Ostrava..

....is 4 hours away from Prague, but with respect to the Ostravans it may as well be on the other side of the world - though it is the third largest city in the Czech Republic, it has the appearance of a very large Huntly (and that may be unkind to Huntly)!

It is a city based around the coal mining/steelworks industry and we counted at least 4 industrial sites when we went up the viewing area in the city hall tower late in


the afternoon as well as slag heaps, the one closest to the city (Halda Ema) spontaneously combusted in the 60s and is still burning reaching temperatures


of 1500C deep in the heap. The ground remains so warm snow does not settle on it in winter.

Poland was also visible in the distance due to the prominence of another slag heap


There was the typical aerial view of the city from the tower.


When we arrived mid afternoon due to the fact that we only had 4 or so hours available we selected 3 of the so called attractions to seek out.

The first was Miniuni which is an area featuring miniature models of European landmarks - despite following signs and two maps we had we could not find it!

Asking the locals was a waste of time as we couldn't communicate effectively with those we asked.

Not to be outdone we moved off to go to Stodolni Street "Ostrava's famed entertainment district" & we finally found a rather dirty seedy area of cafes and bars.

Having wasted a couple of hours we were a little uptight but that was relieved


after our visit to the shop!

Third time lucky is the saying and we were when we got across town to the tower mentioned earlier.

By now it was evening so returned to the Namesti (square) and had our meal in an open air restaurant, on the way back to the hotel we passed this small church


Tomorrow morning we leave early to move onto Krakow in Poland and on the way we are visiting Auschwitz & also the Wieliczka Salt Mine - both of which we look forward to.