Kroměříž, Czech Republic

"Kroměříž" - what a busy name!  The last four letters have either a háček and čárka. So instead of pronouncing as "kromeritz," it is pronounced more like "kromyejish" (well, very simply put, of course).

As I wrote in my previous post, Kroměříž was much bigger than I expected.  It is located 45 mins east of Brno. The town prospered since the archbishop of Olomouc started to live here since the 12th century. The chateau the archibishops lived stands beautifully right next to the main square of the town.

Unfortunately, since we didn't want to leave gG in our car for too long, we gave up on the idea of taking a tour of the chateau this time. Instead, we went around the buildng and walked though the huge garden with trees, flowers, and animals. We enjoyed the colorful leaves falling off the trees, which I realized I missed so much. It has been since I left Japan and moved to LA where no seasons can be observed. I appreciated the beauty and calmness of the sight of leaves just falling onto the ground slowly. I later learned that both the chateau and garden are in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

There is also a great flower garden on the opposite side of the town, too. There are lots to see for a good half a day in Kroměříž. We told ourselves that we would take a day trip here some other time.