By Theresa Cullen
There’s a lot we could share about the city of Olomouc, but with little time these days, we want to share some of the highlights!
Olomouc is about two hours west of Prague by train. It is the second oldest city in CZ after Prague and is full of history.
Check out this link for a quick overview:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olomouc
As mentioned in the previous post, we visited the olomouc.cz internet news office on Monday. They mentioned our visit on their website and posted this photo of the team with some of the staff. The editors and photographers shared some of their challenges with communicating with the city, as well as their successes. Thanks to Martina, Barbora, Jan (aka Johnny Walker) and Andres for your time!
We also got to tour city hall and had the very special opportunity to climb about 10 flights of stairs to the bell tower for an amazing view of the city. After the stairs and our Pilates class that morning with Honza, our legs were on fire!
While at City Hall, we met with Deputy Mayor Aleš Jakubec and discussed many things including the city’s recycling program. We discussed the costs to residents in comparison to the U.S. and how they are encouraging residents to dispose of trash correctly. The public relations manager for the city also told us about how he communicates with residents about events in town and showed us promotional materials.
This is the city’s website: http://www.olomouc.eu
(You can use google translate to convert to English)
Before catching the train to Ostrava, Honza took us to Saint Wenceslas Cathedral. The church is from the 12th century and its main tower makes it the fourth tallest building in the CZ at 330 ft. high. Pope John Paul II once visited the beautiful church, and it is one of the most visited churches in the country, although their were only a few other visitors on Tuesday afternoon.
There was so much more we did, but but hope you enjoy this brief summary of our visit! Thanks to Rotarian Roman Gronsky for showing us around, including pointing out the historical markers in the city in memory of some of his Jewish relatives killed during the Holocaust.
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