Tour de Slovakia; white-knuckle ride (at warp speed) - edited!

An epic cross country journey (the return as recorded on my Garmin)

The past two days have been truly action-packed, so much so that I was incapable of blogging day by day which had been my intention, so apologies if you have been eagerly tuning in only to find we had apparently disappeared from the face of the earth.  In fact on a number of occasions we really, nearly did!  By the end of each day I was only capable of flopping into bed (only to lie awake in a wired stupor for most of the night!) with any form of coherent diary writing quite beyond my word-deficient over-loaded brain.  

So to begin – we were collected early by Peter and his partner, Dada, in her small(ish) Suzuki jeep which already contained her large(ish) 18 year old son and their small 2 year old daschund Susa, yes, a dog …. And we were about to embark on a 1200 km round trip.  In the event the son was delivered to school as we left Bratislava, not so Susa!

Peter is a heavy, heavy smoker and requires regular stops during which he chain smokes until we set off again.  And of course Susa required breaks as well. Suddenly, arriving at our destination anytime this month, seemed unlikely to say the least!  However, Peter overcame this apparent problem by driving at warp speed (a G suit would not have gone a miss!) between said stops, regardless of the terrain or road conditions ... some stops were even for us to sight-see, many were not, finding us slewed across random laybys as if we had just crash landed!  

In fact he had devised a wonderful route from west to east (and east to west) to capture as much of the varied countryside as possible that makes up Slovakia.  Having left the environs of Bratislava we were quite quickly into a gentle undulating valley for many kilometers before heading into a hillier area to pass through the traditional village of Čičmany to the north of central Slovakia.  The village is protected from development now and retains some wonderfully decorated village dwellings.  We stopped here for coffee and enjoyed wandering down the main street taking photos.

From here we wound our way through some beautiful countryside passing through small villages until we reached a village where Dada's Great Grandfather had lived and who is remembered by a sign on one of the houses; he was a local medical doctor and taught in the Catholic school there.

We stopped for a late lunch by a man-made reservoir that was completed in the 1970s and forms part of an extensive hydro electric system that serves Slovakia's power requirements.  They also have two nuclear facilities and coal-fired generators too.  We all ate a regional speciality, gnocci with sheep cheese and bacon.  Whilst I wouldn't choose to eat potatoes as a rule it was interesting, and tasty, to try a local food.

From here the pace really picked up with Peter driving at crazy speeds, breaking insanely late into blind corners and leaving Connie and I in a braced position to avoid making an unscheduled exit through the side windows, or through the windscreen; my Garmin's inertial dampers must have failed at some point and the mapping of the route from West to East was somewhat disrupted!  By this point we had been on the road for some 8 hours and were hot and rather cramped sitting in the back.  The temperature has remained well above 30 since we arrived here, not ideal conditions for journeying in a small vehicle with four adults (and a dog) with no air-conditioning! 

Our next destination was in the High Tatras a section of mountains that form part of the Carpathian range.  With peaks climbing in excess of 6,000 feet this area is stunningly beautiful (and still snow-capped) and really appealed to Connie who has spent most of her adult years climbing and mountaineering.  It also held particular interest for me as Peter and I had worked on a book together a number of years ago which narrates the history of the Kempinski hotel located here.  We parked by the ski-jumps.  I'd never before seen them 'in the flesh' so to speak and lacking snow, and seen from below seem to be totally insane!  Ski-jumpers must be completely mad!

The next stop around 17:30 was in the beautiful town of Levoča.  This town was built over the centuries almost entirely by Germans (and German money) who had been invited into the region by former emperors to develop trade.  The result is a stunning Bavarian looking town of quality buildings with beautiful frescos and a church which houses the largest wooden altar in the world and is a UNESCO listed site.  Unfortunately for us the church was by this time closed.

Peter had devised a plan to take in another church but by now it was getting really late and we still had some 3 hours or driving ahead of us to reach Medzilaborce and the Andy Warhol museum.  We eventually arrived around 8 pm (13 hours of death-defying driving)!  The restaurant at the 'hotel' had already shut.  Fortunately we were able to wander down the street and find a Penzion with a restaurant still serving.  

Medzilaborce  is the end of everything, right up against the Polish border and had the air of a one-horse western town that has past its prime, if it ever had one - you half expected Clint Eastwood to suddenly appear!  Obviously the Warhol museum is here because this is where Andy's parents lived but it couldn't be located in a less accessible place!  There are large gypsy populations in this area which straddles the border areas of Poland, Ukraine and Hungary.  As with many itinerant populations there are grave social problems surrounding them as the 'system' has tried to integrate them into a fixed way of life so alien to their ancestry.

The meal we had was delicious and plentiful and Connie will probably wax lyrical about the pizza forever more!  Fortunately for her I understand we have a Slovak chef arrived near where she lives who is now producing such pizzas.  The meal was ridiculously cheap as well - 22 euros for two soups, a pizza, a pasta dish, a chicken dish, chips, bottled water, beer and coffees.  I really don't understand how they can function economically!

The 'hotel' was typical former communist but clean and adequate for the one night although with small rooms and no air-conditioning was stiflingly hot; another 2 hours only of sleep ensued.  However a wonderful breakfast of ham and mushroom omelettes set us up for the day and at 1.50 euros a complete bargain.

Donald Warhola (Andy's nephew) was teaching a class of children and we peeked in to see him and met his wife.  We then spent 30 minutes or so wandering around the exhibition.  I have to say I'm not particularly fond of most pop art but seeing a whole series of pictures together, by several artists who were contemporaries or students of Warhol certainly helped me to understand the thought processes the artist had followed.  

On our return journey we came back a more direct route which took a mountain pass through the Low Tatras a lovely family skiing area before returning through the valley and eventually into Bratislava.  We were very fortunate to be going in the 'right' direction as the outbound traffic was badly effected by a lorry crash which created 10s of miles of standing traffic.

Throughout our journey a female Slovak voice droned out directions from a satnav which Peter often disagreed with or was driving so fast he missed the instruction, resulting in hair-raising U-turns on many occasions or violent breaking to make an almost missed junction and I have never before arrived at a petrol forecourt in excess of 60 mph, at this point I closed my eyes and 'disappeared' elsewhere until the vehicle came to a halt!

The dog ... I have to say Susa behaved impeccably sitting quietly on either Dada's and Peter's lap for the entire journey and by the end of day 1 was probably the only creature in the car who didn't smell!  

Storks - it's amazing to see storks flying around and nesting on telegraph poles along the road!

We celebrated the end of our road trip by having dinner at our hotel with our hosts.

A most interesting trip and one from which I thought we may never reappear at times!

Ready for the road trip ...

Peter, Dada, Cavegirl and Susa the dog!

Traditional village building

Stopping for coffee

Dada's Ancestor

Lake lunch stop

At the Warhol exhibition

High Tatras

Madness

Today is Connie's 60 th birthday, we are staying at one of the best hotels in Bratislava right in the heart of the old city next door to the US Embassy and I booked an extra room at the last minute  - hopefully we'll both return home rested now LOL!