It's a Wanaka takeover of Araches

1/ Mike & Leanne on the Cascade Run

Nothing like "peaking on the first night" as Mike would say. Last night was a big "Rugby Night"in Araches! Wales vs. France. Being Welsh, our friends Rick and Gavin were keen to be installed in the local pub to watch the game. They were also keen to meet the Bartons who were, after all, the people responsible for us being here in the first place.

The night's programme was action packed. A quick dinner of mushroom risotto with Rick & Liz, all squeezed around the tiny table in our flat, then off to Pub for boys, and to the picture theatre for the girls. Meeting up with Sue, we enjoyed an English version of "Slumdog Millionaire". What a terrific film! No wonder it won an oscar! Unfortunately, jet-lag hit Leanne and she missed most of the film. She just could not keep her eyes open. The other tricky thing was that the first part of the film is in Hindi, but the subtitles were in French. No wonder Leanne fell asleep! As the film ended, we woke a weary Leanne, Liz and I dried our eyes and went to pick up the boys from the Pub. What a mess! Wales had lost and the beer had won! Apparantly Graeme was wearing most of a jug that had been up-ended and a glazed and wobbly Mike slurred repeatedly "Wow, the beer is really strong here!!" Nothing like "peaking on the first night!" is all I can say!

Understandably, the boys were a little fragile this morning. But the beautiful warm weather and bright sunshine could not be ignored! We had to get the skis on this morning.

We have solved a mystery! For all those at home in Wanaka complaining about the summer that has never arrived - we know who stole it!! The Bartons have obviously had the sun packed in their suitcases all along!!

Mike and Leanne opened their suitcases to don their ski gear this morning, letting Wanaka's Summer escape in to France! Well done Mike and Leanne! Thanks to them, we enjoyed a completely perfect day of blue, blue sky, with no wind and mild temperatures on the slopes today.

Given the amazing weather, the plan was to show them the amazing 14 km Cascade run to Sixt. This long run is only open in good weather. Looking at the long range forecast, it looked like that there would not be another chance this week. Lots of rain and hopefully some snow!

2/ Mike surfing behind the ski-do!

It's wonderful to be sharing some of our best times with our friends. This Cascade Run is really something special. We have done it 3 times now and we never get sick of it!! But given budgetary constraints, we have not previously had lunch at the gorgeous little Chalet Gers. This time we indulged! Delicious omelettes, salad, bread, wine, all consumed while bathed in glorious warm sunshine, by a frozen lake and surrounded by snow capped peaks - does it get much better than this?

3/ G & M - It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!!

We may have slightly underestimated the full distance for this ski adventure. We skied over 25 km today. Poor Mike and Leanne, were understandably a bit tired. Leanne was also very brave suffering some seriously crucified feet from ill-fitting hire boots!! After 15 weeks of skiing pretty much every day, the aching muscles and sore feet that we endured in our first few weeks have dulled into a passing memory. We owe the Barton's our profuse apologies! The good news is that the weather forecast for tomorrow looks hideous. Leanne is secretly ecstatic.

Some Funny Memories & The Bartons Arrive!!

Very exciting. This afternoon we pick up Mike & Leanne Barton who will be arriving on the fast TGV from Paris. They will be staying with us for about 2 weeks. Fingers crossed for good snow and/or bright sunshine.

Nothing much to report today, other than Graeme and I found ourselves in a mad rush to get the flat in some semblance of order after arriving back from Slovakia and then having to head straight out to meet Mirielle and her family at Megeve yesterday.

So instead of too many words, I thought I would reminisce on our recent travels with some funny photos that I haven't been able to include in the blog so far...!

1/ Visit the Bad Hole...I don't think so!!

Slovakia: This is a serious advertising sign that we found in the car park when we visited one of Slovakia's old castles. Hmmm! I'm not partial to spelunking (look that one up!!) at the best of times. But nothing, and I mean nothing would make me go into a cave called a "Bad Hole!" What were those Slovakian marketers thinking? Well I suppose, if General Motors can name a car "Chevy Nova" which means "No Go" in spanish [which, by the way, was one of the worst sellers ever in South America ], it figures that the Slovakian owners of this venture may not immediately think what their name means in English. Good luck getting any english speaking tourists to this attraction!!

2/ Dana talking on the phone!

