Quick Visit to Brno: Drive from Vienna to Brno and Czech Food!

Back in the summer of 2019, I went to visit Brno, a pretty city in the southern part of Czechia.

Did you know that Czech Republic has changed its name to Czechia? However, it seems that the rest of world is struggling to accept its new name because Czech Republic is still being used to reference the country. Renaming a country is always a tricky thing.

My trip to Brno was actually a business trip and I went there together with a colleague. He was travelling from Milan. Because Brno has a small airport, which mostly serves charter flights during the warmer months, we had to fly into Vienna, the nearest international airport. It is about 1 hour and 45 minutes drive from Vienna to Brno, so it was not bad at all.

As I will be away for 3 days, I parked my car at the Long-term parking of Schiphol and I usually take a picture of the row where I parked the car so I don’t forget.

I have a funny story about forgetting where I parked my car many moons ago in Manila. I went to SM Megamall (shopping center) and parked the car on the right side of the mall parking. The mall has parking on both sides of the building. It was closing down at 22:00 so I was rushing back to the car but couldn’t find it. I panicked. Someone stole the car! I quickly alerted security and everyone was on their walkie-talkies when I realised that I actually parked the car on the other side. Ooops. Haha.

The flight from Amsterdam to Vienna is 1 hour and 50 minutes.

It is interesting to note that I have been to the Vienna airport many times but have never visited Vienna, the city itself (yet)! I need to plan a trip when I have the chance. Below you can see the city of Vienna under the wings of the Austrian Air.

Upon arrival in Vienna, I went right away to collect the rental car. I have booked a car ahead of time for the drive to Brno, this is the fastest option to get to the city as there are no trains between the cities.

I remember the drive being okay, nothing exceptional happening except for the occasional traffic when we reach build-up areas. We were driving with a GPS, but my Italian colleague served as my lookout. We had to buy a vignette on the highway just before we entered Czechia.

Brno is really close to the border. It is very close to Vienna and Bratislava. Prague, Krakow, Budapest and Graz are not too far away as well. All cities I have been to except for Graz which I would like to visit one day.

We have arrived in Brno and were able to find our hotel in the city center with no stress. We also managed to get a parking spot in front of the hotel. Because part of the hotel’s facade was under maintenance, I didn’t take pictures.

My colleague made a joke to the hotel receptionist that I should get extra, something nice as it’s my birthday. Oh dear, I almost forgot my birthday! But my colleague has a photographic memory; he remembers everything.

I am not a fan of getting attention for myself but the hotel made little extra effort and gave me 2 small bottles of white wine to enjoy in my room. Not sure if I can finish it all up during the whole stay. You normally drink white wine with dinner.

After a quick freshening up, we hit the road for dinner. It was almost 21:00 and we were a bit famished. We both didn’t check out restaurants ahead of time so we have no idea where we will eat. We will walk around and find something. We were in search of some local cuisine, and if possible, a restaurant that looks nice with patrons.

I manage to take a few photos of the city center as we search for a restaurant:

This is the equestrian statue of the Margrave of Jobst of Luxembourg. He was born in Brno and had many titles such as King of Germany, Duke of Luxembourg, Margrave of Moravia. This statue is very catchy.

Church of St. Thomas on Moravske.

Then we came across this beautiful building. Half of the ground floor is a restaurant and they also have the first floor upstairs. The restaurant is called “Stopkova Plzenska Pivnice”. I have no idea how to pronounce this!

The indoor hallways of this restaurant looked very promising.

We have decided, this is it. This is the restaurant where we will dine for the night. The place was jampacked with diners and we were led upstairs where there is more room.

We ordered an English menu as our Czech is super rusty. When you are hungry, you want to make sure you ordered the correct dish. I remember our waiter being very helpful, explaining to us patiently the ingredients of the dish we asked for and how it is cooked.

We first had our starters, some local cheese, and Czech beer, of course. My colleague went for a blonde one while I fancied a dark. I love specialty beers but I can only last 1 glass, maybe 2, and I am done.

Our mains arrived. My colleague ordered a beef sirloin steak I think (Czech Rotensky). Mine was the second dish photo, a duck leg of a Bohemian roasted duck (Pecena Kachna), which is a speciality of the region. We were stuffed from the cheese and main course that we skipped dessert.

We had coffee back at the hotel and then called it a night. We have to wake up early the next day for a long day’s meeting with the customer. For this trip, we have a day and a half of meetings non-stop lined up.

One of my pet peeves is staying in a twin room when I am travelling by myself. I prefer a queen or king-size bed, not 2 beds! Helaas, they didn’t have any available.