May 28^th 2021

Vienna, Austria – Bratislava, Slovakia

Miles: 80

Miles total: 910

We were really glad to leave the shitty campground in Vienna!! On the way Eastwards we got to see the change in energy. First, we passed a huge area with oil and gas industry, and just a few miles later we drove through countless huge wind mills.

Full of excitement and quite nervous we could make out the border crossing coming! What will be happening? Quarantine? Are our Covid-tests sufficient? Are they gonna search us? Are they asking us for the mandatory pre-registration that we don’t have? Then, the similarity to the border crossing Switzerland - Austria! Emptiness at the border! Probably all officials from the border went for lunch at the same time :-).

After 2 miles in Slovakia we stopped at an interstate rest place to get some lunch and we got already offered a probably stolen, originally packed brand new drilling machine and a AK47 brand knife. We said no thanks, smiled and continued our trip.

On our 12-year-old iPad 1 we still had a proper navigation software from Eastern Europe that we used during our last long trip 10 years ago! Easily we could find the campground from the capital of Slovakia, in Bratislava. The campground is due to Covid almost empty and for the first time since the start of our trip we could open up our camping chairs at the cozy campground and enjoy a beer at the sun.

May 29^th – June 3^rd 2021

Bratislava, Slovakia

Miles: 30

Miles total: 940

Thanks to Covid and that it is not main season, we had the entire campground for us on a few days. We didn’t complain much about enjoying some loneliness after the crowded campground in Vienna :-). The campground is part of a vacation village with some bungalows and lies somewhat outside of town at a lake. There are different activities being offered at the lake. The main attraction is surely the wakeboard lift, but there are also to rent the standard things like SUP, pedal boats or Kayaks.

For those who like to be totally naked, there is a nudist beach to lay around. We actually were quite surprised and almost fell off the board when we paddled on our stand-up boards across the lake and a completely naked man was crossing us on his stand-up paddle board :-).

We used 3 of the 7 days in the capital to explore the city. By tramway we reached downtown from the campground in 20 minutes. Thanks to Covid we could discover the city without the usual crowds. No Donau-river cruises, nor the Chinese-groups were present. The city was quasi empty :-). The landmark from Bratislava, the Pressburg, is shining from top of a hill. This castle contains several museums and exhibitions.

We discovered historic buildings like the “old Rathaus” walking thorough the beautiful old town. All in all we really liked Bratislava. The atmosphere in the old town, with their cozy little restaurants and bars, is very relaxing and enjoyable.

Besides this is Bratislava also a moderate, but fine and clean capital. Also unique is, that all the big brands like H&M are outside in big shopping malls. In the city center are mostly Restaurants, grocery stores and other smaller stores. In addition, you don’t see all the luxury brands like Gucci, Prada etc., as it was the case in Vienna. Also a nice fact for us. Of course we also tried several restaurants, but not all of them were a delight … We tried from traditional pork stew with sauerkraut and dumpling, to goulash with small dumplings and sheep cheese and also several Asian dishes. And of course, we tried the good Slovakian beer and different local trendy craft beers. The other days we used among other reasons to organize the new starter for the Iveco. Since we couldn’t find any Iveco shop in the internet, we tried our luck at a VW/Porsche shop. As expected they sent us 5 minutes away to another place, where we finally saw the blue Iveco label. Unfortunately we got sent away again since they don’t make any repairs. Somewhat outside of town we finally ended up at the real Iveco service station.

Quickly they checked if the starter is really bad. Then we got informed that they have to order a new (rebuilt) starter from Italy, since our model is quite old. And this will take about 3 days. So it was planned that on Friday we could get the new starter installed.

Finally we also got a new local SIM card for the tablet, so we don’t always rely on Wi-Fi. Easily we got a credit of 5GB for 10$.

June 4^th 2021

Bratislava – Bibersburg, Slovakia

Miles: 50

Miles total: 990

The time has come to move on after 7 interesting and enjoyable days in Bratislava. At least we thought so. In the morning, we went to the Iveco repair shop and our concerns were right. The needed starter has not arrived from Italy. So, we rapidly decided to leave anyways and return on Monday.

Did some shopping and eat lunch. Our tiny Slovak-knowledge are reaching the limit quite rapidly in restaurants, but we anyways tried in Slovakian language to order some menus in the buffet place. We got „Nemo & Dory“ and something else. The lady from the buffet explained friendly that these are menus for kids. Who would have thought at this name :-)?

