant for his collection. I also worked out why Eartha has started ...

... built in the Dutch style with a rotating top so the sails can always face the wind. <br><br>The old guy serving was friendly and gave me a photostat of information about the windmill, which I was encouraged to read out loud to the children. This I duly did and they sat through it uncomplainingly. On the back was a story marked "Humour" which I can only assume is a true story or some local legend. It had clearly been translated by someone not all that good at English, and I ...

We booked the tour of Punkevni Jeskyne, the huge set of caves leading from the Macocha Abyss. The tickets sell out by lunchtime, so we booked for the next day. We peered over the edge into the abyss. Below us, misty tendrils of what looked like clouds drifted between the sides of the ravine. I gripped the railing unnecessarily tightly. Looking down on the tops of trees is disconcerting when you are standing on solid ground above them. Tomorrow we ...

... is close to the Moravian Karst where an underground river carved miles and miles of caves and caverns. The tourist trail only takes you into a small part but it is still good. I have been in more spectacular caves but what makes the tour at the particular cave I went to (there are several within a few miles but there is one that is more popular) different is you get to take a boat through part of the cave system. It's a different ...

... you could feel the old side and the new side of the country butting heads. Everything was new, everything had been built in the past 15years or so... and it was booming, alot of industry! we passed by audi and volvo dealerships, as we headed into the city. You could easily see a bustling middle class. Brno is known for a very good university. Once we got to the city center we managed our way to the train station and found out there was a train heading to germany ...

... waited 5 minutes figures she would catch the free train and started walking again.. Sorry Julia... we really didn't mean it.. anyways we went to the caves and they are very much like janolin caves back home.. but the difference is here they take you on a boat ride.. way cool but pretty cold.. got some really cool footage.. but too dark.. damn it.. Along this theme of leaving a man behind.. I also did.. Sheree and I ...

... Los camarotes parecen sacaados de la carcel, y peor aun, al ir a la ducha me di cuenta que tambien es sacada de la carcel, para mi sorpresa habian 3 franceses ahi, era una ducha realmente estilo carcel, esperemos que el resto de los hostels no sean asi. Fue suficiente, algun dia les escribire mas, tal vez desde Portugal, quien sabe, esperemos que no tengamos problemas y lleguemos a Lisboa algun dia. Ahora me voy a dormir a mi celda, saludos a todos! èhìlo áýíýìèsø

... beer with him. *Side note: in the Czech Republic, there is no time of day when it is not acceptable to drink a beer. No exceptions.* Anyway, I thanked him and declined. Much to my pleasure, Ross and Katka were waiting for me at the top of the escalator. So we took Ross' Czech-made skoda to their flat in Hlucin. Ross and Katka live in a "panel-lock" (a pre-made, enormous box of apartments) with Katka's parents (who were out of town). I loved pretty much everything ...

... I don't know. One of the things I can't get enough of over here is how many people participate in simple activities that we forgot long before my time: a family (grandparents with their children and grandchildren) going for a walk, people everywhere riding bikes together, families riding bikes together, people canoeing or kayaking down the river, a group of old ladies sitting on a bench under a tree for hours, passing time in the shade, chatting, whatever. Teenagers shooting baskets ...