Slovakia: Telephone reception at the Hromadka household is a little dodgy. This is Dana talking to her friend on the mobile. With the increase in use of mobile phones, Tibor and Dana haven't installed a landline. Their internet is wireless and they use their mobile phones and the major form of communication. But mobile reception is not that reliable! Sometimes to use her phone, Dana has to lean way out the window and risk serious frostbite to her extremeties (it is -12C!!). But the hilarious thing about this particular photo is that she is talking to a friend who lives two houses down. Graeme and I joked that if she rigged up 2 tin cans and connected them with a taut piece of string, she'd be able to hear her friend just as clearly. Don't think the joke translated...! Dana & Tibor were obviously never a girl guide or scout!!

3/ Cool Cat...Grrrr!!

Vienna Austria: When you spend a whole day wandering around a city's streets, you're bound to come upon some good stuff. There's no stories to these photos. We had great fun making up our own theories over a cup of coffee !!

Meeting Mirielle in Megeve!

1/ "So that's what Megeve looks like!!"

Today we were re-visiting Megeve. In contrast to our first trip to this resort way back in December, today the sun was shining and the whole of the resort was open. No thigh deep powder snow or snorkels required this time, but the resort has obviously benefited from the good recent snowfall.

Our re-visit to this ski area was due to contact with a favourite Te Wanaka guest, Mirielle and her two delightful daughters, Clemence and Violette. Mirielle lives in Marseille and is staying in Megeve with her cousin Bernard. We have kept in contact with Mirielle and her family, ever since they first stayed with us at Te Wanaka. Mirielle is a lovely lady and it was terrific to meet up with her and hear her news. She is an adventurous soul and not afraid to try new things. She was excited to tell us about her horse-riding lessons and her new horse called Mustang.

We spent a couple of hours luxuriating in conversation during a delicious mountain lunch. Poor Bernard suffered our extremely bad french and extensive english conversations with good humour. He is a dental surgeon from Normandy, with a perfect smile (what else would you expect). He is wonderful with Mirielle's daughters and they just love him. Bernard is also the owner of a true "Daniel Boone" style hat! We all had great fun trying it on over lunch. But there was no question that Violette looked the best in it!

Tomorrow we pick up Mike & Leanne Barton off the TGV from Paris tomorrow afternoon. The Wanaka takeover of Araches begins!!

2/ The 2 cutest girls on the hill - Clemence & Violette and that hat!!

3/ Bernard, Mirielle and the girls at lunch!

4/ That Hat!!

The Final Push - And at last, we see the Sun!!

Finally, we see the sun for the final push home! Hooray!!! It's been seriously bad weather for five of the six days we've been travelling to and from Slovakia. We've had difficult driving conditions and long days.

Unfortunately the original route that we wished to take through Switzerland via Andermatt was closed due to heavy snow. Leaving our salubrious accommodation in Chur, we were forced to back-track north via Interlaken. Not such a bad detour given the incredible scenery shown today in all its glory with the bright sunshine.

We have both been to Interlaken before, but of course the memory has dulled. However, Graeme is sure that we parked our car very near the hotel that he and his good friend Ralph, stayed in nearly 30 years ago. He remembers that it was near the clock tower and canal, with a restaurant underneath it. He can't wait to get home to check his photos with the one we took today.

1/ Graeme outside the hotel he thinks he stayed in 30 years ago!!

After a quick coffee in Interlaken our plan was to head south and cross into the Chamonix Valley via Vallorcine. That was the plan.....but unfortunately at this very moment, everyone became directionally challenged and we spent quite a deal of time "pfaffing around" on the shores of the lake trying to find the correct turn-off. When I say everyone, I also include Penny (the GPS). There must have been recent road-works or changes to the road system since she was programmed. She was positively unhelpful, telling us to turn left when the road signs clearly indicated that we should go right! Add to this confusion, the excitement of me behind the wheel and you have a class "A" storm "a brewin!!". Fortunately Graeme realised this and kindly suggested that he take over the driving again!! I enthusiastically relinquished the wheel and for good measure I used the "Off button" to silence the now downright annoying Penny. No more relying on technology - it was back to the faithful road atlas for us!!

As luck would have it, we ended up in a beautiful hanging valley brimming with the deep snow of the past days. Driving past Kandersteg at the end of the valley we found ourselves stopped at traffic lights. We assumed that there was a one-way tunnel ahead. Imagine our surprise when the lights changed and our car was loaded onto a train!! Cool!