But now let’s go to the wine region of the small Carpathian area. Thanks to the guide book we made a stop in a small, lovely winery town Sväty Jur, about 30 miles north of Bratislava. They already have since 700 years a wine culture.

The main street in town is lined with winery houses from the 16^th and 17^th century.  

Unfortunately we purchased already all needed groceries in Bratislava, since we quickly ended up in a tiny, lovely grocery speciality store with a lot of regional and organic food. Even special Swiss cheese (Appenzeller and Greyerzer) was presented in the counter. The lady in the shop was really friendly and told us half her life story and many things about her products in 20 minutes :-). Usually we are not that used to such a friendliness from the Slovak people. A lot of times they are OK, but often a bit grumpy.

With a bottle of wine from the area and 2 pieces of local sheep and goat cheese we went to the ice cream shop and with enough sugar in our bodies we continued driving to the “Bibersburg” Castle. The park around the castle was almost empty at 6PM and the evening sun accompanied us while we walked between the ancient walls.

June 5^th 2021

Bibersburg – Lake Bukova, Slovakia

Miles: 30

Miles total: 1020

We enjoyed a silent night (great, after noisy Bratislava) at the empty parking lot of the castle (Bibersburg). At 9AM we started to check out the castle.

In the beautiful garden park we had the luck to see a peacock in its full beauty with the open wheel. The inside of the castle could only be visited with a guided tour. The originally gothic castle was built in the 13^th century by a royal family and changed several times the owner. Between 1588 until 1945! belonged the castle to the same owner. In the 1990’s the castle got restored and counts as one of the most significant sights in Slovakia. Our 90 minutes tour went along rich decorated and pompous living rooms with ancient furniture from all around the world and numerous paintings etc...

The highlight of the tour were the impressive, extremely high and uniquely built cellars, where the owners back then planned to store ore.  

After the interesting tour we continued along the little Carpathian winery road to the village Smolenice, where we saw again a fairy tale castle towering over the village. By the way, also the inventor of the parachute, Stefan Banic (1870-1941), was born in Smolenice. He sold the patent after a successful jump from a skyscraper in Washington D.C., to the US Army for 50$!!

We walked up to the castle after a yummy lunch.

Finally, the castle got finished as late as after the second world war and is owned by the Slovakian academy of science.

Since we intended to do a very popular hike in the area, we looked for an adequate place to spend the night. We finally found on at the lake Bukova. At one place we saw some cars and even some tents and campers, mainly from fishing guys. At the road that led to the place was a driving ban, but since so many other cars were there, we also entered the area and ignored the sign.

Anyways, fishing seems to be very popular. Wearing camouflage seems also to be extremely popular among fishers, or rather an absolute must as it seems :-).

June 6^th 2021

Lake Bukova, Slovakia

Miles: 0

The mountain is calling. And even the tallest in the small Carpathians. Well as a fact, it is just a hill with 2520 feet (768m), so approx. 1640feet up from our sleeping place, hey it’s better than nothing ;-). About in the middle of the partially steep hike we discovered the ruin castle Ostry Kamen that towered over the valley, in the middle of the forest, crumbled and covered in trees. Just perfect for a little break.

At this point we have to mention that the Slovak people are way friendlier when they are hiking, that at other times. They have a smile and everybody says hello, it must be the additional oxygen in the forest :-).

Luckily was almost the entire hike in the beautiful deciduous forest. For us a bit strange were the countless trees that had only on the top leaves. We can still improve at spotting wild animals, but at least a frog has crossed our path :-).

Back at the camper we enjoyed some lunch and a cold beer at the tiny restaurant. Again, we realized that not that many people are speaking English, but at the end we found a young “translator”.

In the afternoon, all the fishers and other guests were packing their stuff until we finally had the entire place just for us.

June 7^th 2021

Lake Bukova – Piestany, Slovakia

Miles: 110

Miles total: 1130

Back to the capital in 2 hours, directly to the Iveco repair shop. Again 2 hours later the starter was replaced and we were 580$ poorer. Since our meet consumption is generally low, and since it is not that easy to get meatless dishes in Eastern Europe, we looked for a vegetarian place.

To our surprise we found in the middle of a living area an inconspicuous tiny restaurant that served us creative and very yummy menus. Only the border collie dog wrinkled his nose and didn’t beg ;-).

We ended up later at a lovely campground in Piestany about 50 miles (80 km) north east, where we were the only non-Slovak people. The Spa-Village Piestany is well known way over the Slovak border for its healing baths for centuries.

