Znojmo

St. Nicholas Church, St. Wenceslas Chapel to the right.

Rain was forecast for the day and made an appearance early on.  But we decided to move on from Telc and, since the rain was light and intermittent, we suited up and headed south.  Pleasant back roads and only occasional rain until we neared our destination: Znojmo. Our LP had recommended Residence Zvon, with six rooms and a fine location, and luckily room no. 6, two flights up, was available.  


The town is perched high on a rocky hillside overlooking the Dyje River.  It is on the historic road between Prague and Vienna and thus has a historic center. We happened to arrive on the opening day of a two week annual music festival and have been treated to several musical events, mostly free. No crowds to speak of, but perhaps they arrive for the second weekend.  

Czech group performing

After checking in at our Pension and drying off, Rob suggested lunch in a nearby restaurant, so once again we indulged.  Next we looked at Gothic St. Nicholas Church next door to our Pension and nearby St. Wenceslas Chapel where a choral group was performing.  We slipped in (small chapel and small attendance) and stayed through the next choral group as well.  We'll revisit this chapel in the morning since it apparently has a second chapel below (visible in the photo above.)


We explored the town a bit and found another musical event in the main square--a very loud band playing American music of an earlier era--Moon River etc.  (I should mention that the music piped into our restaurant was Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong).  We walked a bit more and returned to the square to drink our evening beer.  A group playing more authentic Czech folk music was performing indoors and we decided to experience that instead.  Finally, at 10:15, fireworks--perhaps kicking off the festival.