The Swiss must be some of the best roading engineers in the world. Their twisting mountain roads all seem to need tunnels, viaducts and terracing. This car-train ferry system from Kandersteg to Goppenstein under an otherwise impenetrable mountain range was nothing short of astonishing! What a shame my Mum & Dad never travelled to Europe. My Dad would have just loved travelling through Switzerland to see all these engineering marvels!!

2/ The snowbound Kandersteg

3/ The amazing "car-train" under the mountain

And finally, we arrive at Martigny, our last stop in Switzerland before heading over the Col de la Forclaz (1527m) and Col des Montets (1461m) into the Chamonix Valley. The home stretch!! And familiar territory at last.

Observation - Europe is BIG!

This road trip has seen me seriously readjust my memories of "how big" Europe truly is. I think my memories of European travel have been distorted by train travel. Travelling on night trains meant that I was asleep for much of the journey and had no real understanding of the vastness passing below me.

Growing up in Australia, and living in NZ, I had an arrogant belief that we, antipodeans, were surely the champions of long distance travel. Sure, us Aussies & Kiwis do some long stints behind the wheel, but the roads are uncrowded, we are travelling fairly slowly and the levels of concentration required are nowhere near what you need to travel at 140km/hr + on a crowded, snowy autobahn with signage all in a foreign language! Our meetings with our Dutchie on the first day of the school holidays and a young Latvian who was going to be driving for 19 hours through the night from Slovakia has seen me change my opinion!

Yeeha!! We're back safe and sound in our little 48m2 in Araches!!

Boredom, Tedium and Long Distance European Travel

1/ Sleet & Snow- standard driving weather for the Oxleys!!

Does anyone else find long distance car travel incredibly tedious? Two hours after leaving Vienna this morning, I am already squirming in my seat. Then I’m looking for something to eat, not because I’m hungry but because I’m bored. Chewing gum is usually the cure ..either that or I may as well as add a kg per 100 km to my waistline. A couple more miles down the road and I’m attempting to play Vortex on the Ipod incredibly badly. While I blame the bumpy road for my poor reflexes, if I’m honest, I have to admit that my reactions are terrible and no matter how much I practice I am never going to be good at computer games. Next, I torture Graeme with pleas to play “I spy” in French, or even worse I beg to put the Michel Thomas Learn French on the radio. At this point, Graeme usually pulls into a roadside café for coffee and cake!

2/ An interesting Austrian roadsign!

The weather is typically horrendous. Driving wet snow, grey skies and really poor visibility. The good news is that Tuesday has proven to be a good day to travel. Very little traffic and relatively few trucks meant that driving was fairly straightforward today. Well that was until our route through the mountains to Innsbruk were closed due to heavy snow.

3/ People walking on the footpaths in southern Austria. The snow is so deep, they are walking in "snow trenches"!!

Trust us to choose a route that was closed!! There has been some serious snow right through Europe over the last week and we are looking forward to getting back amongst it in France!! But today, our enforced detour added about 2 hours to our driving as we had to re-programme an indignant Penelope (the “GPS”).

With no firm plans where to spend the night, we have ended up in Chur, NE Switzerland just over the border from Austria. Graeme is convinced we asked the lady at the information centre to book us a small bed & breakfast, but we have ended up staying in an incredibly bizarre 40 room hotel cum sports complex. It’s clean and quiet but it has all the charisma of an army barracks. Sniffing the air, I swear I could smell the liniment from the last tennis team who stayed here.

The hotel is focused on sporting activities and the restaurant overlooks the 5 indoor tennis courts. Luckily the food in the hotel restaurant was edible and while dining, we were entertained by a women’s double match being played out on the court below our window. The women were of a similar age and I was reminded strongly of Wanaka summer tennis battles with Daphne, Sally and Anna. I’m looking forward to getting a racquet back in my hand when I get home, even if it will be the middle of winter.

We really had only one mission tonight, dinner and sleep. I can’t wait to get back to our little flat in Araches. Fingers crossed for at least clear weather for driving tomorrow. We passed right through the beautiful Tyrolian valley today and didn’t see a thing except the tail lights of the car in front!

A beautiful, beautiful Vienna!

1/ It's hard to imagine that there was a foot of snow on these same streets less than 10 hours ago!!

