Today was day of travel and meeting people! Long trip on train from Nuremberg to Munich to Vienna to Ostrava. And trains were late. Also there is heat wave here with temps in 90s and most places dont have a/c! The last train of day from Vienna to Ostrava was an old train with little a/c but had fun folks to ride with. Two younger ladies had seats around me and they spoke English. They were friends travelling to a wedding in Warsaw. They were also both diplomats which is how they met when working in Vienna. One is from South Africa and currently on a sabbatical to work with the Intntl Atomic Energy Agency. The other is from Malaysia and has just returned to work there but came back for wedding. They were great and true global citizens!
Arrived in Oatrava which is main city in area from which grandpa came. City is mainly industrial and has real Soviet era architecture. The city once had some grand structures including a great hotel on the site of one I am in now (was financed in part by Baron Rothschild ), but suffered much damage in WWII and clearly much not rebuilt. But my grandfather would have seen the old hotel in its heyday! They do have a oretty Masaryk Square right behind my hotel but looks nice from distance then can see it is built out of concrete and not that pretty. Two large churches nearby are the same. Not many people out and about but there are many small casinos scattered around; they are just storefronts nothing fancy and probably run by Russian mafia.
I had dinner at very nice hotel restaurant and I chose regional cuisine. Dinner was braised beef in cream sauce with bread dumplings. Yummy! And local strawberry season so lots of them. Now as I was eating a man and woman came in and by there voices I could tell they were Americans! So when I finished I had to go say hello and find out what other Americans doing here lol. They work for IBM, and do contract work for big industries here. There are apparently many big manufacturers across parts of rural Europe as get cheaper but good labor. Their project is an Israeli company. The lady is from New Jersey and the man from Houston and they have been here several times. They were really fascinated by my being here kn my way to Warsaw! So fun to talk.
Also lots of farming here and funny but growing wheat and ...cotton! I was very surprised. Those are both things my grandfather and dad grew in US!!
Tmr is another adventure...
