A new one for me. The plane is having to be de-iced before it can depart.

After wander round the Christmas Market in the main square and a ride on its big wheel our trip is nearly over. About to depart from a foggy Ostrava airport, conditions that until a few years ago would have stopped flights.

In one of the other former buildings of iron works is located a branch of the Czech National Museum of Agriculture.

In my previous post, I accidentally failed to say that the opera we were about to see was Rusalka.
It exceeded all expectations, I thought it was a superb production.

The real purpose of our trip was to enable us to see a performance of Anton Dvořák's opera in the lovely opera house in Ostrava.

Ostrava was divided by the Ostravice river into Moravian and Silesian cities, only united in the 20th century. Just on the Silesian side are the remains of a defensive castle.

Ostrava City Museum is located in the Old Town Hall in the main square.

Ostrava!!! (The New Town Hall.)

We have come to Ostrava, where we had booked a guided tour of the Villa Grossman. Only recently restored, this Art Nouveau house was built by the architect Frantisek Grossman to be his private family residence.

Crossing imperceptibly into the Czech Republic, which seems appropriate, as we have not left the ancient province of Upper Silesia.

Katowice was not the intended destination for this trip, but rather a convenient place to get to from London. So, we have now caught a bus from Katowice Bus Station to move on.

Katowice grew rapidly as a centre of heavy industry in the 19th century and has very little earlier architecture. Much of it has been destroyed by war or urban planners. The Rynek in the heart of the city is surrounded by modern buildings and is currently hosting an underwhelming Christmas market.

We have come to a chilly Katowice in Poland and have spent all afternoon in the excellent Museum of Silesia, built on the site of former coal mine, which provides a detailed history of this fascinating region.

On the way to our destination, the plane passed over a snowy Wrocław.

Found an hour to watch this - completely brilliant, as usual. Looking forward to the second half. Maybe your last one for a while?