August 28, 1999
To Znojmo
After filling ourselves at a good buffet breakfast, we left our bikes at the hotel and wandered through old Brno. It is really a surprising area, with many fine buildings and attractive shops. It appears that the country has made significant economic advances since our initial visit 3 years earlier.These people also feel quite different than the Poles we encountered- more outgoing and positive in their demeanor.
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The most noteworthy aspect of our visit was watching the startup of a street paratpde for an international folklife festival. For nearly two hours we watched groups of young marchers assemble in stunning costumes from Central Europe. It took a long time for us to figure out what was transpiring but eventually we got the point and picked our vantage points to watch the parade pass by.
Shortly before 11 we were on the road, for Moravsky Krumlov - a small town southwest of Brno on the way to Melk. Our new, new plan was to bike here and then spend the next day or two on loop rides through various Moravian towns before moving on. We had settled in this plan in Brno at the information center, after seeing a map of all the significant small towns in the region. After talking it over with the tourist representative I got the impression that most of these towns were viable overnight stops. Not too reasonable in retrospect, since we had found nothing away from larger towns when we came through three years earlier.
The ride from Brno to MoravskyKrumlov was very pretty, passing through rolling, cultivated fields, black locust forests, and scattered villages. It is striking how much change has occurred in the past few years - many more homes seem in good repair and freshly painted, giving the region a very Austrian feeling. Many fields are populated with families harvesting potatoes. This must be exactly the right time for this, as we passed hundreds of farms with sacks of potatoes piled together. The families at work are interesting - the younger generation look urban, as though they had come home for the weekend to help their parents with the harvest.
We arrived in Moravsky Krumlov about 2 and quickly discovered that I’d formed the wrong impression. There is nothing to do, nothing is open, and there’s very little town. Neither of us could imagine whiling away the afternoon and evening here, so we hopped back on our bikes and continued south for another 30 km to a real town, Znojmo. The countryside flattens out considerably south of Krumlov, and the remaining miles went quickly as we sped toward the sunset and a meal.
Znojmo has quite a bit more to offer the travelled - an attractive though small old town square, colorful buildings, and at least two restaurants. Just enough to satisfy our essential needs. Over dinner a hard downpour hit the town, complete with a lightning storm. As we listened to it spash against the cobblestones we enjoyed reminiscing over the string of similar storms we have weathered in our eight years on the road.
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 215 km (134 miles)
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