It was a magical arrival in Vienna last night. Soft snow was floating down and all the streets were blanketed in white. Without any help from Penelope (who went into a complete meltdown over the one way road system), we found our way into the centre of the city and a good little hotel tucked away in an ancient one way lane. Accidently discovering the city's oldest restaurant, a hangout for Mozart Snr and Jnr, we enjoyed a delicious schnitzel. I mean to say, "What else would you order in this town?" And still the snow continued to fall. It was at least a foot deep when we turned for the walk back to our hotel.

And yet...in the morning.. it was a like a dream. All Vienna's streets had been swept clean of snow. Using a combined attack of snow ploughs and hoses, the busy workmen had cleared every last flake of snow! We had a double take when we threw open our curtains to greet the morning. We were so disappointed. The city had looked so special last night garbed in its white gown. It's a bit like the princess had returned to being cinderella. But I guess the reality of daily operations in a city under snow are less than special and hence the super-human clearing effort.

Vienna is deservedly one of the best cities in the world. Aneki.com rates Vienna as the world's fourth best city for quality of life, behind Zurich, Geneva and Vancouver. Not hard to believe, especially if you are a lover of music and art. As you walk around this beautiful city, every turn brings to life a different and equally spectacular vista. Incredible churches, concert halls, civic building, parks and fountains. Words really cannot do this city justice.

2/ The Austrian Parliament. But check out the building perched on its roof!

While the city was bombed late in the WWII it is fortunate that more destruction didn't occur and the Viennese were committed to spend the time & money to restore the city's heritage. The city positively brims over with music concerts, theatrical performances and art exhibitions....except on Monday 23 February!!

2/ The Concert Hall Feb Timetable. Note the gap for 23 Feb!!

For some reason, tonight is one of the only nights in February when hardly a note will be played in the whole of Vienna!! In desperation, we returned to the visitor centre early in the morning to confirm that one of the only possible concerts is a small ensemble performing Strauss and Mozart classics. Since beggars can't be choosers we took ourselves off to the concert this evening to hear the classics by Vienna's most famous musicians - Mozart and the Strauss Bros.

The concert was definitely a tourist offering. Combining a small orchestral ensenble with an occassional operatic performance and dancers - the show was surprising good. I guess when you enjoy Vienna's depth of talent in musicians, opera singers and dancers, even the middle of the road were excellent.

Vienna is a city that is not done justice by a one day visit. This is a place I would love to come back to. I would love to spend a week, wandering through museums, listening to the awesome music offerings and luxuriating in all the cultural experiences this town has to offer. I would like to press my ear to the stone buildings and listen to their stories. Maybe some day!!?

Both Graeme and I are sad to be leaving this breathtaking city...! We're also dreading the thought of more driving!!

Sadly we leave Slovakia!

1/ Finally the mysterious Tatras are revealed!!

Typical!!! For the first time in a week the sun has come out and we can see the High Tatras from Dana and Tibor's house!!! And today we have to begin the long drive back to France! Bother, bother and double bother!!

Originally the plan was to go skiing with all the Hmoradka family and stay the night in their ski resort on our way home, but Mischa awoke with a high temperature and Tomi was feeling a little worse for wear. Dana was very disappointed as she loves to ski and was really looking forward to a day out. Sadly, Plan B, was a walk around their village, Stola.

The village is a lot bigger than expected. Bisected by the main road to the High Tatras National Park, the main street is littered with abandoned and crumbling soviet style buildings. First impressions are not good. But two streets back, the village is full of quaint wooden holiday chalets. With the bad weather and our action-packed programme, we had not had time to go for a wander earlier.

2/Dana & I go for a wander up one of the main side streets.

3/ A cute Stola holiday chalet

Many of the beautifully restored chalets are owned by Slovakians living in Bratislava or overseas. Unfortunately this means that, like Wanaka, out of the summer tourist season, the village is very quiet. It is also hard for Mischa and Tomi as there are very few children of their age living in the village. All their friends are at school.

We have had such a wonderful time with Dana & Tibor we are sad to say goodbye! But hopefully it will be "Au revoir" and not good-bye.

They should be very proud of their children and all that they have achieved with their business. The High Tatras is truly a special part of the world and we feel privileged to have visited the mountains and forest with such a pair of wonderful guides.

With a last hug, we're back in the car heading west to Vienna.

4/ And so...we say goodbye to Stola.

Dolina - A Slovakian Ski Resort Experience

1/ The Slovakians like their skiing. There were some good size lift queues at Dolina!!

