Brno's Wonders and pea genetics.

Was told by the receptionist that there wasn't much to see in the Czech town of Brno, but in 40 degree heat I found so many things. Started off in the square known as Cabbage Market which has one of the oldest theatres in central Europe. It’s also the only place in Brno where Austrians allowed play's in Czech so the language could have a chance of surviving. The theatre is also the place where the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed as an 11-year-old boy, and to commemorate this, the city erected a statue outside. But this odd statue depicts the head of the composer is his adult form, but his body is that of an 11-year-old naked boy standing on a piano. It was then onto the hanging crocodile which is thought to be the "dragon" that once plagued this Czech city. Brno is a very walkable town, there are lots of tunnels connecting the various streets and squares. The main cathedral of St. Peter and Paul sits at the top of the town, which rings it's noon bells at 11am. From there it was a short walk to the former top secret cold war era nuclear fallout shelter - 10-Z. It was like a 1950's time capsule. Designed to hold 600 party politicians safe for 3 days in the event of a nuclear attack it was pretty interesting. But what made it even more so for me was the communication room which could talk to every village in Czechia and this is where they controlled the speakers I wrote about in yesterdays blog! To finish up I visited the origin of genetics at Mendel's Abbey. This is where the monk Gregor Mendel conducted experiments with the common pea over several years which resulted in Mendels Laws - The backbone of genetics, which include the law of inheritance, the law of dominance, law of segregation and law of independent assortment. The law of segregation states that every individual possesses two alleles and only one allele is passed on to the offspring. Bought back memories of genetics study at UNE. Luckily, right next door is a brewery that was initially run by the same monks, so it was great to have a refreshing Starobrno Czech Pilsner style beer.