June 8^th 2021

Piestany, Slovakia

Our daily goal, taking a bath in the famous historical Spa Hotel Thermia Palace, failed. We didn’t have a negative Covid test, so no entry. Besides the Spa therapies, Piestany also has different interesting places to discover. For example the crumbled luxury hotel Slovan or a statue of a crutches-breaking-man, which symbolizes the healing forces of the water and mud of the area.

In front of the ruin from the Slovan Hotel, a 70 year old local man started to talk in German to us and talked about the Hotel and the better old times. During the communist times he was a waiter in the historical luxury hotel. Soon after, he said, that everything coming from the USA was bad. At some points we could understand the man if you see that during communisms everybody had work and everything functioned. With the coming capitalism and free market economy a lot of people have lost their jobs and existence.

He wanted to show us half the town, but we said thanks and let it be, and said good bye.

To be absolutely sure that the beer is everywhere good in Slovakia, we had to check out another brewery with their own Craft beer and yummy food :-). Thanks to the few words we know in Slovak, we can already understand half the menu.  

Now a bit about the prices in Slovakia. In eneral you can say that the food is half as expensive as in Switzerland. The campgrounds are about 20$ and a tall beer 2$.

June 9^th 2021

Piestany – Terchova, SK

Miles: 90

Miles total: 1220

The laboratory for the Covid test was todays first stop. After registration and paying 22$ per person we got called into the test room. The test went fairly quickly... The lady stuck the thing for 3 seconds, not very deep, into each nose hole. Done. No turning, nor going deep in until you almost cry as we know it from Switzerland :-). The results came 15 minutes later, luckily negative. No surprise at this “quick” test :-). Now let’s go to the historical bath Irma, which is from 1912.

According to the guide book is this a worldwide unique experience and the mineral contents in the thermal waters rank among the highest around the world. After paying the entrance fee of 20$ each, we got separated. The female, respectively the male companion led us to the wardrobe where now definitely was clear that no swim suit will be allowed. With a huge towel we went to the first bath, the mirror bath. At 97°F (36°C) warm thermal water we got warmed up. Men and women are separated by a colored glass wall. The clou at the mirror bath is, that when you sit completely still, you can see your own face at the water surface :-). We were practically alone in the bath thanks to Covid :-), otherwise are way more people there. Our guide(s) accompanied us to the next step, it was the mineral containing mud bath beneath the spectacular art nouveau dome. It’s view was already worth the entrance fee. The sulfur bath is about 104°F (40°C). The floor of the bath contains 4 to 12 inches (10-30cm) of thick mud, penetrated by natural thermal sources. With your feet you move the mud up and put it over your body and face. After another 15 minutes the tour continued to the quite relax room to keep sweating in a sheet and a warm cover sheet. The guide basically wraps you into the sheets. Usually people lay here ca. 15 minutes and the guide releases you from the sheets. Since my companion lady somehow just left, I laid there without any time feeling for about 30 minutes. I managed to get out by myself after it was getting really too warm, and with a red steaming head I jumped underneath the cold shower :-). However at Stefan, as he walked towards the shower, his guide just explained: „Shower not good for you. No shower“. So with some mineral mud on him he went back into civilisation :-). The mud lies for 12 month in a basin to mature and is being constantly washed around by thermal water. Only like this the unique properties of the mud can evolve. Walking back to the car at perfect 77°F (25°C) with our heated bodies and continuing driving very relaxed towards the Little Carpathian Mountains, into the village of Terchova. Also here we were almost the only guests at the huge campground.

10. – 12.6.2021

Terchova, SK

On two of the days we did some hiking near the village of Terchova. The first day we went in a few smaller canyons that were relatively easy to hike.

Just some steep long ladders were a bit scary and you shouldn’t have fear of heights. Our muscles were used much more the second day. Despite the effort that was lying in front of us, we were really looking forward to that day. At 6:50AM we took the bus at the campground and at 7:15 we started hiking. 3300ft (1000m) up in 3 hours to the mountain Stoh 5276ft (1608m). Despite the chilly wind on top of the mountain, we ate a snack and enjoyed the wonderful view and panorama across the valleys around us.

Along the ridge we went up and down until we finally arrived lucky but exhausted at the station of a gondola ride that brought us back down after hiking up a total of 5250ft in altitude change (1600m).

We were a bit surprised back at the campground when we saw a really traditional music band playing for some organised club or company party. 

