A Day Trip to Krakow

We 'mustered up' our nerve and took a trip to a big city!  Krakow is only a little over a two hour drive from the house in Zdiar so we felt we really must go this time.  And, are we ever glad we did!  The drive was very pretty, even when on the major highway.  And, once in the city the signage to "centrum" was easy to follow even if we hadn't had the lady in the GPS giving us directions.  Here are some photos from our trip.

 We took many photos there....unfortunately most of them were taken horizontally and they just do not look good sideways on the blog!  These last four were taken on our way home....the last one being the old border station.  Even though it is no longer in use, we did get stopped by the border patrol who were 'stationed' just down the road.  We produced all of our papers, the one officer went to his car, plugged all the info into the computer and in what seemed like at least 5 minutes, came back with our passports, etc. and said "ok".

Spis Castle

Just couldn't let the largest castle in Eastern Europe only be sideways on the blog!

Family Days

Some of the family were able to come to Zdiar to visit us.  We had a great day of sunshine, a long walk and a picnic before they had to head back home.

Slavo and Jan

The beautiful day

Zlata, Karinka, Slavo, Jan and Zuzana

Lui, Slavka, Zlata, Karinka and Slavo

why????

...and again

We took a photo of this picture Jan brought to show us.  The woman on the right is my grandfather's mother and his sisters.

On to Sunday at the family birthday celebration at Slavo and Zlata's house.

The May birthdays are Jan, Slavo and Lui.  It was Slavo's 40th so he hosted the celebration but all three birthdays were honored.

Sidonia and Karinka

Back to Zdiar we go....have to pass by here enroute.

(sorry things went sideways again ~ it worked for a while)

The Roads Less Traveled

Some of the real jewels of Eastern Slovakia are found in extremely remote areas.  You know you are in a remote village when everyone along the way turns to see the French license plate, or when you see only one or two cars parked among the tractors and wagons.
There are several levels of roads in Slovakia, all the way from the D-1 Motorway to the roads that are not found on most maps.  I purchased a 1 to 150,000th map book and discovered many of the roads we had explored have xxx's across them.....no cars!  Oh well, we already drove them.  We have included some pictures to illustrate some of these small places, the forests and villages that most intelligent folks never see.

We started our journey in this village, home to this beautiful church and to homes along the road that have arched doorways.  In maybe 30 seconds we found ourselves out of town and on down the hill we spotted another village church.

 

and pretty soon another little village just around the bend.

This village called Pavlany was built on a hillside so incredibly steep that we had to use 1st gear and give our little Peugeot lots of diesel.

Yes, there is a church in Pavlany.  They also have bus service AND garbage service.

We saw some deer not far outside the village, but our photo is a 'vista' rather than up and down and when those go into the blog they always go sideways. 

This beautifully dressed woman was headed for the Potraviny (store).

This is typical of the remote village houses.

Even the smallest village has its church.  This one is from the 15th Century.

Miles from nowhere the hay is cut by hand, stacked and then hauled home by wagon.

From way high on the mountain we could see Levoca, the beautiful World Heritage City with the treasured St. James Cathedral just visible (sideways again).

St. James up close.

The road to Lucky is wide, full of cars and folks seeking wellness in the waters and spas.  The road out of Lucky becomes one lane and goes straight up - no cars - only us and four bikers.  We have some great photos along the road, but only this one is 'going the right way'.

As we began our descent into Pokryvac,

we came to an 18% grade, 180 degree corner marked 40 klicks.  We had not gone over 20 on the entire road!

This is the last Slovak we see before we cross into Poland on a road best described as a lane.

In Poland the houses are very tall.....colorful and meticulous stonework on many.

The Lord's House is meticulously cared for also.

A new house...note the porch supports.

On these roads horses pulling wagons are a fairly common sight.  The wagon might hold a load of rocks, a load of manure or even a big load of logs.

A tractor blocking the road is not a new sight out here, but in this case the bucket was extended with a ladder standing up in the bucket leaning against the power pole and a man was on the ladder fixing the power line!  Where, oh where is OSHA?? 

The man comes down, the bucket is lowered, the ladder and the tractor are off the road and we head home.  Dovidenia.