It is Znojmo, and the ‘z’ is pronounced a little bit so it sounds like ‘shnoymo’

To get there from Vienna it is a short train trip, or for today, a train to Retz (still in Austria) then a bus because it is summer and the rail works are done in summer.

The people here look a little different, leaner with harder features. Perhaps it’s just my fellow travellers and bus passengers are the same the world over.

Pretty villages, with interesting roads. A new Range Rover in a garage by the road … vineyards beside narrow roads, barely room to pass an oncoming bus. Apart from overhead luggage racks and left hand drive, the buses are very like suburban buses in Melbourne, yellow grab rails, red STOP buttons, low front entry and raised seating at the rear.

We’ve just passed a couple of laden touring cyclists, our driver gave them a reasonably wide berth. There are riders everywhere on these roads, we are swerving round them with gay abandon. And with a few going the other way too, it can be a bit tight.

I must admit to not really liking bus travel, unless I’m driving, of course, I haven’t had lunch, it’s twenty to five and I really want this to end …
We are definitely in the Czech Republic now, indecipherable words on buildings, a whole new language to figure out!

Ah, Znojmo, soon to be back on foot looking for Pension Archa.
A lot of traffic on the road here …

My window is on the top left, the main square is only a few steps away and the ICHC organisers have arranged a daily bus to transport us to and from the venue.

The pension host is lovely, does not speak much English (I don’t speak any Czech!) but we manage.
Payment is not in euros here, it’s in Czech crowns, and that is cuurently at about CZK1000 to €25. It feels strange to hand over a CZK500 note for dinner, but it is an inexpensive country in which to live, I am told.

Wandering into the Znojmo main square I soon found a few familiar places looking around. There is a very impressive tower overlooking the city, a huge modernist building housing a Bata shop – Bata is the Czech footwear manufacturer – and many older style, three or four story buildings. One of them has a plaque on it noting that ‘Napoleon was here’ and it houses a French restaurant, of course.

The streets are cobbled and clean, the road signs are mostly  interesting, and the traffic is light.

The conference venue is a former monastery, of which more later, and it’s a fiftteen minute bus ride away.