Litomyšl
Some more of the countryside:
Red poppies are the wild ones. White poppies are the ones grown for the seeds used for baking.
The Smetana statue:
I did not take a lot of photos of Litomyšl because during the 2009 Dobruška program we also made a trip here and those photos are already part of this blog - here and here
Interesting gables checking you out:
Smetana's birthplace and family home:
A dramatic moment at the piano in Smetana's home:
Cerná Hora
I appear to have been missing some of the scenery from the bus window at this moment!
A field of white poppies grown for their seed.
Needing to wait for a train to pass by.
Cerná Hora Brewery founded in 1298!
Strangely, the tour did not include samples and it was not even possible to purchase a glass of the beer here, but they did have a tee-shirt that I couldn't pass up - hasič žízně (firefighter thirst) with the overheated firefighter drinking beer directly from the fire hose!
Brno (with Lucie and Martin)
My break from the tour group to send some time with Lucie and
Martin in Brno and hopefully get a cimbal lesson with Petr Pavlinec the next
morning.
The bus left me off at a gas station on the outskirts of Brno,
where Martin was gracious enough to come pick me up. Lucie was teaching for a
couple more hours, so Martin took me on a driving tour of Brno with a number of
stops. The first was the Organ School Leoš Janáček had founded in 1881 and was
director of until 1919, when the school became the Brno Conservatory. The
building was being renovated, so I was not able to play the organ Janáček had
taught on, as it was disassembled.
Garden
courtyard at the school.
Bust
of Janáček facing the street in front of the school.
Janáček
Academy of Music and Performing Arts, where Lucie teaches.
The concert hall at the Janáček Academy of Music:
Across the street was Masaryk University where Martin is a cardiology resident:
The
restaurant we had dinner at was Myslivna (Hunters’ Lodge) which is located on
western hills of Brno.
Menu:
Moravský
talíř - vepřový vrabec, uzené, klobása, dušené zelí
Moravian
plate - pork "sparrow", smoked sausage and sauerkraut
Myslivecká
daňčí kýta na smetaně
Hunter’s
venison steak with cream
sauce
Daňčí
guláš "Myslivna"
Venison goulash
"Myslivna" - local style
The missing curved wall of Macassar ebony was discovered accidentally in a dining hall at Brno's law school at Masaryk University, where it had been taken to spruce up a bar built for Nazi officers, as the building was used by the Gestapo as their Brno headquarters.
The staircase of Italian white travertine that leads from the terrace to the garden:
Close-up of a portion of the thick, honey-coloured onyx wall:
The program and ticket for the evening's concert:
Some other photos of the villa from the internet:
Villa Tugendhat was commissioned by factory-owner Fritz Tugendhat on land he received as a wedding present from his in-laws. The construction began on the house in the summer of the year 1929 and completed in fourteen months. Fritz and Greta Tugendhat, who were Jewish, enjoyed just eight years in Tugendhat before fleeing Czechoslovakia with their children in 1938, shortly before the country was dismembered following the Munich Agreement. They lived in Switzerland and never returned. The house was confiscated by the Gestapo in 1939 and next used as an apartment and office; its interior was senselessly modified and many pieces disappeared. It suffered considerable damage during combat operations at the end of World War II and later, when it shortly served as quarters and stables for the Soviet military. It was partially repaired and used for various purposes (for example as a children's physiotherapy center) for several decades after World War II.
A reconstruction and restoration of the villa started in February 2010 with estimated costs of 150 million CZK (app. 7,895,000 USD). This reconstruction finished in February 2012 and the villa was reopened to the public in March.
A good article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/31/mies-van-der-rohe-villa-tugendhat
Good slideshow:
http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/photogallery/photogallery-2012.html
Additional info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Tugendhat
Other links:
http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/research-and-publications/villa-tugendhat-the-facade-of-an-icon.html
http://www.tugendhat.eu/en/
http://www.expats.cz/prague/article/czech-tourism/the-villa-tugendhat-brno-unesco-sight/
Group went to Ratiskovise
More coming soon.
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