June 13^th 2021

Terchova – Tatranska Lomnica, Slovakia

Miles: 90

Miles total: 1310

After a short ride we made a lunch stop at a obviously very famous restaurant with a little farm close to it and a shop. When visiting the farm just afterwards, we saw a to us unknown animal, goats with 4 horns.

Finally continuing to the High Tatras mountain range to a half empty campground.

June 14^th – 16^th 2021

Tatranska Lomnica, Slovakia

According to the guide book is the High Tatras Mountain Range the Slovak answer to the Alps in Switzerland. And everywhere in the villages you can see stickers from lonely planet with „Nr.1 destination in Europe“. Therefor also the huge number of tourists in the High Tatras. At several places are huge hotel complexes sprouting in the middle of the forest and the villages are full of hotels, restaurants and other touristy stuff. Also the prices are adapted, so we had to pay 13$ for a pizza, which is in Slovakia really at the upper end!

The first day we simply made a walk through the village of Tatranska Lomnica. Some historic hotels were worth seeing, but otherwise it is for us a bit too touristy and unreal.

The second day we accomplished a hike to the Zelene Pleso lake (green lake). First by public bus from the campground to our starting point, where we started at 7:45 hiking. We were already surprised how many people (not bad, but still..) were around for a Tuesday in off season. We can only imagine how it must be during peak season at a weekend!! It was really nice anyways!

At the beginning of the hike we looked a bit surprised when a bigger truck crawled down the shitty dirt road where we went up. 10 minutes later we discovered about 15 barrels of beer and of course the national drink Kofola. The hike continued along an even much worse track and we got surprised again when we saw other vehicles coming to pick up the barrels for the restaurant at the lake.

A Pinzgauer 6x6 and a Puch (old Austrian army vehicles) rushed down with 15mph over the track covered with big stones without any taking care of hikers.

It has not without any reason a big restaurant and tons of visitors at the marvellous „green lake “ Zelene Pleso.

The deep green lake surrounded by beautiful mountain peaks was fantastic. Oh yes, by the way, we crossed some people with skis on their shoulders, that enjoyed the last snow of the season. We took our lunch, containing sandwiches, fruits and chocolate, directly at the beautiful lake, and not in the crowded restaurant. We made an additional loop to a close mountain pass Kopske Sedlo, since we still had energy after the 2300 feet (700m) altitude difference.

Afterwards it went 2950 feet (900m) back down to town. Because of our cockiness ;-) we were pretty done at the end of the 13 miles (21km) hike.

The third day we went with some sore muscles by train to the near village Stary smokovec. Everywhere luxury shops and hotels. It was still a somewhat nice place but still not our world. The highlight was definitely the youth fountain, where sulfur mineral water is flowing for drinking. Several people came with their bottles to refill and we assume that in high season you actually have to wait in line to get some water. Of course we also wanted to get younger and we desperately wanted to drink from this magic water ;-). 

We emptied our drinking bottle and refilled it completely with this mineral water. We realised fairly quickly that we would never drink the entire bottle (some we drank, you never know :-)) and relatively quickly (when no one was watching :-)) we emptied and washed it out. It smelled terrible.

June 17^th 2021

Tatranska Lomnica, – Strsbke Pleso, Slovakia

Miles: 20

Miles total: 1’330

One of the main attractions in the High Tatras is the cable car that goes up to the Lomnitz peak, the second highest peak in Slovakia with 8641 feet (2634 m). Gondolas are already climbing up there, nearly vertical, since the 40’s.

This was actually our today’s plan, but the weather crossed our plans. We had a marvellous vies to the mountains from our camping spot, and we already saw during breakfast that the peak was covered in clouds. The price for the ride was too much for us with the risk of only seeing grey fog. But since the clouds were only around the peaks and the weather otherwise was good, we went anyways to the middle station, where we made a walk around the beautiful lake Skalnaté Pleso and just enjoyed the beautiful mountain panorama.

To have some action, we rented go-karts to go back down :-). At the parking of the cable car we got surprised by a young deer, who chew comfy at a bush and didn’t got disturbed by cars, people or kids.. :-). Later we found a stunning sleeping place not too far from the road but in the middle of nature.

