I’m still not feeling well today, but I refuse to let this bug keep me from experiencing all Brno has to offer. We’re going to see all we can on our last day here. Thankfully, Brno is a great city for walking around and exploring with the kids. 

We all paint fingernails this morning. Lillian gets a pattern of three colors (something she saw on a friend) while Oly wants all blue. Oly insists mine are to be pink sparkles.

It’s officially Fall; we are all wearing jackets. The first thing we do is take the elevator up to the church we’ve walked by several times. Oly is really happy and walks the entire way. The church is gothic, large and sparse.

Lillian insists we climb the tower. She’s really into seeing if she can unnerve me after I refused to climb the entire way to the top of the tower in Split. This climb isn’t without its risks, but it’s luckily not very tall. We take a peek out for the incredible views of the city, then we head back down before the bells ring. We’re impressed Oly walks the whole way up and back down!

We walk down to the main market, where the famers’ market is. It’s so sad we don’t have cash to buy any of the enticing fruits and vegetables. But we are able pay one Euro for a cup of fermented wine stuff. It’s stronger than I expect it to be, especially since I watched people pick up and cup and sip it on their way back to work.

Our server the first night recommended a place for lunch, so we decide to go there today. Forhaus is a short walk away and has great lunch specials. I don’t capture any of the food because we eat it too quickly. It is so good. The kids have pasta with pancetta, and I steal a lot from Oly. My roasted beef and carrots with small pasta that looks like couscous is amazing. Oly steals back. The service is amazing, and I have to believe this is one of the best places to eat in Brno.

Super happy from this amazing (and surprisingly inexpensive) meal, we walk (like a choo-choo train) to the Spilberk Castle. It sits on a hill in a large park. It’s peaceful and beautiful. The weather has changed a bit. We are all in jackets, and it’s the clouds reinforce it’s Fall. We walk into the castle, then up to the tower.

It’s not too tall (phew!), and the view is amazing. We can see the entire city from here.

After the tower, we walk the rest of the fort permitted to visitors (not much), then we go down to the Casemates. This is the bottom two floors of the fort used for prison cells. To enter we must walk in the old moat, now a grassy park area. It’s really cool. We enter these long halls with prison cells off of it. They have demonstrations of the types of torture equipment fabled to have been used here, which we explain as pilates equipment.

The bottom floor is even more depressing. The Germans built brick barracks down here during WWII. The old radio room is still here.

After seeing all of the Spilberk Castle, we slowly meander down the hill through beautiful trails.

We find a cool modern art museum, but it’s closed today! Boo.

Back home, we have tea time! Oly soon falls asleep and snoozes on my bed (his first nap in an bed in months!) while I work at the desk. It’s calm and nice. Meanwhile Lillian is organizing everything in her room (the living room) into sections on the couch, each designated to a family member. She’s amazing.

After Oly wakes, we walk to Retro Consistorium for dinner. It’s a cool space, with only a few tables. The starters of beef carpaccio and sashimi salad are amazing. The sashimi is like a caprese salad with raw fish on it. Interesting and tasty combination. Then Stefan has the special T-bone and I have turkey saltimbocca with really good tsatziki sauce. The chef makes the kids schnitzel even though it’s only on the lunch menu. The wine we get is not very good, even though the server recommends it. I guess that’s what you get when you order the cheap local wine. All ends well as they have raspberry and lime sorbet for the kids for dessert.