[ May 2017 ] On the second day in Moravia region in Czech Republic, we had planned to visit Mikulov, well known town for its wine production near the Austrian border.
We asked the bus timetable at the hotel in Brno and found that the next one was at 12:15 pm.
So we killed our time walking around the hotel in Brno in the morning.
The nearest square from the hotel was called Cabbage Market (Selny trh) and indeed, they were having the vegetable market.
We walked further to another square, Freedom Square (namesti Svabody) and we found many classic cars gathering there.
They seemed to start their riding event from there.
On the other side of the road in the square, they were having a small craft market including a gemstone stall.
I noticed one pendant head with a mixture of quiet colours (beige, dull blue and so on) which I had never seen, so I asked the vendor the name of the stone.
He pronounced “Yaspas” , so it was probably Jasper.
Apparently this was produced in Czech.
It is nice to have the local stones and the colours would go with many clothes, so I bought it.
Then we headed for the bus station.
The bus station was away from the old town centre beyond the shopping center which was on the other side of the railway station.
By the way, when I came to Czech Republic first time was in 1994 when we still needed the visa to get in to the country.
It was only a few years after the communist regime collapsed and people looked poor and gloomy with dingy clothes.
They have improved remarkably since then and now most of the people were wearing the same kind of clothes as people in the Western Europe, but here around the bus station, I saw some people who reminded me of 1994 and some shops for them.
Generally speaking, the economy in Czech seems going well, though.
We went to the information office in this huge bus station to ask about the stand for Mikulov.
The bus came on time.
It took about one and a half hours to get there.
I was sleeping on and off, and whenever I looked out of the window, the view was the same.
Always I saw the green flat land.
Because this was the local bus, it went off the main road to each town and those towns looked similar with one storey houses with big roofs.
On the way, an elderly couple got on the bus and sat in front of us.
According to my husband, the man was watching us ever so closely.
I wonder what he found about us…
We got off at the last stop which was in front of the Mikulov railway station and went into the station to ask the bus timetable on the way back.
Although it was a window for the railway tickets, the man was very kind to look up the bus timetable and made it printed.
It was a good thing that we asked because although our guide book said the bus goes every hour, in fact it was every other hour.
The bus on the way back was the same car with the same driver as the one we came here.
