Gary and Lesley's Travels: Slovakia & Poland (19-30 October 2016)

Slovakia (19-25 October 2016)
Our train to Bratislava Slovakia took 2 ½ hours and arriving it was instantly different - less of the big flash stations and more of a functional one. Our apartment is very close to the old centre, it is very grey, damp and cold tonight – perhaps because of the moisture in the air but definitely feels colder than where we’ve been up to now. Arriving quite late and with the weather being not so good we only headed out to find the supermarket and grab some dinner, spending the rest of the afternoon indoors.

The following day, getting up to similar weather and checking the forecast we made a decision to extend our stay one night in the hope that we will get better weather for exploring, so we will be here for four nights.

Our first full day we ventured out into the cold and damp to walk into the old town and get a bit of a feel for it, visiting the info centre and ticket booth as we wanted to go to an ice hockey game while we are here. Bratislava’s old town is lovely (founded in 907), the Danube runs through the city which is flanked by the Small Carpathians (a low mountain range known for its skiing in winter and vineyards the rest of the time. The city is also known for its quirky human sized statues – tourist magnets and city icons.

The first statue we came across is Cumil (or the watcher). There are a couple of rumours of what this is – the first a communist era worker not bothered about what he’s supposed to be doing and the other is that he’s looking under women’s skirts. It was installed in 1997 and has become one of the favourite symbols of the Old Town.

We walked past the old Opera House. The “City Theatre” as it used to be known was built in 1885-86 and was originally built to house 1000 spectators. The current building was restored between 1969 and 1972 and its gem is the special ball, with 2532 bulbs, that sits in the centre creating millions of light combinations. Seeing this prompted us to want to go so we bought tickets to the Barber in Seville for that night.

Not wanting to do too much in the bad weather we opted for the Castle bus tour – a little red “bus” that takes you a little further around the outside of the city and up to the Castle. The Old Town is very walkable and that can wait until the weather improves. Passing many modern sites which were good to see we arrived at the Castle we got off to have a look. It was in ruins for a long time after a 1811 fire so what we see today is largely a 1950’s reconstruction and the renovations continue. You do get great views over the Danube and “new” city from here (albeit a little grey in today’s weather).

Another key site for the city that we whizzed past was St Martin’s Cathedral. The church is a large 14^th century construction used for coronations. It has witnessed the crowning of 11 Austro-Hungarian monarchs – 10 kings and the now famous queen, Maria Theresia. The motorway that almost touches it follows the path previously occupied by moat of the former city walls.

We passed Trinity Church which started construction in 1717 and was built on the site of the Church of St Michael which was demolished in 1529 along with a settlement and other residential districts during the Ottoman wars (in order to better see the attacking Turks). Work on the interior of the current church continued until the first half of the 18^th century.

Next site was the 1760 Grassalkovich Palace. It has pride of place as you approach the old town, situated on Hodzovo namestie. The building is a Rococo-late Baroque summer palace and has a French garden; it is currently the residence of the president of Slovakia.

On the way back we passed another of the famous statues, this time a solider of Napoleon’s army, Hubert. He is supposed to have been going through the city when he fell in love and stayed becoming a producer of sparkling wine. Interestingly Hubert is also the name of Slovakia’s most popular sparkling wine brand.

Off to the Opera, It was great, once you get into the story and can somewhat figure out what is going on (of course it’s all in Italian!). The orchestra were amazing and literally play nonstop for 2-2.5 hours. The interior of the Opera house was quite stunning, very intimate and beautiful – it was a real treat to be watching an Opera in an opera house such as this.

The following day the weather was still not great so we organised a tour out of town into the wine region. The first place we stopped was Modra which is famous for its pottery. It’s a tiny place nestled in the foothills with a population of less than 10,000. We got to watch pottery creation in action which was fascinating and a very skilled trade. Unfortunately not so many youngsters are interested anymore so the future of this trade, here at least, is unknown.

Even somewhere so small there are things to see, cute vintner houses, the church, the city gate and walls and pride of place is the memorial statue of Ludevit Stur who was the leader of the Slovak national revival in the 19^th century and the author of the Slovak language standard.

The next stop was Cerveny Kamen Castle (red rock castle), a 13^th century castle that was built as part of the chain of the Kingdom of Hungary’s frontier defensive castles. The foundations of the castle are 13^th century, the cellars were added in the 16^th century (at the same time it was transformed into a fortress). further renovations were completed after the second world war.

The Palfi family acquired the castle in 1588 and lived in it until 1945 when they fled due to the war and impending communist rule. The gardens of the castle are really lovely and inside it now houses a museum with an amazing array of artefacts ranging from the 15^th century onwards.

