After working ALL day in Jena, then driving ALL night -- OK, riding -- OK,
we got there at 23:30 -- all of the way back to the institute in Praha, having
to go to the after project party the next day, AND walking all over Praha
the day after that, I needed another vacation. I actually scheduled my return
for one week after I was finished with the project so that I would have time
to look around since this was my first time in Europe. Don't worry. Your American
tax dollars didn't pay for all of this. Well...since my salary does come from
the government you actually did pay for all of this. Just try not to think
about it. Look at it this way, if I didn't spend your money it would just
be wasted by the government on something important...maybe.
Ahh. Now this is more my speed. After an eight hour train ride, and forty
minute automobile ride, Galen, who was traveling to actually work on the next
project, and I arrived in southern Poland.
All of the equipment from Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia was brought back
to Praha and then it, along with the equipment form the Czech Republic, was
trucked to the small town of Brzeg Dolny, Poland. Brzeg Dolny was about 30
kilometers northwest of the city of Wrocław ("vrockslav" would
be a close approximation to the pronunciation), and was the location of the
instrument center for the Poland portion of the SUDETES experiment. When that
experiment was finished it became the instrument center for the Grundy 2003
experiment. The Grundy experiment area is on the map that was on the first
web page for this trip. It was a small experiment, in area, compared to the
SUDETES experiment, but it still used over 800 Texans. The experiment area
was about 150 kilometers away, but keeping the center in Brzeg Dolny meant
not having to move all of the computer equipment to another location. Since
I was in the neighborhood I figured I would tag along with Galen and travel
there.
I don't know who came up with the coat of arms for Brzeg Dolny, but more importantly,
why does it have a knight spearing a small dragon? Very interesting.
Brzeg Dolny has been around for hundreds of years. We saw a sign in one of
the gymnasiums that must have been made for the tercentennial celebration
since painted on it was " Brzeg Dolny -- 1699-1999". A lot of action
took place around these parts after World War II when, as part of the resettlement
of Europe, all of the German people that had lived here for quite some time
were removed and people from eastern Poland were moved in.
There seemed to be two parts to Brzeg Dolny. The old part, which must have
been the original part of the town, and the new part that was built during
the "communist times" in Poland to house people that worked at the
nearby factory. Of course, the communist way was for no one to own anything,
so even though there was plenty of land available apartment houses were built
in the new part of town, instead of single family houses, which would have
implied some form of private ownership.
Downtown in the new part.
Most of the buildings needed a good paint job, and the grass in between all of the buildings needed to be mowed, but from what I could see it looked like the apartments were kept cozy on the inside. Not all of the buildings were drab and dull. All of the tenants of one of the buildings had all of their verandas fixed up quite nicely.
I only saw a few sheds that were made using "stick" construction, that is, things like 2x4s with some form of wood siding. Most of the buildings were made of bricks, concrete, or rocks sometimes with a stucco coating. The roofs were usually some form of post and beam construction with red slate shingles. Everything seemed to be built to last for a while.
Along with other countries the Czech Republic and Poland voted on entry into the European Union while I was over there. Poland just before I arrived, and the Czech Republic while I was in Poland, so that made it an interesting time to be there. The Czech Republic voted "ano", and Poland voted "tak" -- "yes" and "yes".
I didn't do it.
2018-03-06