Driving from Cesky Krumlov to Brno, my GPS took me via a very strange and longer route than I anticipated. I’m looking at the map, I’m looking at the GPS and the 2 don’t seem to be ‘communicating’. Arggh. Anyway, found medieval Castle Kamen along the way, an important strategic point for Hussite troops in the religious wars in the 15th century. Really bad weather along the way and many a roadworks to hold traffic up on the freeway, where I was driving. Got into Brno at 16:00 and was really tired. Watched a European Volleyball Championship game on TV, Czech vs Belgium…so close… but Czech Republic won. Then read a bit of a “the Road to Ruin”, by Niki Savva….got me to sleep pretty quick. Haha! 
Better weather the following day….my one day in Brno….started in Namesti Svobody (Freedom Square): amazing early Baroque plague column from 1689, its a reminder of plague outbreaks in Brno. Then walked to Moravian Square, with the amazing St Thomas Church and the equestrian statue of Jobst of Luxembourg by sculptor Jaroslav Róna. 
Was driving to get to the Cathedral and all of a sudden saw David Cerny’s “Pink Tank”, a symbol of the fall of Communism in 1945, that has been installed at Komensky’s Square as part of an exhibition. 
Lots of huffy puffy to get to the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul, located on Petrov Hill. 
It is a national cultural monument and one of the most important pieces of architecture in South Moravia. The interior is mostly Baroque. Beautiful detail on wooden pulpit staircase. What an amazing ‘confessional’!
Just a few kilometres away…I parked my car down a side street, and walked up (serious huffy puffy!) to Špilberk Castle.
Its construction began as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Přemyslid kings and completed by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. From a major royal castle established around the mid-13th century, and the seat of the Moravian margraves (military commanders) in the mid-14th century, it was gradually turned into a huge baroque fortress (considered the harshest prison in the Austro-Hungarian empire) and then into barracks. This prison had always been part of the Špilberk fortress. At the same time Špilberk was used as a prison, Protestants were the first prisoners forced to serve time here, followed later by participants in the revolutions of 1848–49, although hardened criminals, thieves and petty criminals were also kept here. There was a Modern Art exhibition today and I liked the following two paintings…
Loved some of the other buildings in the neighbourhood…
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