We have been left to our own devices again today. Tibor is taking Tomi to a karate competition today and Dana and Mischa are cleaning their rental cottage. All offers of assistance from us to help them with the work were firmly rejected. I'm hoping that Dana wanted some mother-daughter time with Mischa and it wasn't that she'd heard about my poor cleaning skills!! After all, I was the only one at Te Wanaka who scored 4/10 for room cleaning!!

While there is a ski resort in the High Tatras, about 15 minutes from their house, it's very small and Dana thinks its poor value. She wanted us to go to a ski resort called Dolina in the low Tatras about an hour's drive east. So this is where we headed today.

We actually managed to get there all by ourselves without getting lost. A first!! We were hopeful of a good day as the morning had dawned fine and sunny. We were directed to a car park at the foot of the mountain and duly loaded ourselves on the bus. Arriving at one of the entries to the ski resort, we got off the bus, bought our tickets and were ready to get the chairlift when Graeme suddenly realised that he had left his backpack on the bus. Hmmm!! Small problem!

Fortunately, Graeme had taken all the important things out of the pack and there was only a few chocolate bars and some water left in it. Dana kept warning us that Slovakia was not NZ and we had to be careful with our belongings! At the time, I was uncharitably suspicious of Graeme's motives! All morning he had been talking about buying a new back pack. At last count we have 7 packs of all varying sizes and shapes and so I was understandably unenthusiastic about any further pack purchases. I thought maybe this was a sneaky way of getting a new pack. But to be fair, Graeme was very upset and keen to recover this one.

Hmmm! What to do? The only thing we could do was wait on the road and check each shuttle bus as it went by. After an 1.5hrs, Graeme was going to give up and make a claim on our insurance. I had a funny feeling and suggested that we wait for one last bus going up the hill and check if the pack had been given to a lost property office. When the bus finally arrived, I realised that it was the same one we had travelled up on. Getting on, we were disappointed to see that the pack was no longer in the luggage rack above our seat. Damn! Lost forever! But no....as I scanned the bus, I spied a black strap hanging down from a curtained off area behind the bus driver. Looking more closely I saw the DaKine label and realised it was our pack.

Now what to do? After speaking to all the bus drivers going up and down the mountain, so far, none of them spoke english. Trying to ask about our pack might cause some serious problems. We were not confidant that the driver would understand that this was our pack and we wanted it back. We really didn't want to start any sort of confrontation. So we confess that we chose to perform a sting operation!! While I distracted the driver asking for directions to the ticket office, Graeme reached up and pulled the pack down from behind the curtain and made off through the rear exit. Poor bus driver! He probably was going to do the right thing and was just safe keeping the lost pack until he got back to the bus terminus. And now it had been stolen from under his nose!! Hopefully he was not too distressed when he found out! We were certainly very pleased to have it back!!

With all the standing around at the bus stop, we were chilled to the bone. Unfortunately the sunny morning had clouded over and most of the mountain was covered in a deep freezing fog. After 2 runs down the mountain we were icicles!! Finding a nice restaurant at the top of the mountain we tucked into a hearty lunch while we thawed out. Dolina is Slovakia's largest resort and has some very modern and fast lifts. The terrain is pretty good too. However, they seem to be obsessed with snow making and despite the lovely powder snow off-piste, all the runs were covered in icy man made snow. It didn't take us long to hunt out some good snow through the trees and of course we had it to ourselves, as the Slovakians, followed the European trend and rarely ventured off the piste. Our favourite run for the day was under the big new 6 seater chairlift. Here's the film footage.

2/ Another area at Dolina

Mother, (Dana) was worried when we arrived home later than she expected. We explained that due to our late start this morning with the "pack drama" we skied right through until last lift. Nice to know that someone is looking after us!!

Another lovely night spent with the family and chatting with Dana and Tibor. We feel that we've been part of their family for ever. I wanted to take a picture of Mischa. But she is 12 (going on 22) and very self conscious about photographs! Tomi too, was very camera shy! I did manage to get a photo of Tomi and Tibor doing a crossword puzzle together. I had secretly taken a photo of Mischa tucked up on the couch in her pyjamas, but she vetoed use of the photo. I promised that I would delete the photo only if she promised to let me take another one tomorrow when she had "done her hair". Classic!!

3/ Tomi and Tibor and a crossword

Ice, Ice and more Ice!!

1/ Graeme on his way up the frozen waterfall

Today’s theme was ICE. Ice-climbing in the day and watching an Ice-Hockey match in the evening.