It has amazing decorated rooms (especially the “special” ones), a 17^th century pharmacy, and a library with ~15,000 books. Other points of interest included the armoury, huge fireplaces and ceramic heaters, a chapel and lots of living rooms (bedrooms, sitting rooms, banquet rooms etc). The coat of arms of the Palfi family is everywhere (a deer with a broken wagon wheel) and the story around this is that they were travelling on a stormy night when a deer jumped out into the path of the wagon and broke the wagon wheel. They were stranded for the night and upon waking realised that the deer had saved their lives by stopping them from proceeding into a huge abyss and thus adopting it as their coat of arms.

The highlight of this visit however were the cellars which were absolutely enormous. They were built for storage (originally meant for copper, but later produce & wine) but also provided access to the four bastions built for defensive purposes. The cellars are so large they originally had three floors within them; they are used today for private functions and often filming big screen movies. Inside them is also a well which is brick lined down to a depth of ~109m deep.

From here we started to head home via Svaty Jur (St George) and the planned visit to Vinocentrum, a wine taverna. This proved to be wonderful with multiple wines tasted mostly produced by small local vineyards (all the names of the wines are actually the names of the winemakers themselves). Everything we tasted was good and we will go looking for a bottle when we get back to Bratislava (unfortunately couldn’t buy one here as we were headed straight to the Ice Hockey game).

Our lovely tour host, Lubica, dropped us off at Slovnaft Arena where we watched Slovan (the Slovakian team), play Lada (a Russian team). It was our first time watching Ice Hockey and wow – it is so fast it’s a wonder the players can even see where the puck is. They have large teams that interchange regularly. The crowd really got into it, there were cheerleaders, beer, popcorn and all the other “stadium” items you’d expect. After going 0-2 down Slovan eventually won 3-2 and it was happiness all round and a great way to finish off a fabulous day.

Next day we awoke to a beautifully sunny day, the first we’ve had here so we headed out on our self-guided walking tour of the old town. Starting outside the Old Town’s information centre we passed the Old Town Hall which is a complex of buildings from the 14^th century. It is the one of the oldest stone buildings in Bratislava with the tower being built ~1370.

Up the hill to the viewpoint next and the Soviet memorial “Slavin”. It’s built atop a hill about 30 minutes’ walk from the centre and is the largest military monument in Central Europe standing 52m high. It was built in memorial to 6,834 Soviet soldiers who died in the liberation of Bratislava during WWII. Apart from the site itself the other reason to visit are the views back to the castle and over the city.

Back into town we walked to the Blue Church. The 20^th century Church of St Elizabeth is a tourist magnet due to its blue colour (hence it being referred to as the blue church.) It has a blue façade, mosaics and roof and originally served as the neighbouring schools chapel.

On towards St Martin’s Cathedral (the coronation church) and then we crossed the Danube river for fabulous views back towards Bratislava Castle. The highlight of any walking tour is usually just wandering the streets, seeing the people and ‘feeling’ the place you are visiting and this one was no different. It was especially nice as even in 9 degrees it was lovely and warm in the sun.

On the way back we came across another of the famous statues – this time it was Hans Christian Andersen with figures stepping out of his fairy tales (he visited Bratislava in 1841), and then last but not least Schone Naci – the only silver statue (the rest are bronze). The old man depicted was actually a real person – Ignac Lamar who lived here at the turn of the 19^th 20th century. There is of course a legend that goes with this one too – that he was in love with a woman who didn’t love him back. He was so disappointed he went mad and was often seen giving flowers to random women he met in the streets – always wearing his top hat.

The statues ended our tick-e-touring and was a perfect way to finish seeing the sites of Bratislava.

The next day we boarded the train for our 4 hour journey to Poprad as we head for the High Tatras. A mountain range in the Presov Region that forms the northern border of Slovakia and the southern border of Poland.

When we arrived we had to catch a smaller train up to the small alpine village of Stary Smokovec (at just over 1000m) where we had chosen to stay and then it was a short walk to find our accommodation. By the time we got there it was ~5.00pm so after settling in it was a quick walk out and about to find somewhere to eat; our first traditional Slovakian restaurant and traditionally cooked meals which were different but very tasty.

The following day we did what you do in Stary Smokovec (when it’s not the ski season) and that is went into the High Tatras to complete one of the many hikes you can do here. A quick 10 minute ride up the funicular railway to Hriebenok (1285m) and we were off. It is so nice to be amongst nature and I really don’t know that it would matter what the scenery was as long as it wasn’t old towns, churches or castles, but it is really pretty here.

