MOUNTAINS , LAKES AND A TOUCH OF DISNEY!

From Tišava our journey took us through the Low Tatras – a landscape of densely wooded mountains and glittering streams tumbling down precipitous hillsides or meandering lazily through Alpine meadows.  We travelled through pretty villages including Smolnik with its beautiful little church.

Our destination was another lakeside campsite at Dedinky (the site is on the right just above the large hotel with a red roof).

From there we were able to do a circular walk including the Zejmarská Gorge where the path alongside the stream is near vertical at times and ladders and grid steps have been placed to make it possible.

We were heading West by a rather indirect route to take in various sights. Banska Stiavnica is a mining town set on the side of a hill.  It became rather wealthy as a result of the gold and silver deposits found there.  The mine shafts were dug horizontally into the side of the hill.  There are a few interesting buildings including two small castles and several mining museums.  We were struck by this unusual modern mural but could find no explanation of it.

We stopped to have look at Bojnice Castle.  Rebuilt in the early years of the twentieth century it looks more like something from Walt Disney. 

We also wandered round the village of Čičmany famed for a 200-year-old custom of dark stained log homes decorated with white graphic designs based on embroidery motifs.

INTO SLOVAKIA

Viewed from the Slovak (Southern) side, the High Tatras are majestic as the highest peak – Lomnický Štít -  below which we were camped, soars to  a height of 2633 metres.  It is possible to take a cable car to the summit but as all the summits were enveloped in cloud for most of our visit we didn’t do it.  Thwarted again!!

We drove through several ski resorts and then descended to the town of Levoča, staying at a site a few kilometres from the town and were able to cycle in on a good, off-road cycle track.  The medieval town walls are almost complete but not very impressive …

And the old town inside them is slowly being restored.  Outside the Town Hall, the “Cage of Shame” in the photo used to be used as a punishment for naughty children!

Photography was not allowed inside the church which has a huge altar-screen made by Master Paul – a local artist whose work can be seen in several churches in this part of Slovakia – but this postcard shows his depiction of the Last Supper which is part of the screen.  We particularly liked the expressions on the disciples’ faces!

We caught our first glimpse of Spiš Castle from the main road as we travelled east.

Set on a rocky hill high above the town of Spišské Podhradie it was first mentioned in a chronicle in 1209.  Its military significance was as a defence against invasion by the Turks and others but being privately owned it had palaces added into it until the 16^th century when new walled settlement on a nearby hill largely took over this roll.  

Destroyed by fire in 1780, it fell into ruins until renovation was started in the 1970s.

Conservation and restoration continue to this day.

While there we were lucky enough to see a swallow-tail butterfly …

… and Jane has been adding lots of photos to her large collection of wild flowers such as this Himalayan Balsam.

After a couple of nights near the industrial town of Prešov, we headed north to another delightful walled town – Bardejov.  The town square was less pretentious than some we had seen elsewhere but the Burghers' houses were lovely and, although similar in shape, all were different from each other in detail. 

The old Town Hall and Parish Church dominate the square. 

The Town Hall has some charming sculptures on the gable ends of the roof …

… and the church has numerous ornate altars and an unusual Rood Beam

A few kilometres east of Bardejov is Svidnik – a rather uninspiring industrial town which does have a large open-air museum of rural life in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  Several buildings from around the area had been carefully dismantled and rebuilt there …

… including a fine example of a tiny wooden church which, as we discovered, is still used for weddings.

Taking the road north, towards the Dukla Pass on the Polish border, we entered an area that suffered very heavy fighting at the end of World War ll. Russian tanks are still to be seen in the fields where they were abandoned.

From there we travelled south west to a site at a very popular local week-end/holiday spot. 

No – it is not the Mediterranean but Tišava on the banks of a long narrow lake.  By this time the weather had improved dramatically and the days were very hot, sunny and rather sultry.

KRAKOW AND THE TATRAS

Situated on the Vistula River, Kraków is the ancient capital of Poland where almost all the Kings of Poland were crowned and eventually buried.  The legendary founder of the city was Prince Krak who vanquished the Wawel Dragon and set up his residence on what is now called Wawel Hill.

The Wawel Cathedral with its colourful domes …

… and the castle are very popular visitor attractions.

One touching story is told by this memorial to Dzok the dog.

When his master died at the Grunwaldski Roundabout, Dzok returned to the place every day of the year 1990-1991 and waited in vain for his master to take him home!

A short distance away is the old town, once surrounded by walls, remnants of which still remain.

The Rynek or Market Square, is the largest in Europe and in its centre is the Cloth Hall and the tower of the old City Hall.

The Cloth Hall is now filled with little craft and souvenir shops.