June 18^th 2021

Strsbke Pleso, Slovakia

Wake up time was 5.45AM, to hike on top of the Slovak National Mountain, the Krivan with 8182 feet (2494 m). We usually prepare our sandwiches and all the other stuff the evening before, that we don’t have so much stress in the morning…

At 7:15 AM we started with the ascent. Even though we knew, that this is a really popular hike, we were quite surprised that at this time the small parking lot was already almost fully occupied. First we went steep up a shady fir forest, later in zig zag course through mountain pines until we reached the tree line.

Underneath the heavy sun we finally crawled towards the cross on top of the peak. We were quite happy with our real hiking boots when we had to cross some snow-covered areas.

At the peak, we got rewarded with a tremendous panorama across the High, Low and Western Tatras. A bit lower we saw some nice, snow covered mountain lakes. We weren’t quite the only ones up there, no it was really crowded! We couldn’t really believe it, that this, in the guide book as demanding and exhausting hike with 4600 feet (1400m) altitude difference, was partially visited by unexperienced young hikers with crappy old sneakers. Specially in the snow and the steep passages it was dangerous! Some of them couldn’t resist to opened a large can of beer on top.

With a full belly we went back, another route that we came up, along the beautiful idyllic lake Jamské pleso in the middle of the woods. We spent the night again at the same spot in the forest. By the way, also our warm water shower in the Iveco is working just great :-).

June 19^th 2021

Strsbke Pleso, Slovakia

Miles: 30

Miles total: 1340

Now we had to go to a campground to refill water, to empty water and mainly to empty our toilet. Even though we have a Non-chemical toilet, we didn’t wanna tilt our shit at the edge of the forest.

A little bit south of Strsbke Pleso we found a great, but equipped only with sloping places, campground. To compensate the uneven sleeping place we treated ourselves to some Grappa :-). 

June 20^th 2021

Strsbke Pleso, Slovakia

We just wrote some reports and worked on our web page. Luckily, we could also change to the only flat place on the entire campground :-).

June 21^st 2021

Strsbke Pleso, Slovakia

The next hike was planned since we are gifted for weeks with nice weather. Goal: Take the bus at 7AM and hiking a round tour across a small pass. The bus didn’t work out. The bus (replacing a train under construction) was scheduled for departure at 6:57. At 6:54 we wanted to get on the bus and they explained us that we need to purchase a ticket at the station. So we ran towards the station, and as soon as we were a bit away from the bus, they closed the door and took off, 2 minutes before departure time!! Did we miss something or didn’t they wanna take us with them?? Angry, we took a Taxi for 18$. We finally started at 8AM hiking after buying some food for later.

Since we are quite far East, but still are in the same time zone as Switzerland, the sun is already quite up and strong at 8AM.

The hike led us through a beautiful valley from 4270 feet (1300m) to 7550 feet (2300m) altitude, along several lakes and small waterfalls. Several times you had to take a grab on installed chains and ropes to cross some passages.

We cut the descent in half by taking a chairlift down to town :-). All those locations in the High Tatras are also well known ski towns in winter.

June 22^nd 2021

Strsbke Pleso – Demänovska Dolina, Slovakia

Miles: 30

Miles total: 1370

June 23^rd 2021

Demänovska Dolina, Slovakia

1 day doing nothing J. Except of course writing reports and organize photos.

June 24^th 2021

Demänovska Dolina, Slovakia

And another hiking day :-). Today, to the top of the Dumbier, the highest mountain (6700 feet; 2043m) of the Low Tatras. By public bus to the wrong starting point and firstly hiking up the steep ski slope until we finally reached the proper hiking trail.

Now the, not closed, hiking trail led us directly to an area with many trees that fell down long ago during a heavy storm. First we figured, that we will not make it through the thicket, through the fallen trees! We conquered the jungle by climbing, crawling underneath trees and balancing with the sticks across tree stumps :-). It was close, we almost took our Swiss Army knife to cut some trees ;-). The adventure lasted 30 minutes!!

We still enjoyed the view across the Lower Tatras and further away the High Tatras. A strong wind blew heavily during our sandwich lunch and the rest of the hiking. We preferred to take the gondola to go back down.

June 25^th 2021

Demänovska Dolina – Certovica, SK

Miles: 50

Miles total: 1420

For once we didn’t wanna go on the mountain, but rather inside the mountain. The ice cave Demänova was just 1 mile beside the campground. Some people were there in shorts and without jacket even though it was written that the tour will be 45 minutes at freezing temperature.