There are waterfalls and rivers with beautifully clear water, lots of fresh air, snow-capped peaks and forests of multi-coloured trees as the seasons change (we are in autumn here now). Being in between their “high” seasons there were people but not so many so most of the trail we had nothing but our own company to worry about and the bonus of having the magical views to ourselves.

Three hours later we reached the end of the specific trail we were doing at Skalnate Pleso – and back into the snow line at 1751m (with the towering Lomnicky Stit (2634m) looking over us). From here we took the chair lift back down to Tatranska Lomnica which would otherwise be a 2.5 hour walk. We are hoping to walk tomorrow as well and after our 3 hour uphill haul think that might be enough for the day, as much as (on this journey) we have walked for miles we are a little “trekking” out of practise!.

Budget's snow angel

Day 2 of our Stary Smokovec trekking expeditions took us back up to the starting point at Hriebenok and then we headed the opposite direction towards Sliezsky dom where Slovakia’s highest hotel is situated at 1670m. After our “up” of yesterday we thought this trek would be more cross country and then down, however we spent at least the first hour going up to ~1770M and then back down to the hotel. A lot of this walk was quite open as they seem to be culling trees (we think they are not native hence the eradication programme), but further on we started to return to the greenery of native Slovakia trees & /bushes.

Near the hotel there was a lovely waterfall and lake so we stopped for lunch before following the river (for the most part) back down to the town of Tatranska Pollanka. The scenery on the way down was lovely as we were in the forest and following the river – a combination that always provides serenity and pretty views. This is definitely the road less travelled as we saw very few people and arrived back in town 4 hours after we began our walk, in time to catch the train back to Stary Smokovec.

It’s been a great couple of days back with nature and the peacefulness that comes with that. Always feels so relaxing, even with the trekking. We will hope to hang on to nature for a few more days as we transfer into Poland.

What we will remember about Slovakia:

Statues

Wine

Pottery

Trekking

Waterfalls

Autumn colours

Poland (26–30 October 2016)

We awoke in a heavy fog for our transfer to Zakopane in Poland. First we had to take the local bus from Stary Smokovec to the border and then wait (and hope) for a bus to come along on the Polish side and transfer us to Zakopane. It is still a very weird sensation to cross a bridge into another country with absolutely zero border control (part of the EU - we have not done boarder security or passport control since we left the UK on the 6th of September) and as it happened we were extremely lucky as a local Polish bus came along almost instantly.

The whole trip took roughly 2-2.5 hours and was relatively painless except for the extremely rude Polish driver who was yelling at us in Polish because we didn’t have any local currency. In the end, as Lesley ran across the road to the ATM at the bank, he took the Euros and drove off (we are talking the equivalent of around $4 NZ and we had asked before leaving and been assured they would take Euro).

Interesting way to hang lights at our accommodation

Lunch - pork knuckle!

Zakopane is an alpine village effectively on the other side of the Tatra Mountains and is a small place (~27,000 pop) known for its “Zakopane” architectural style of timbered villas. Arriving late it was a lazy afternoon setting in.

The next day in 2° we headed out and walked to the start of the Dolina Strazyska trail. The trail is within the forest zone and is very picturesque, especially with the river and the beautiful autumn colours. At the end of the valley the Siklawica waterfall falls into the valley – it was all very pretty and serene.

We headed back down and then along the trail between the forest and the farmland that delivered views of Zakopane. Now walking into suburbia for a couple of kms to view the oldest hut in the area built at the turn of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Unfortunately it is now privately owned and although it did appear you could still enter the dogs and fences were enough to put us off.

The houses are super cute with huge timber beams and they really do look like we’re walking through Hansel & Gretel land. There are firewood stacks all over – although the most impressive ones are out of the cities along the rural roads. Even the pumpkins are out in preparation for Halloween.

We came across a Catholic Church ‘Sanktuarium Matki Bozej Fatimskiej’ that had a really interesting architectural style (as do some of the odd hotels/buildings along the way), and then headed into the Museum of Zakopane Style.

Housed in the Villa Koliba this was the first of several grand wooden villas built in this style with some of the oldest parts of the house dating back to 1830. Inside it has been restored and you have to walk around with slippers over your shoes so not to damage anything (or we suspect bring any dirt/snow etc in). The inside was amazing with an original stove, bed, table, baby’s cot and “walker”, and lots of tools from the time (for the inside and the outside). We were really glad we stopped to have a look at a glimpse at this piece of Zakopane’s past.

A little further down the road are some of the more original houses from the late 1800’s as well – we are walking the original street in Zakopane and it still feels like we’re in a storybook!