The Jewish Quarter has lost its atmosphere as it is now full of chic bistros and restaurants.  One poignant reminder of its troubled past is the Ghetto Heroes Square where a memorial in the shape of randomly placed, larger than life chairs is a reminder of the occasion when the Nazi soldiers cleared the houses in the Ghetto, throwing the furniture out of the windows into the roads and the square.  The Jews forced out of their homes were transported to Auschwitz.

Oskar Schindler’s factory, made famous by the film “Schindler’s List” is still there …

… and is now a museum and memorial of what he did to save so many lives.

From Krakow we travelled south east to Niedzica whose castle sits just above the dam of a huge reservoir. 

Hydro-electric generators are built into the dam and on the walkway across the top is an amazing painting showing the dam apparently collapsing in on itself.

From this lovely and popular holiday area we travelled the short distance to Zakopane – a journey that took quite a long time as the traffic in and out of the town moves at snail’s pace.  In the winter Zakopane is a popular ski resort with everything from gentle nursery slopes to some impressive ski jumps

We were able to walk up a beautifully maintained path …

… into the lower Tatra Mountains on a lovely sunny day …

… and intended taking the cable car (you can see it in the picture above) to the summit of Kasperowy Wierch (1987 m) the following day but the weather closed down and our plan was thwarted.  We did, however, see a three-toed woodpecker on the camp-site.

We also saw the strangest caravan we have ever seen.

AUSCHWITZ

For many people the Nazi attempt to wipe out the Jewish population of the countries they controlled is summed up by one word – Auschwitz. 

This was the name the Nazis gave to the small Polish town of Oświęcim where they modified an old Polish Army barracks to create a concentration camp, not just for Jews but for gypsies, homosexuals, criminals, people with physical or mental disabilities etc and a prisoner of war camp for Soviet soldiers. 

They built a small gas chamber here …

… but it soon became clear that the camp was too small to cope with all the people being sent there.  So two kilometres away they established Auschwitz II – Birkenau.

Birkenau is enormous. 

Covering 450 acres, it contained over three hundred buildings and the number of men and women prisoners reached about 100,000 by 1944.  A total of about 1,100,000 died there of whom 90% were Jews.  They were housed in wooden huts or brick buildings, sleeping on straw on three tier bunks with up to eight people in each section.  As each section was little more than two metres wide we wondered how they ever fitted in!

New gas chambers were built and most of the women and children arriving there in cattle trucks like this one …

… were taken straight to a small copse to wait, often for hours in all weather (it gets very hot here in the summer and very cold in winter!) to be stripped of their clothes, have all their belongings confiscated, their heads shaved (human hair was valuable!) and be herded into a gas chamber to be killed by fumes given off by Cyclon B crystals.  Their bodies were then cremated and their ashes piled into pits like this one.  The inscription on the stones reads: To the memory of the men, women and children who fell victim to the Nazi genocide.  Here lie their ashes.  May their souls rest in peace.

In 1945 the Nazis tried to destroy the evidence of their crimes by blowing up the gas chambers but their ruins remain, as do a few huts and other buildings.

The two parts of Auschwitz are a lasting reminder of the depths to which people can sink but to our surprise there is an atmosphere of deep peace there, helped, perhaps, by the obvious reverence of most of the thousands of visitors.  And nature is taking over what is left.  During our visit we saw a wild hare, a swallow-tail butterfly, a flock of lapwings and many wild flowers like these in an old sewerage lake.

BACK TO THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY!

The small town of Tarnόw was quite a surprise.  From the very pleasant campsite it was a short bike ride into the centre where, in the usual Market Square, the Town Hall has a quirky round tower from the top of which, at 12 noon each day, a bugler plays a lament.

The heavy metal doors of the Cathedral are a work of art in themselves

It was from Tarnόw that the first Polish Jews were transported to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau – a fact commemorated by a rather discrete memorial in a side street.

Our next site was on the outskirts of Krakόw.  From there we were able to visit the salt mine at Bochnia

The salt mine at Bochnia was started in the fourteenth century and continued to produce salt commercially until just twenty years ago.  Now the salt is still mined but only in small quantities for sale to tourists! 

The mine is huge and even the small part open to visitors requires a 2½ hour walk to see everything.  The story of the mine’s history is told with the help of very clever visual aids including these two Italian merchants whose faces come to life as they talk (for our benefit in English!)

There is a chapel carved out of the salt by miners

And carvings of other religious scenes.

Some of the larger chambers house bunk beds for 230 people, a restaurant, a basket ball court and a 150 metre long slide!

Alongside the mine is a reconstruction of a thirteenth century village ...

... where skills such as carpentry, pottery, rope-making, weaving etc are carried on in the way they were 800 years ago.