June 26^th 2021

Certovica – Dedinky, Slovakia

Miles: 50

Miles total: 1’470

Sleeping was over after 4 AM. Rain came and with-it thunderstorm. Around us was lightning and thunder. We always feel very uncomfortable in such situations! Is the camper leaking? Are the roof windows and solar panels holding up when it hails? Stay the trees where they are? Everything went well, luckily!

Before continuing driving, we started (with sunshine) a little walk that degenerated in a 2.5-hour hike :-). Mainly because we intended to take a route that was not declared as a hiking trail, and so it was completely covered with bushes. For the first we saw a sign that mentioned the increased presence of brown bears and the recommended behaviour when meeting one. With a somewhat queasy feeling we enjoyed the beautiful hike anyways :-).

June 27^th 2021

Dedinky, Slovakia 

Soon it went quite steep up through belly high bushes. At the steep meadows and below the peak were countless anemones blooming and depending on the hillside they were at a different stage of blooming. From far we already saw the huge antenna, but the hike still went far up across meadows. We got company at the last piece from a rain promising wind. Clouds were towering up and finally we finally got greeted with a thunderstorm at the top.

Luckily, we found some shelter at the big antenna building and could enjoy our lunch at a dry place. The fog slowly disappeared after the short and harmless rainfall and the surrounded valleys and mountains appeared. Unfortunately was the distant view still not too good, so we didn’t see the peaks from the High Tatras. With sunshine we started the descent along special rock formations.

The train ride was again quite amusing since the train driver hit the horn at different places and people were waving at the train.

June 28^th 2021

Dedinky – Levoca, Slovakia

Miles: 30

Miles total: 1’500

The small village Dedinky is in the south of the National Park “Slovakian Paradise”. The mountain range got its graceful name due to its landscape diversity on a small area. Deep valleys and canyons, waterfalls and beautiful viewpoints on small cliffs are creating the landscape here. Since we got a bit tired from hiking, we reduced todays visit of the National Park to a small canyon Zejmarska roklina.

June 29^th 2021

Levoca – Kosice, Slovakia

Miles: 50

Miles total: 1’550

We stopped twice at some really worth seeing places on our short trip to the second biggest city in Slovakia, Kosice. First one, the town Levoča.

The old little city Levoča is a cultural historical marvel of the Slovak cities with its numerous monuments and it is since 2009 UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were actually positively surprised by the beauty but also laid-back atmosphere of the city.

Once in a while we are still surprised by the prices for food. We ate some daily menus in a decent restaurant in the center of this touristy place for just 14$. Besides that it was very delicious, we even got a soup and a pitcher of lemon water for free.

Then we continued driving East. 20 minutes later we could already make out the huge castle on top of a hill.

The Zipser Castle is on the largest castle areas in Central Europe and was being started built in the 12^th Century, and belongs since almost 30 years to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Besides visiting the museum and going up the tower, we also went across the long wall around the castle area, despite the sun and warm weather. It became a noble residence and the Hungarian King back then was born here, in the 15^th Century. The castle got abandoned completely after 2 huge fires in the 18^th Century. It ended as a ruin and got reborn by archeologists finally in the 1970’s.

In Levoca and at the Zipser Castle we saw several school classes with many beautifully dressed kids and teenagers. Some girls even had a rose in their hand.

During the day we figured out, that it had to be some sort of school ending trips before the Summer holiday. We also saw many parents, but mainly many dads, that were on sightseeing tours with their children. After an hour driving we ended at the city campground of Kosice.

June 30^th – July 5^th 2021

Košice, Slovakia

Miles: 30

Miles total: 1’580

Košice is a beautiful city, but 6 days?? Nobody stays 6 days, just we do. Not really because we don’t like travelling around anymore, nor is it because the campground is so nice. We had to catch up with writing reports for you guys, had to organize the photos and look after the web page, since we were always doing stuff the past few weeks. Then, we also had, completely unplanned, contact with the police and some angry Slovak guy.

The steps have scratched into a parked car and transformed into a spiral staircase! Besides, that we forgot to move the steps in, we also missed the red parking break lamp, which aluminates when the stairs are not pulled in. We were nice and didn’t just take off. The quite angry employee of the shop, the owner of the car, called the police. The entire analysing, the alcohol test (by the way 0.00 :-)), the paying of the fine of 45$ and the filling out of the report was going on for at least 3 hours!! Completely demotivated we drove back to the same campground instead of a campground at a lake near the Ukrainian border :-(.

But now, to the second biggest city in Slovakia.