From there we headed to the little Old Church which is a small wooden church dating from the mid-19^th century. It has lovely gardens, a small side stone chapel dating to 1800 and an adjoining cemetery but we didn’t venture in as there was a funeral service going on at the time.

Up the funicular then to get views over the town, although the light was starting to dwindle (and it’s not even 4pm yet) and then we headed back down and through town, past the Sanktuarium Najswietszej Rodziny which was the first parish church in Zakopane, towards the bus station to purchase our exit strategy tickets.

We passed one of the city’s monuments on the way back that was in a beautiful garden full of golden beech trees and then into the park for the obligatory “Zakopane” photo before calling it a day, 6.5 hours after we started walking. We have given the town a good going over and it’s now ‘done and dusted’. It’s a beautiful little place with a lovely pedestrian only centre street and rivers flowing through it in all directions. Really does feel like something special out of a story book and a great place to visit.

The following day we were off to Krakow which was the royal capital of Poland until 1596 and miraculously escaped destruction in WWII. Its old town is said to be filled with effortless beauty and certainly upon arriving that was true – as we walked through the park filled with beautiful autumn trees while it ‘snowed’ gold and orange leaves on us. After settling in and organising a day trip for tomorrow we ventured out to start the free walking tour.

It started between the St Florian’s Gate and the Barbican, the gate is one of the best known Polish gothic towers and a focal point of the Old Town. It was first mentioned in 1307 and was part of the city fortifications against Turkish attack. The Barbican is right in front of the gate and it is one of the few remaining relics of the complex network of fortifications and defensive barriers that once encircled the city.

We headed to the Main Square (Rynek Glowny) which is the centre of the old town and Europe’s largest medieval town square (200m x 200m). The key buildings on the square are St Mary’s Basilica (1347) which is dominated by two towers. Every hour (day and night) a trumpet signal is played from the top of the tallest tower. The tune breaks off mid-stream and is said to commemorate the 13^th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city.

The Cloth Hall was created in the early 14^th century when a roof was put over two rows of stalls, then extended into a 108m gothic structure. It was rebuilt in Renaissance style after a fire in 1555 and the arcades were added in the late 19^th century. It dominates the centre of the square and in its golden age (15^th century) was the centre of international trade.

The 13^th century town hall “tower” still stands in the square being the only remaining part of the town hall that was demolished in 1820 as part of the plan to open up the square. There is also an interesting piece of modern art which is cause for debate due to its “fit” in the 13^th century square. The entire square is huge and surrounded by beautiful buildings – there is also the much smaller 11^th century church of St Wojciech in the centre and part of the original paving about 2m below the current ground level.

From the main square we visited the city’s first university and then moved on to its most important icon – the Wawel Castle. It was built in the 14^th century and has served as the royal residence for centuries with each leader adding their own piece to the buildings, domes and spires – resulting in a variety of different architectures on the same building.

We didn’t stay up there long as we were now in the dark and that also triggered the end of the walking tour. We will however spend the day after tomorrow doing our own tour of the city in the daytime so intend to see a little bit more whilst we’ve got light to do so. We said goodbye and left for home, via the supermarket for something quick and easy for dinner.

Gate to Auschwitz

Our trip to Auschwitz was always going to be sobering. The camp was one of many Nazi concentration and extermination camps operated by the German Third Reich during WWII.
The drive there was ~90 minutes and the visit was to take in both camps that effectively make up Auschwitz – Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau.

The first camp was originally constructed to hold Polish political prisoners who started to arrive at the camp in May 1940. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941 and Birkenau became the major site for extermination of Jewish people (300 barracks). Being the largest concentration camp and death camp the numbers of those sent there is staggering:

1,100,000 Jews (400,000 from Hungary)

140-150,000 Poles

23,000 Roma (Gypsies)

15,000 Soviet POW’s

25,000 of other ethnicities

Auschwitz I

Of these 1.1m people perished, of these 90% were Jewish and were killed by way of gas chambers. Those that weren’t killed this way died of starvation, forced labour, disease, individual execution or medical experiment. The average weight of an adult woman in the camp was ~25-30kg.

The gate at Auschwitz I has a phrase over it "Arbeit Macht Frei" or “work leads to freedom”, which we all know now wasn’t the case for anyone that entered them. It held 13-16,000 prisoners and Birkenau held 100,000. During the time the camps were operating 200,000 children were also imprisoned of which ~600 survived (mostly twins kept alive for medical experimentation). The gas chambers worked overtime and plans were later found to expand the extermination capability as the Germans had Slavs on the list after the Jews were gone. 5,000 souls could be cremated in 24 hours and when that wasn’t enough open fires were set.

