Ryanair Knees Up

Flew home on Ryanair. They really know how to work an airplane. It must have been on the ground for less than half an hour. In that time they got everybody off, along with their luggage, got us all on the plane and took off again.

I think they’ve moved the seats even closer together since I last flew with them. I’m not a fan of aircraft seats, but these were really quite painful to sit on. Oh well, at least it was a short enough flight.

Last Day in Brno

We spent our last full day in Brno wandering round, having great coffee and buying a few souvenirs and presents. We have had a great time here, and would come again in a heartbeat.

We wandered up to the cathedral and discovered a bunch of fast cars. It seems like the Diamond Race was passing through town. So I took a bunch of photographs.

Cool Cars

I think the rusty effect is painted on.

Maybe next year I’ll enter with the Cube….

Společnost pro Moravský kras

We went to see some caves today. And an abyss. David was kind enough to drive us out to the Moravsky Caves near Brno. They have some fantastic stalactites and stalagmites and even an underground river that you can go along in special electric boats. It was great fun.

This is a proper abyss. Of course there is a local legend which ends with a wicked woman hurtling down to the bottom. Isn’t it always the way…

There are some beautiful forests too, reminded me a lot of Dalby Forest.

We had a traditional Polish meal at the restaurant. These are delicious.

Thanks to David for looking after us so well.

Mango Jump Start Videos Released

A couple of weeks ago Andy Wigley and I spent two days taking about Windows Phone development, with a focus on the shiny new Mango features. We did it as a Live Meeting and it was great fun. Now the recordings of the sessions have been released here to a waiting world.

So, why not uncork a nice Chablis, retire to your chaise longue and watch us in glorious high definition on your 60 inch plasma screen…..

Campus and Castle

The Department of Graphics and Multimedia has a really nice courtyard. And you could play croquet on that lawn on the left…

Adam was kind enough to show us round his department (Computer Graphics and Multimedia) in Brno University of Technology this morning. It is s a great department, based in new and restored surroundings. It was interesting to hear about another department in a different country, and find out that many of the issues that they are addressing are also the ones we worry about at Hull too.

Another one bites the dust….

After that we went up town to Brno for lunch and then on to to Špilberk Castle. On the way we passed this amazing sign:

We’ve no idea what made them put the one in the middle on the lower row, and frankly, we don’t want to know…..

The castle was great, and if you go to the top you can get some great views of the city.