Poland Slovakia Day 1

[M.J.]

Three friends and I booked a week off to tour in Eastern Europe. We intended to fly from London to Krakow, ride south to Zakopane, into Slovakia in the High Tatras and back to Krakow in a circle. We planned 6 days of fast, light touring in a counterclockwise direction ranging from 70-130km per day. We booked the first and last night of accomodation in Krakow and were otherwise flexible.

BA lost a bag which meant we lost a day of riding. After it arrived we took the bus from Krakow to Zakopane. Taking the bikes apart and stacking the frames and wheels on top of each other to lay in the bottom of a bus luggage compartment is not for those who are too precious about their bikes.

Krakow's a great city to visit with a fantastic, and quite famous, central square.

Day 1
Poland Slovakia Day 1
Day 2
Poland Slovakia Day 2
Day 3
Poland Slovakia Day 3
Day 4
Poland Slovakia Day 4
Day 5
Poland Slovakia Day 5

[M.J.]

Zakopane is directly under the 2500m peaks of the High Tatras which lie on the Polish Slovakian border. The High Tatras, on both sides of the border, are winter and summer recreation destinations. Our first day of riding was to take us to 10-15 miles south of where we started in Zakopane - but there were 130km of road miles and lots of climbing to get around the mountains around the largest mountains which are about 20-40 square km of wilderness.

These two shots are the nice roads and views getting out of Zakopane.

[M.J.]

on the western side of the Tatras

at the border we produced our passports and rolled through without any problems or delay

I managed this first of many pictures of working bicycles. This old woman was tending her field with a hoe and an old school singlespeed.

[M.J.]

Pat

HH

Pat, HH and DPV climbing up towards Zuberec

[M.J.]

the high countryside opens up

another working bicycle

more climbing to get over the saddle

nice roads

[M.J.]

me and DPV at the top of the climb - looking down on Liptovska Mara

we thought DPV's purple sweatband and untamed hair would help us blend in with the locals

[M.J.]

at the bottom of the descent

[M.J.]

climbing back north now into the High Tatras - we have 800 meters to climb over 35kms and we're running out of daylight - we eventually roll into Strbske Pleso (1350m) after dark

[MB1]

[stever]

made me smile re your tour
thought you would like to see a similar tour me and some friends from ayrshire [scotland]
did a couple of years back

http://picasaweb.google.com/steve.ro...ndSlovakiaTour