Slovakia 2

Welcome back :)

After leaving Poprad we did another lovely walk through lush green forests.

Fairyland on a tree stump.

We then checked out some of the lowland towns away from the mountains. First stop was a beautiful town called Kezmarok. This is the town our two lovely waitresses came from and they had raved about it so we thought we'd better check it out.

They were right. The gorgeous town was full of beautiful old buildings yet still had lovely parks and wide streets. 

The town hall.

We had lunch in a restaurant in the wide grassy strip down the middle of the main road then wandered along the street admiring the buildings.

The beautiful road led to a castle. We went in but had just missed the hourly tour. We were still tired so we had a quick look at the parts we could see without doing the tour then wandered out again. 

Someone we met had told us about a beautiful old wooden church so we checked it out. It was amazing! In the late 1600's the Protestants were restricted by law with what they were allowed to build. To keep it as cheap as possible, the entire church was made from wood, even the nails. Most of the original building was replaced over the next century but it is still a unique and particularly striking church. Who needs all that gold and glitter when natural wood seems so much better?

A gorgeously carved and painted private area. (It probably has a proper name but I don't know what it is!)

Paintings on the ceiling were painted directly onto the timber. I love the effect!

A huge organ towered at the back of the church, flanked by decks wonky with age.

Driving along roads and highways we often saw amazing old churches.

Now that we weren't in the mountains it was getting quite hot. It was in the low 30's when we arrived at Kosice, a large town in the east of the country. We unloaded the car and slogged up five floors of stairs with our bags. We entered our apartment and found that they had left the windows open and there was no aircon. There wasn't even a fan! We were tired, hot and bothered and decided within half an hour that we couldn't stay here for the two days we had booked for. The owner found us a fan thank goodness so we made the most of our one very hot night there.

The grand church in the centre of town was impressive.

We sat on a street  with lots of activity happening and I drank a wine that Fads and I both love. Cheers!

A lovely park had dancing fountains. Heaps of people watched them (and took selfies in front of them.) The colours were gorgeous.

Next we visited Spis Castle. Unfortunately a large part of it was closed due to renovations. We wandered around hot and sweaty. We didn't get much of an insight into it but it was striking looking.

We lost our money on that night's abandoned accommodation but it was our fault as it wasn't advertised as having air-conditioning. We were very careful to pick out a substitute place. I found a nice one with aircon in another town and wrote to the owner checking that the aircon worked. She answered in a convoluted way that I assumed was something to do with the way it was translated. I re-phrased the question and asked it again. Again I got a weird answer. In the end I asked the question five times. It turned out that the reason the answers were convoluted is because there was no aircon even though it was advertised as having it! Arrgghh! We now had to find something at very short notice. John had done a walk back at Tatransky Lomnica, our first destination, past the Grand Hotel which looked amazing. They had a room there so we took it. We got there, walked in and - you guessed it - it had no aircon! The old thick walls had kept the room reasonably cool though, and it was at fairly high altitude, so it wasn't too bad. We caught up with our friends the waitresses and had a lovely night. There was even a jazz band playing at the hotel which was a bit of fun.

The next day we headed to our last stop in Slovakia - Strbske Pleso. Try saying that one after a few shandies! Our apartment here again didn't have aircon and it was very hot inside. Amazingly, the large hotel couldn't supply a fan. Fortunately, the temperatures dropped a bit after the first day or so and it was ok.

It was the weekend when we arrived and it was pretty busy. The High Tatras provided a beautiful backdrop the to gorgeous scenery.

I wasn't well still but tickets for the chairlift were included in our previous hotel stay and they had to be used that day. We caught the spectacularly long chairlift up.

The views from the chairlift were amazing.

From the top of the chairlift it was only an hour's walk to a peak but it was soooo steep. I really struggled but we got there in the end.

We found a comfy rock in a spectacular location and soaked up the views. I was careful not to move forward though!

Views from the top.

Unfortunately the views back below us were nearly always hazy due to the high humidity.

The lake in Strbske Pleso. The name means Strbske Lake.

We began to feel better and over the the six days that we stayed here we walked for three or four hours each day. It's the most sustained run of walking I've had the whole trip and the most that John's done since Portugal. The flowers along a valley walk were lovely.

On another walk we found ourselves behind a couple of nuns!

Much to our surprise, we emerged from a walking track one day into a busy hotel area beside a lake. We didn't realise at the time that a road went up there! The lake had fish in it but was very cold.

There were often wild blueberries along the tracks but they were sour. Then one day we found a wonderfully sweet patch. Yum!

More lovely scenery.

The tracks were often rocky but this stretch took the cake.

Sometimes there were an amazing number of people on the tracks, particularly on the easier stretches like this road.

These purple flowers were everywhere.

Walks took us to some other towns and we could catch a train back. These towns nearly all had these amazing grand old buildings.

A true renovator's delight!

This was the end of our few weeks in Slovakia. It's a truly beautiful country at this time of year and I think it would look spectacular when it's covered in snow in winter too. We didn't get to meet many locals but the ones we met were lovely.

If any of this has inspired you to go hiking in the High Tatras, our advice would be to go as soon as school holidays end to avoid the crowds. The weather would be a bit cooler too.

Hooroo!

Heather and John