For many is Košice the most beautiful city of the country. The old town was cleaned up during the late 90’s and became in 2013, together with Marseille France, cultural capital of Europe. An absolutely enjoyable, relaxing city center with a walking and bicycle zone was created. Even the trams got banned from the small center! Cozy restaurants, shops and of course ice-cream places made our visit enjoyable. Also when it comes to sights has the city many things to offer. For example the gothic Elisabeth Dome or the Theater.

A rather unknown but shocking part of Košice is the quarter 9, Lunik9, that we actually didn’t visited. Luník IX is a negative example of relocate Romani ethnic group people. After 1987 were Romani people relocated here. Shortly after all other people left and therefor live over 8000 people in the block buildings that were originally built for 2000 people. Left behind from the city. Since years there is no waste removal and the garbage piles are crawling upwards along the walls of the block buildings. Water is flowing twice a day for an hour and there is almost no electricity. As we saw regularly Romani people and children, we were always asking us, why they look like people from India! Also when we saw kids, we many times said “they look the same as kids in India“. And really, when we investigated it we figured out, that they really were emigrating a thousand years ago from India and today’s Pakistan, slowly over Iran into Europe. Since about 600 years are Romani people living in Europe.

July 6^th 2021

Košice – Lake Domasa, Slovakia

Miles: 60

Miles total: 1’640

As we expected didn’t have the camper shop the stairs on stock. So, we ordered one and used the 5 days to visit the far east of the country. We camped at the Lake Domasa. By now is quite something going on, due to summer vacation time in Slovakia. As soon as we arrived we enjoyed a dip in the lake to cool down from the heat. Remember, no AC in the car.

July 7^th 2021

Lake Domasa, Slovakia

Due to a quite funny evening we stayed the entire day at the lake without doing much, instead of continuing driving :-). 

July 8^th 2021

Lake Domasa – Svidnik, Slovakia

Miles: 70

Miles total: 1’710

We made two stops on the way to Svidnik. Both of them were absolutely worth it!

The first at the gorgeous town Bardejov, which has an old city center that belongs to the UNESCO world heritage sights since 2000. Once again we got surprised by the beauty of a Slovak old town. One highlight is the 600 year old, gothic church. Even though we already saw countless churches, was this one, with its ten wing altars really worth seeing and apparently a real unique church!

Then there is the old City Hall, where a stone carver 500 years ago cut into the building a naked boy that shows his naked buttock, because the city didn’t pay him enough salary :-).

We enjoyed the city with sunshine but without many people.

We got interested in another church just a few miles away. This time a wooden church. In the North-East of the country are several of those Greek-Catholic wooden churches with its typical onion shaped towers.

This, most certainly the oldest wooden church in the region, dates as far back as 1596. Not only from the outside, but also from the inside is this church a true jewel with its paintings and pictures. We got a 20 minutes audio presentation in English, even though we were the only people there. After about an hour drive, we discovered a campground in the town of Svidnick besides a big public swimming pool area. As soon as we parked the car, we got invited by Andrej, the owner, to some local liquor in his shabby and crappy office/bar/kitchen. Die 90°F (30°C) threw us towards the swimming pool within minutes :-). After dinner, Andrej invited us (it was impossible to say no) to his long table. He tried (every evening, as we figured out later) to motivate several guests, so that we finally were a couple people at his table. And of course, we got more Slovak liquor. We could communicate in English thanks to a very nice Polish couple! Since historically a lot has happened in this region, were the discussions once in a while quite political but interesting with topics like communism, East Block, USA, War, Germany and so on.

Besides the liquor, we also got offered a food plate with homemade sausage as well as cucumbers and onions from his own yard. In addition, he gave us a book from the region.

We fled into the camper at 11PM since we wanted to leave the next day :-).

July 9^th 2021

Svidnik – Ulic, SK

Miles: 90

Miles total: 1’800

When we left, we got once more some gifts from Andrej, two bottles of beer and a pack „Kupelne Oblatky“.

The second one was some kind of very thin chocolate wafers, a bit bigger than a CD. This apparently Slovak specialty was surprisingly yummy. To say thank you to Andrej for the hospitality and all the gifts, we gave him one of our Swiss army knife :-). The trip led us once more to an old Greek-Catholic wooden church in the tiny village Ludovmila, that also was a UNESCO world heritage site. The church was closed, but the neighbour and caretaker of the church discovered us quickly and opened up the wooden church. Also here were several amazing ancient wall paintings.

