Ostrava (Czech Republic)
Sept 2007
I visited Ostrava for the EUSFLAT 2007 conference and walked a bit around if time allowed (and as there is not THAT much to see in Ostrava and as quite some of the submitted papers appeared to be on the theoretical mathematics side of Fuzzy Logic instead of on the applied/engineering side I guess I saw most of the sights)
The Ostrava castle was deserted. If there is some event it might be nice, but on a slightly rainy weekday in September, it's not much of an attraction...
Passing it every time walking from the Hotel to the Conference or back, it is one of the sybols riminding of communist history.
Although Ostrava is the 3rd largest city in the Czech republic and considered very big. With about 300.000 inhabitants, that's only about 2% of Tokyo... this proves again that everyting is realtive (except for the speed of light, which is absolute). This is the main square, with the old town hall (now museum).
The new town hall features a (relatively) high observation tower and the guiding student told lots of things about the city, the region, industry, history, ...
This small wooden church is a bit outside the city. I read on some internet forums that it would be opened at the time I went, but unfortunately it was closed.
The area surrounding Ostrava is famous for mining, mainly coal and iron. Several mining towers and processing industry still remind of this, although most of them have already closed down.
A small hill not far from the hotel offers a nice view over the city. The guide at the town hall tower said that the hill consisted of mining and iron-industry waste and that the inside of the hill was still very hot. That would result in a very local sub-tropical climate with lots of special plants (and no snow in winter). I didn't recognise any difference, but I'm no botanist... I guess there might be some truth in the story, but it's probably exaggerated quite a bit.
Ostrava by night, with the characteristic town hall tower.
The Ostrava castle was deserted. If there is some event it might be nice, but on a slightly rainy weekday in September, it's not much of an attraction...
Passing it every time walking from the Hotel to the Conference or back, it is one of the sybols riminding of communist history.
Although Ostrava is the 3rd largest city in the Czech republic and considered very big. With about 300.000 inhabitants, that's only about 2% of Tokyo... this proves again that everyting is realtive (except for the speed of light, which is absolute). This is the main square, with the old town hall (now museum).
The new town hall features a (relatively) high observation tower and the guiding student told lots of things about the city, the region, industry, history, ...
This small wooden church is a bit outside the city. I read on some internet forums that it would be opened at the time I went, but unfortunately it was closed.
The area surrounding Ostrava is famous for mining, mainly coal and iron. Several mining towers and processing industry still remind of this, although most of them have already closed down.
A small hill not far from the hotel offers a nice view over the city. The guide at the town hall tower said that the hill consisted of mining and iron-industry waste and that the inside of the hill was still very hot. That would result in a very local sub-tropical climate with lots of special plants (and no snow in winter). I didn't recognise any difference, but I'm no botanist... I guess there might be some truth in the story, but it's probably exaggerated quite a bit.
Ostrava by night, with the characteristic town hall tower.