Veveří Castle (near Brno Lake)

Veveří Castle sits approx. 15km outside of Brno near Brno Lake. Our friend Jana lives near the lake, and we had a chance to visit her and her beautiful newborn baby over the past weekend (finally yay!). The weather was not so nice, but we decided to extend our daytrip to Veveří Castle, which was only 10 mins drive from her house. You could also take a boat across the lake, but again the weather was not too good and we also had a rental car, so we took with the option of driving up there.

The castle stands sturdily on top of the hill by the river Svratka which runs into Lake Brno.  It is surrounded by forests, and I could just feel the richness of the location and castle back in the time when it was used by the noble family members during hunting season.

It says that the castle was probably built around the second half of the 12th century originally. Since then, different people owned it and thus changed its formation throughout the years. The so-called Keep, the tallest and oldest of the towers of Veveří Castle which was built as the primary defence element of the oldest building stage of the castle, is the only structure which has remained preserved from the oldest building stage of the 13th century. 

As you will notice immediately after going into the castle, the castle has been going through a major reconstruction. The castle was heavily damaged during WWII. Also during the years 1953 to 1972, the castle was turned into a foresters' apprentice center, which damaged it yet more. Furthermore, it seems that there was an attempt to turn the castle into an international student center by a Brno university in the late 70's (hmmm... wouldn't it be a bit of an isolated place for the international students to be?....).  Indeed, inside the castle is devastatingly damaged. I would have to imagine it will take several more decades to complete the renovation.

The castle is open to the public daily from 9am to 6pm except for Mondays during the months of May to September. It is only open over the weekends and bank holidays from 9am to 5pm during the months of April and October. The rest of the year it is closed.

There are tours going around one of the buildings (so-called "palace with keep") on the weekends. The tour is only provided in Czech, but you can get a booklet with English explanations. It must had been a great castle when it was being lived in and used.  The walls are very thick (one of the rooms had more than 2-meter thick walls!).  The view from the so-called "romantic observation terrace" was magnificent.  It is unfortunate that the castle was destroyed to the extent that the inside is still not yet at a presentable level.  Hopefully they will at leat finish the reconstruction of the palace with keep quickly.

First Ramen in Czech Republic!

As you may know, I miss Japanese food A LOT. Here in Brno, there are some sushi restaurants, but they are very expensive even by US standards. There are no restaurants where I can eat Ramen, Katsudon, Udon, or anything else!

Last Friday, I went to Prague along with my hubby who needed to apply for a Chinese visa (apparently as a US citizen, he could not have someone else to go for him). I also had to go to the Japanese embassy to get a certificate for my Japanese driver's license which I will need in order to exchange my Japanese driver's license for a Czech driver's license (will write about it later). So, off we went. It was a quick day trip to Prague.

We left Brno around 7am, and ran some errands and hit the highway a little before 8am. We were in Prague by 10am. It was already past noon when we finished all the things we had to do. We decided to look for a Japanese restaurant for lunch. I know there are a whole bunch of nice restanrants that we could have gone to in Prague, but I really needed to have anything Japanese.

We found one called "Katsura" near the Chinese embassy. Although it was in a nice hotel called Diplomat, the ambience of the restaurant was not too wonderul, but the lunch dishes they had were great! My hubby ordered Katsudon, and I ordered their daily special, Ramen! I haven't eaten Ramen in a restaurant for more than 4 months, and was so happy to see it as a daily special.

The katsudon came with a bowl of miso soup and three side dishes; Hiyayakko (tofu), Japanese-style macaroni salad, and Tsukemono (Japanese pickles). My Ramen was just satisfactory. It had a chunk of ox tail in it. The soup was a simple soy sauce based one and it was not too greasy and certainly didn't smell like a bad Ramen soup (you know, the soup is the key as you see in the movie called "Tampopo"; video below). It also came with a huge bowl of fried rice and two of the same side dishes: Hiyayakko and Japanese-style macaroni salad. There was no way that I could finish everything and I ended up taking some of the fried rice back home, but all in all I was so happy that I finally got a taste of Ramen in the Czech Republic!

Château Konopiště

Château Konopiště is one of the most visited chateaus in the Czech Republic. It is in a small town called Benešovn, about 44km south of Prague. The chateau was owned by many different people, but the last one was the famous Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered World War I.

The chateau was originally built in the 13th century in a Gothic style. Later around the 18th century, it was transformed into a Baroque style. Then Franz Ferdinand bought the chateau in 1887 and remodeled it into a luxurious residence. The chateau stands on top of a hill overlooking a surrounding forest. I felt a quiet peace as we walked up the hill in the shadows of tall trees. There is a lake near the chateau, which you can enjoy a beautiful view of from the top of the chateau.

What's interesting about this chateau is the history surrounding Franz Ferdinand. He was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The former heir, his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf, committed suicide scandalously, leaving Franz Ferdinand's father, Archduke Karl Ludwig, first in line to the throne, but he then renounced his succession making Franz Ferdinand the heir. He was also one of the wealthiest men in Austria after inheriting most of the huge estate of his cousin Duke Francis V of Modena. 

So, yes, he was wealthy and powerful.  Then he fell in love with someone who could not be allowed in such a high-powered top-drawer noble family.  Her name was Sophie Chotek. They met at a ball in Prague. They dated secretely for a while until the relationship was made public by Archduchess Isabella (there is always a gossipy lady), and at that point Emperor Franz Joseph made it clear to Franz Ferdinand that he could not marry Sophie, as her family was not a member of one of the reigning or formerly reigning dynasties of Europe which would make her an eligible partner for a member of the Habsburg Imperial Family. Sophie's family was noble but not noble enough.

However, that didn't stop the love between Franz Ferdinand and Sophie. After getting support from powerful people like Pope Leo XIII and Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Emperor Franz Josef was successfully convinced to let them marry but as a morganatic marriage which prevented their descendants from succeeding to the throne. Sophie also could not share her husband's rank, title, or precedence. They were married on July 1, 1990. Neither Emperor Franz Josef nor Franz Ferdinand's siblings attended the wedding.

In 1909, Sophie was given the title "Duchess of Hohenberg" (Herzogin von Hohenberg), which raised her status considerably. However, whenever the couple attended the gatherings with other members of royalty, Sophie was forced to stand far down the line of importance, separated from her husband. But their marriage was strong. They had three children; Sophie, Max, and Ernst. And, despite the bad-tempered characteristics of Franz Ferdinand described by many people, he seemed to be a great father and husband and continued to be so until he and Sophie were assasinated together in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 (a couple of days before their 14th anniversary).

Typically Sophie would not be allowed to accompany her husband, but on this particular occasion, Franz Ferdinand arranged for her to come along as an anniversary gift. What an irony :(  They were still breathing after being shot, and his last words to Sophie were 'Don't die darling, live for our children.'  Sad story indeed. Their children were only 13, 12, and 10 years old when their parents were killed.

At Konopiště, there are three guided tours in different languages. We took Tour 2 (the tour for the weapon collections) simply because that was the only tour available in English around the time we arrived. But, we had a private tour! You see thousands of horns of hunted animals on the wall throughout the chateau, as Franz Ferdinand was famous for liking hunting. He is said to have killed over 300,000 animals (average of 15 per day)!