Seriously cold this morning –18C! Ice-climbing followed by an ice-hockey match in Poprad. Before the ice-hockey match we hiked up in to the High Tatras again but this time for some ice-climbing. Hmmm! You would think that 42 and 49 years respectively might be a little old to start this fairly demanding sport? But under the expert tutelage of Tibor and Dana, both Graeme and I managed to get up a small frozen waterfall. I don’t think that we scored any points for technique but both of us were able to swing our ice-axes and make contact and keep our cramponed feet on the ice-wall without falling off. There might be hope for us yet!?

2/ Inside the quaint Tatra hut!

D & T really have this whole adventure sport worked out. After our climb we stopped in the High Tatras oldest hut. 130 years old, the Rainerova Chata is a tiny stone hut and is named after a famous porter. The stone walls are cluttered with old photos of climbers and porters and their paraphernalia. In the Tatras, human porters stock all the high alpine huts. They refuse to use helicopters to transport food and supplies to the high alpine huts. The porters are incredibly strong and carry immense loads on specially designed packs. Tibor has been a porter in the past and I think he still delivers loads to the huts from time to time.

3/Dana and us - glowing after a Vin Chaud!!

The Ice Hockey
Go Poprad, Go!! We went to our first ice-hockey match in Europe this evening. Both Graeme and I love to watch ice-hockey. We have been fortunate to see live games in Canada and the US and we’ve been hooked ever since. Admittedly the local Slovakian competition, Poprad v. Martin wasn’t quite at the same level as the NHL and the crowd was small, but the players were reasonably skilled and it was good viewing. And it was cheap - E2.40 for Graeme and E1.30 for me. Women getter a cheaper price! Obviously they are hoping to attract more women spectators.

Despite the predominantly male crowd, they were remarkably reserved, especially when I compare them to a good loud AFL crowd! I couldn’t help myself! I was yelling my lungs out when Proprad, the home team scored their first goal and then went on to win the match 4 –2. Unfortunately, everyone else around me was politely clapping! Clapping at an ice-hockey match? For goodness sakes, men were being body slammed into the walls at high speed, sticks were flying and arguments were breaking out between the players and umpires. And the crowd was clapping??? What was going on? At least their cheer squad went wild, banging their drums like indians on the war-parth whenever Proprad looked like scoring. I think these Slovaks need to go to an AFL match to see how to support your team!

And to finish the day – we shared some delicious ICE-cream topped with Dana's homemade blackberry syrup! How fitting!

4/ Stacks on the Mill!! Puck's to the left boys!!

Going for a "Walk" - Hmoradka Style!!

1/ Going for a "walk" with Dana & Tibor is a whole new experience!!

Today, Tibor & Dana took us to Slovak National Park where we climbed up the Sucha Bela Gorge. Tibor and Dana don’t really do walks! Not even tramping or hiking really. Certainly not as the ordinary person would define the terms! They do adventures! The words – “commando course, waterfall climbing and gorge scrambling” would better define their idea of a “walk”.

2/ Check out the ladder system up this gorge!!

3/ Those "freaky" wooden ladders!!

As we began the walk, all the fir trees were still covered in their dusting of snow and every now and then, when the breeze blew, soft white crystals floated down from the trees on us like snow flakes. The National Park is riddled with deep gorges that end on a high flat plateau and the park is very busy in the summer with tourists making the climb up to the plateau. The gorges are all fitted with a network of wooden and metal step-ladders to help people climb up the river and waterfalls. I found it quite difficult. I have a terrible fear of slipping and the ice and snow covered wooden ladder walkways suspended above the river really played havoc with my mind. Not only were the wooden rungs covered in ice and snow, the icy river was flowing, in some places, 3 – 4 metres below. Like walking on balance beam, I was fine when the ladders were only 1 or 2 metres off the ground, but as soon as they got higher, the adrenaline started to flow.

Dana has regularly taken her children and friends for a “walk” up this gorge, but she has never made such a slow trip! For me, each step on these horizontal ladders was torture. But eventually, after we had crossed many metres of these walkways, I gritted my teeth and calmed down enough to make a little faster progress. This system of ladders and platforms is truly amazing. It is something we will probably never see in NZ due partly to the wild floods that sweep down all our rivers, and also, I suspect, because NZ OHS laws would say that this system is too dangerous. What a shame!

4/ Hmmm..a walk? Really?

