To the Mountains!

Sunday, July 5, 2015

These poor horses were coming home last
night after pulling this carriage all day at Market Square!

 Ah!  A day with no alarm and little time pressure!  We sleep in, finish blogging, clean up for Paulina’s mom, and straighten our accounts so no one owes anyone any money! I’ve already taken care of all the critters and stretched and after a leisurely breakfast we are ready to hit the road. 

Today we are off to Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains.  They are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains and form the border between Poland and Slovakia.  We’ve got salads in the cooler and water in all our water bottles.  The house is locked up safely and we’re on our way.

We’re pretty sure we’ve got the directions down pat and are moving along pretty well when we notice that our “interstate” now has pedestrian crosswalks and even traffic lights!  We continue anyway and sure enough, we’re on the right road.  They just define limited access differently than we do!

Isn't this an interesting structure!?

What??

As we get closer to Zakopane, we decide to turn on BIOB and see if her directions agree with those from the Good-Bye Lenin Hostel.  That’s a mistake – again!  She takes over the river and through the woods and pronounces that we have reached our destination when we reach some lady’s house!  Marilyn uses my phone to call the hostel while I talk to a young lady who is crossing the tiny little one lane dirt road.  Her directions match the ones that Marilyn gets and we are actually pretty close.  (But no cigar)

Our home away from home.

Close by

The last few tenths of a mile are pretty steep and our poor little Yaris struggles mightily to make it, and she does!  We have a room with four beds all to ourselves, and our own bathroom en suite.  Back downstairs we talk to the very young lady at the desk and get directions to the things we think we’d like to hike to.  (aww, a rhyme!)  This afternoon we want to take the cable car to the Kasprowy Wierch and walk along the ridge.  She says it’s only a thirty minute walk to the cable car.

An hour and a half later we are at the top of the mountain.  We probably won’t be counting on her timing any more!  We can see Slovakia!  And possibly the tallest mountain in Poland, Rysy.  The path is made of large, uneven rocks and you must watch were you’re going, so the method is to walk a few steps, stop, look around, continue walking!  We see some interesting sites, the most notable of which is the bride and groom having their portraits taken!  The poor photographer must be a contortionist!

Almost there!

 We had thought that perhaps we would wait for sunset but it doesn’t appear that it will be very impressive.  And we don’t want to be going home in the dark.  Plan B, we eat dinner at the “highest altitude restaurant in Poland”, ride back down the mountain, and take a taxi home!

Dinner is a buffet and Marilyn finally gets her glompki! There is also chicken, sausage, potatoes, vegetables, pickles, red cabbage, pierogies, and some things I can’t identify.  We are stuffed and follow the plan.

 There is a mass of taxis at the bottom of the cable car.  There is no parking for private cars, so that explains the masses of people who were walking – and walking – and walking! Marilyn has our map and we show it to one of the drivers.  Thirty zlotys later we are walking up our entrance road.  Even that is a trial at this point.  What a day!  The mountains were beautiful, though, and the little brook with the waterfalls near the taxi lot was delightful.  I’m anxious to see how far we really walked in that hour plus.  Remember we’re flatlanders and the altitude at the top was about 1800 feet.

 We’re definitely in for the night.  It’s time to blog, shower, and prepare for tomorrow’s adventure, a trip to Morskie Oko lake.  Our little front desk lady says we can see the mountains reflected in the water.  She has given us bus directions but we’re thinking of taking the car.  Anyway – that’s for tomorrow!  Now it’s bed time!