Brno Series - Street Scenes
The forecourt at Brno's main railway station. Among a bank of digital TVs advertising goods and services sits the old-fashioned split-flap departure board. Everything is in Czech, so it is guesswork that nasp. = platform and kolej = track. The railway forecourt is well served by numerous sandwich shops and newsagents. Three English broadsheets were on sale: the FT, Daily Telegraph, and the Guardian, suggesting that there is an audience for these newspapers. Also available was one of the red tops: The Sun; horses for courses indeed. The railway is a magnet for the young and the old; no wonder the first class carriages on the Inter European City train from Hamburg to Budapest were almost empty.
A coffee stall closing for the day. It was situated about 300m from the pedestrianised area, not exactly in prime location. Mercifully, there are no Starbucks at Brno, so coffee and tea prices remain reasonable. Long may it continue. I noticed that an expresso is often served with a glass of water.
A clever way of trapping falling leaves. The city centre is clean and relatively free of graffiti. A noticeable phenomenon (or rather lack of) is that there are no women with babe in arms begging outside the churches. This is a relief, because these female beggars have become a fixture in a lot of western countries, eroding sympathy and compassion. Back to Brno, most of the shops in the pedestrianised area were closed on Saturdays, perhaps because it was off season.
To the left: a figure painted onto the wall of a house, opposite the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. It is evident that the houses in the city centre have been looked after; there is hardly any peeling paint or falling plaster. It is quite a change from Bratislava, where many houses in the Old Town are crying out for a lick of paint. To the right: a tombstone outside the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul.
The forecourt at Brno's main railway station. Among a bank of digital TVs advertising goods and services sits the old-fashioned split-flap departure board. Everything is in Czech, so it is guesswork that nasp. = platform and kolej = track. The railway forecourt is well served by numerous sandwich shops and newsagents. Three English broadsheets were on sale: the FT, Daily Telegraph, and the Guardian, suggesting that there is an audience for these newspapers. Also available was one of the red tops: The Sun; horses for courses indeed. The railway is a magnet for the young and the old; no wonder the first class carriages on the Inter European City train from Hamburg to Budapest were almost empty. 
A coffee stall closing for the day. It was situated about 300m from the pedestrianised area, not exactly in prime location. Mercifully, there are no Starbucks at Brno, so coffee and tea prices remain reasonable. Long may it continue. I noticed that an expresso is often served with a glass of water. 
A clever way of trapping falling leaves. The city centre is clean and relatively free of graffiti. A noticeable phenomenon (or rather lack of) is that there are no women with babe in arms begging outside the churches. This is a relief, because these female beggars have become a fixture in a lot of western countries, eroding sympathy and compassion. Back to Brno, most of the shops in the pedestrianised area were closed on Saturdays, perhaps because it was off season. 
To the left: a figure painted onto the wall of a house, opposite the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. It is evident that the houses in the city centre have been looked after; there is hardly any peeling paint or falling plaster. It is quite a change from Bratislava, where many houses in the Old Town are crying out for a lick of paint. To the right: a tombstone outside the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. 