Afterwards we continued to the Dukla Pass at the border to Poland. At his Pass in the center Carpathian Mountains were brutal battles happening in the first and second world war. 135’000 soldiers lost their lives at the fierce fights between Soviet-Czechoslovak troops and the Germans in the second world war within just 3 month. There are different monuments and cemeteries remembering those battles. The continuation of the trip towards east led us through very rural areas, dotted with tiny villages, that had sometimes the village names written also in Ukrainian and Russian language. In the border region of eastern Slovakia are Ukrainian dominated villages as well as Ruthin dominated once. Something else that caught our attention were the many storks. There was at least one nest in every village.

Further east, again at the Polish border, in the city Medzilaborce was surprisingly the only Pop-Art-Museum in Europe with numerous arts-paintings from Andy Warhol! The parents from Warhol (real name Warhola) emigrated from a close Ruthin-village to Pittsburgh, USA in the 1920’s, where Andy was born 1928. Even though he never visited Slovakia, he gave according to his testament a good part of his paintings and his work to the city of Medzilaborce. Some of the most famous originals that were displayed were the series “Marilyn Monroe” or “the flowers”. In addition were many personal items like camera, Walkman or clothes from Warhol on display. We continued further towards National Park Poloniny. Half way we discovered a good place to stay for the night in the forest.

July 10^th 2021

Ulic – Nova Sedlica, Slovakia

Miles: 10

Miles Total: 1’810

After a short ride we arrived at the end of the valley, in the village of Nova Sedlica where we spent a quiet day at the cozy campground. 

July 11^th 2021

Nova Sedlica, Slovakia

The National park Poloniny covers mainly forested area. The ancient forest belongs to the Unesco world heritage sights. Our todays hike led us partially through this ancient forest that contains mainly beech trees and some firs.

Sometimes the forest was very dense, and sometimes it was quite open, so that over the years very large beech trees were able to grow. The area is very well protected and is left to itself.

At the many dead trees are mushrooms and it serves as a habitat for countless insects and ends up finally as humus. The ancient untouched forests have a huge biodiversity and offer living space for rare birds, bugs, mushrooms and other organism that are in our “cleaned up” forests dead for long time. After 3 hours we reached the highest point of the National park, the mountain „Kremenec“, with 4005 feet (1221m) altitude and in the tri-country corner Slovakia Poland and Ukraine. The last part already went along the Ukrainian border where we crossed two young Ukrainian soldiers with a dog that were patrolling along the border. The point that connects all 3 countries is marked with a big pole, where on each side the country’s name is marked. In each country is one bench to sit on.

Until now we didn’t see one person on the hike, but here on top were quite many people present that almost all came from the Polish side. We sat on the only empty bench, the Ukrainian. Soon 2 military soldiers came, and the older (higher ranked), was sitting beside us and the young guy was standing beside the bench. They seemed to be friendly, even though we couldn’t really speak to each other :-). Since we had enough time, we made a detour of total 90 minutes to go to the Polish view point „Wielka Rawka“. The path went again along the Ukrainian border.

Now utterly strange was, that a Ukrainian soldier was cutting bushes to make a path exactly parallel to the already existing Polish trail. We assume that it is, that as a Ukrainian hiker you are not allowed to step on EU ground. For us really strange that each country must have his own path. As closer we got to the view point in Poland, as more people were present. It seems to be a very popular hike, and many people enjoyed the sunny weather at the weekend. The peak offered beautiful views along the nearby forests, hills and valleys. We went back the same way to the countries triangle, then along a ridge and finally back down towards our valley. A bit marked from the heat we arrived exhausted at the campground where we immediately got offered a cold beer from the owner :-).

July 12^th 2021

Nova Sedlica, Slovakia

And for once something amusing. In this village, as well as in the village before were old horn loudspeakers mounted on the electric power masts. They play for one our per day Russian sounding old music. Apparently is this normal for small Slovakian villages :-). Maybe this is coming from the time where people couldn’t afford a radio.

July 13^th 2021

Nova Sedlica – Michalovce, Slovakia

Miles: 130

Miles total: 1’940

Actually, this would have been a short trip, but we had to go back to Košice to pick up the new steps. As on almost all the other days, we enjoyed the sun during the entire ride :-). Once again, we visited the Covid test station In Košice to be prepared for the upcoming border crossing into Ukraine. 

We spent the night at the big lake (some Slovakians call it the Slovak sea) near Michalovce and could luckily enjoy a dip in the lake :-).