Auschwitz I

The site is a museum now and has photos that were found after liberation along with belongings which are indescribable – there is are rooms containing 2 tonne of human hair (this represents ~40,000 people), shoes, shaving brushes, suitcases and many other things. This is so far from humanity and the scale is such that it is almost impossible to comprehend.

Empty gas cannisters

Of the 7,000 members of the German army that staffed these camps only ~12% were ever convicted for their crimes. It makes it all the more horrific that no-one paid for these atrocities.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau

At the time nearing the end of the war the Nazi's started to destroy evidence (ie the chambers) as they knew the troops were coming. As the Soviet army approached in January 1945 most of the camps population was evacuated and sent on a death march – those remaining were liberated on 27^th January 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau Memorial

Auschwitz II-Birkenau Gas Chamber remains

Auschwitz II-Birkenau Memorial

We could go on and on about how atrocious and horrific this is, that humanity doesn’t get any worse (pretty sure it doesn’t) however we believe that this will never be forgotten and if there is any positive at all about these sites still remaining (apart from the permanent memorial they serve) it is the number of people who take time out of their days to come here and learn, and remember.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Auschwitz II-Birkenau accommodation

"Those that do not remember the past are confined to repeat it" George Santayana

An extremely sobering day that we will never forget.

The weather was a little more promising the next day although the wind was still cutting. As per our plan to spend some more time at the city’s monuments we headed to the Main Square to soak it all up again. The horse and carts were all lined up waiting for business and the square as stunning as our first impressions on the first day.

We took a walk through the Cloth Hall and marvelled at the inside, as well as having a nosey at the tourist tokens before heading down Grodzka Street and past St Andrews which is an historic Romanesque Church built between 1079 and 1098 (and was the only church to withstand the Mongol attack of 1241). It is next to the Church of St Peter and Paul which was under reconstruction but the twelve disciples out the front were still standing very much to attention.

Krakow Dragons ... so cute!

Back up to Wawel Castle and the town’s “dragon” which even breathes fire every 15 minutes or so although very hard to spot during the daytime. We spent a little time soaking up the atmosphere and amazing buildings at the top as well as the beautiful views of Vistula River and the surrounding cityscape before taking a long and lovely walk through the park that surrounds the old city.

Next a trip to the train/bus station to work out our departure for tomorrow and then back into the Old City via St Florian’s Gate & the Barbican; as well as a quick visit to the square across the road Plac Matejki. Grunwald monument stands proudly in the centre of the square to commemorate the Battle of Grunwald fought in 1410 between the joint armies of Poland and Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights.

The aim of heading back into the Main Square was specifically to go to the Rynek Underground. The entrance is on the site of the Cloth Hall and on entering you are taken back in time. During restoration work on the square ruins were discovered leading to an archaeological study which was conducted from 2005 to 2010 on the eastern side of the square. What was discovered was an abundance of traces of many centuries of history and to accommodate them an archaeological reserve (unique in Europe) was created under the surface of the Main Square covering nearly 4000 square metres.

The exhibition is interactive and filled to the brim with historic relics and treasures. You can see 13^th century roads and curbs, 11^th century burials, foundations of cottages from the 12^th and 13^th centuries as well as reconstructions of a goldsmith and blacksmiths workshops. There are medieval tools, historic coins, arrowheads and a “loaf” – a 693kg slab of lead (highly precious at the time). However the best thing of all is that you are literally walking through the cellars and trading sites of the original cloth hall. The visit was enlightening and we can safely say the “underground” is extremely well done and most definitely worth the visit.

When we emerged from beneath the square it was dark but after getting a glimpse of the inside of St Marys Basilica from the videos we had just watched we decided to head in. The inside was absolutely stunning as is The Altarpiece which is the jewel in the crown here and a national treasure of Poland. Created by Veit Stoss (a German sculptor) in Krakow it is the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world and was carved between 1477 and 1484. In 1941 during the German occupation the altarpiece was shipped to the Third Reich – it was recovered in 1946 in Bavaria, hidden in the basement of the heavily bombed Nuremberg Castle. It underwent major restoration work in Poland and was put back in its rightful place at the Basilica 10 years later. It is still undergoing restoration work.

Deciding to get the bug out of Lesley’s system we jumped on a horse and cart for a 25 minute ride around the city before heading out for a lovely Italian dinner at one of the recommended restaurants (Bianca) to sign off our visit to Krakow and Poland.

Before departing the next day a bit of exercise was in order and Gary ran past Lovers Bridge. It’s adorned with locks and the keys at the bottom of the river but the uniqueness of it is the models of trapeze artists all over it. Couldn’t resist a few final pics.