Written in 1856, ten years before the publication of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon , Krutohlav and his friends set off to explore the solar system in a motorized ‘dragon’ powered by gunpowder taking with them many kinds of sausage, cheeses, pickled cabbage and wine. A very whimsical and humorous account of how Krutohlav, a country gentleman from rural Central Europe explores the solar system. His first attempt to travel to the moon in a balloon ends in failure after crashlanding in the Egyptian desert. Instead of giving up, Krutohlav builds a new craft he calls a dragon and convinces a group of his friends to travel with him around the solar system.