Category: Europe 2018

After a good night’s sleep I decided I would spend the whole day in Zagreb and get the sleeper as planned. Annoyingly you can’t book beds online, so this involved a trip to the station. Fortunately there was space (as seat61.com promised). A bargain at 44Euro (for a twin bunk, not a triple – though READ MORE

Getting a bit behind here… spent all of Thursday travelling from Slovakia to Zagreb. Ferenc drove us all to Budapest, through beautiful (and hilly) countryside. From there I caught the direct train to Zagreb, which took 5.5 hours. No buffet car, or even a trolley, so just like the UK really. Except it cost 9 READ MORE

After the ice cave we headed to the Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise) national park. This is full of deep limestone gorges, some of which you can walk up with the aid of fixed ladders and other gear. We did a short and simple route (suitable for children according to the person in tourist information), which READ MORE

The (almost) final stop on our trip today was the town of Levoča, which had a beautiful (Unesco listed) town centre. (the town hall) (the cage of shame – for women who stayed out unaccompanied after dark. It was locked) (view from the city walls)

The final stop today was Tesco, to get some supplies for tomorrow’s journey to Budapest and then Zagreb. Rather expensive English specialities Bizarre chocolate display Some rather, erm, interesting cheese. The local liqueur is “Tatratea”, which is a tea based spirit. It comes in a bewildering away of flavours and strengths, of somewhat varying niceness. READ MORE

We kicked off our day with a trip to Dobšinská ice cave in the Slovak Paradise national park. The cave is filled with ice (some of it up to 2000 years old). Essentially it seems to work like an insulated frost pocket. Interesting ice stalactites and things in there.

Another trip to the High Tatras today; this time towards the western end of the range, at Strebsk\'{e} Pleso. Had a lovely walk up to lake Popradske Pleso, and back round the lake in Strebske Pleso itself (there’s supposed to be an upside down ^ on the S, like in Skoda, but I can’t work READ MORE

Forgot to post this before. I finished off my water at the top of the mountain (2634m). This is the bottle back at the flat (it’s warmer in the flat than the top of the mountain too). Apparently water boils at (if I remember correctly) 87 degrees up there, so no chance of a decent READ MORE

Off to the High Tatras today. We drove to Tatranska Lomnica, and got a couple of cable cars half way up the mountain. From there we were going to get another (somewhat scary looking – there were no supports between the top and the bottom of it) cable car to the top of Lomnicky Stit, READ MORE

Had a full day in Slovakia, having arrived on (one of) this morning’s sleeper services from Prague: (which also carried cars!), and was met by Ferenc and Ferenc. We headed off to a treetop walk in Bachledka, which seemed to be extremely popular. Good views from the top. The top of the viewing tower had READ MORE