The Prague botanical gardens are a great visit in of themselves. The gardens are located on a hill overlooking Prague and near to Prague Zoo offering superb views of the city as well as beautiful and extensive gardens.

The Botanical Gardens also periodically feature special exhibitions and at the moment, it is butterflies. The butterflies are imported from the UK apparently.

A nice day out and in a few week’s time, with blossoms and blooms and better weather, it will be incredibly beautiful too.

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A short distance from Brno, in the town of Vyskov, is a small zoo and Dinopark. For small kids, its a good day trip as the zoo is quite good and features a petting zoo. The Dinopark, though small, is also quite good. To get there, a small ‘train’ takes you from the zoo through Vyskov which small kids will also enjoy. The Dinopark features models and sound effects. Its a fun day.

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Yours Truly – Eaten alive!

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In the Obrany area of Brno there is a man who has built his own small gauge railway in his garden and who every Sunday morning and afternoon, opens it up for small children to ride. For Czech speakers, he does have a website that explains more than I can. Just let us say that our daughter has had some great fun there and all it cost us was a small donation. I suggest you check out his website first but the location is shown in the map below.

So far as I could tell, he built everything himself….

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Just recently, I became aware of two new service offerings targeting ExPats and visitors to Brno.

Tours
How would you like an affordable tour of Brno? or perhaps the caves and karst outside of Brno? Well, thats the concept behind BRNOGuide that has recently been set up by Helena Sledova. Helena describes herself as follows;

I was born in Brno and grew up hiking, cycling and skiing in the surrounding countryside. This web site gradually grew out of my acquaintance with ex-pats and visitors for whom I translated the language and local culture and the web predecessor was www.czech4you.com

I enjoy traveling and painting. If you want to see my MY ART or pictures from my trips, please go to czech4you.webs.com

She charges an hourly rate and some small distance charge…. check it out!

An image from BRNOGuide website…

ExPat Assistance
The other one is ExPats Services. Set up by Martina Burjanová in 2011. She describes the idea as follows;

When I started working in a multinational company I heard from my foreign colleagues bad stories from Czech offices. Later I went to a foreign police with my foreign friend and I was ashamed for that very unprofessional experience with policemen. I will never forget the very first sentence I heard there: “Jsme v České republice, tady mluvíme česky.” It means: we are in the Czech Republic so we speak Czech here. During my studies in Amsterdam I was obliged to go to the foreign police as well. I still remember that I was arranging everything in English and no one was surprised that I did not speak Dutch. I really miss this professional approach at Czech authorities so I have been helping my friends who were not able to get relevant information from Czech speaking authorities. Now I work with a French speaking colleague and attorney.

Both great ideas!!

By the way, if you do live in Brno or expect to visit it, don’t forget to visit my other site – The Brno ExPats Forum for all kinds of information and interaction with other English speakers in Brno….

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Pernštejn Castle is located on a rocky hill above the village of Nedvědice and the rivers Svratka and Nedvědička, some 40 km northwest of Brno. Protected by steep slopes on three sides, it was accessible only from the north. The tower faced the anticipated direction of attack and stood behind a protective gabled wall, beneath which was a gate with a drawbridge leading across a moat. It was founded by the Lords of Medlov probably between 1270-1285. Its history is closely connected to the Lords of Pernštejn (Pernštejnové) and their descendants. Pernštejn is one of the best preserved castles in Czech Republic and is often called the “pearl of the Moravian castle architecture” because it represents a unique example of the late Gothic residence and fortified building. The baroque chapel decorated with paintings by F.I.Eckenstein is extremely beautiful and worth visiting.

I particularly enjoyed the Chapel where it is obvious that someone in the past had esoteric views and may have been a mason…

Openning hours
April, October – during weekends and bank holidays 9:00 – 15:00
May, June, September – every day except of Monday 9:00 – 16:00
July, August – every day except of Monday 9:00 – 17:00

lunch break 12:00 – 13:00

There are four tours available and the basic admission is 90 CZK – 200 CZK.

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The Vltava river runs through Prague and is famous as a result. Further in the south of the Czech Republic, the river develops into one favorable for rafting. One good stretch that will take 2-3 days is from Vyssi Brod to Zlata Koruna through Cesky Krumlov (See map). Ideally, you take your camping gear with you and stop off at two of the campsites situated along the river. Don’t forget the rum either as this is the favored rafting drink.

The river has stretches of active water and stretches of calm water so its quite a varied trip with several locks along the way to make it really interesting – the most challenging of which is in Cesky Krumlov.

Cesky Krumlov is also worth looking around…

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