On the way up, Tibor regaled us with many of his climbing stories. He has been on expedition in the Himalayas to Kanchenjunga (the world’s third highest mountain) he has climbed El Capitain in the US, as well as many of the technical European Peaks. As he was describing to Graeme, a particularly harrowing climb in the Dolomites, I couldn’t help but think how lucky it was that I got the same adrenaline rush from doing this walk, which for Tibor was about as exciting as strolling along a suburban footpath. If I slipped and fell, I could twist an ankle or at the very worst break a limb. A mistake by Tibor at his level of adventure has entirely different consequences. Dana is remarkably pragmatic about Tibor’s thirst for adventure. But she is also a good climber and knows Tibor’s abilities. They make a good team.

It goes without saying that it was cold. Probably –2 or –3C for the whole day and probably even colder in the shadows of the gorge, so lunch was a fairly quick bite before we headed down the access track back to the car. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find out that, for safety reasons, you are only allowed to climb up the gorges not down!

Back into Poprad for what Dana assured me was the “worlds best hot chocolate”! She wasn’t kidding! A cup filled with molten chocolate and topped with whipped cream it was absolutely delicious and easily the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted. And while the boys headed off to do some shopping in an interesting role reversal situation, we delved into the pastry selection. Well, it would have been positively rude to sit there in the café without ordering one! Wouldn’t it?

A self-guided tour of Dana & Tibor's neighbourhood!

1/ Dana & Tibor's cuter than cute log cabin!!

Life with Dana & Tibor and their family has settled into an easy routine. The day starts around 6am, as their kids go to school early. Their kids are tough. Mischa and Tomi are on the school bus before 7am in the cold and driving snow. After getting to Proprad, the major town about 20 minutes drive away, they have to walk another 20 minutes to school. Both kids are highly intelligent and they love going to school. Mischa speaks perfect English and Tomi is a whiz at mathematics. Tomi also loves to invent board games and so far, Graeme spends most of the early evenings playing Tomi at his own games!! Graeme and I were both soundly beaten on our first night, but Graeme appears to be staging a significant come back tonight while I am writing this blog.

Dana & Tibor’s house is just lovely. A real log cabin, it is kept toasty warm by a fascinating wood burner. While the firebox is small, the heating unit is huge. It works by heating a circuitous flue system inside the brickwork. The brickwork absorbs the heat and then slowly releases it throughout the day. They only use 2 small boxes of firewood per day, once in the morning and again in the evening. This system heats the entire house.

2/ Andy writing away beside the magnificent fire!

Today, Dana set us loose to explore their surrounding country-side while they had business and stuff to do with the kids.

Armed with Dana’s itinerary and road atlas we headed off to explore the villages and historical sites in their region. The largest city Poprad, is about 15 minutes drive from their village. We like Poprad! It’s about the only town name in the immediate vicinity (and probably the whole of Slovakia) that we can pronounce. The Slovak language is a challenge. The spoken language is lovely. To us, it sounds to us like a mixture of Italian and Russian. But it’s not a harsh sound like German. The distinctive feature of the written language is the abundance of circumflexes, umlages, accents and graves. Without understanding their significance to the pronunciation of words, our attempts to speak the language have met with uproarious laughter from the Hrmodka family!

After a fairly late start in the morning, our first destination was Spisske Podradhie and one of the largest travertine castles in Central Europe. Getting there proved as challenging as always for us. Penelope (the GPS system) was no help at all. She hadn’t been to Slovakia before and once we strayed from the main highway, she was lost. And so were we! We actually ended up in a village called Spisska Nova Ves, which, as we learned later was Tibor's home town. Finally we made it back on route and found the famous Spissky Hrad - a derelict limestone castle perched on a lonely hill in the middle of surrounding paddocks.

3/ Spissky Hrad - a huge deserted castle

After circumnavigating the castle, we found a lovely spot for lunch. Serving traditional Slovakian food we enjoyed a delicious cabbage soup, noodles,beer & coffee all for E$12. The cheapest meal we've had in Europe so far!!

After lunch, Dana's itinerary took us to the historical walled city of Levoca. Here we wandered around the town's courtyard looking at the shops. The shops and businesses are so different than what we are used to. There are no big display windows. Only a small selection of goods are shown in a small window to the street. To enter the shop you have to go into the building via a large centre corridor and each shop lies to the left or right. I guess this style of display is a relic of the communist era, when really there was nothing much to offer for sale and large window displays were pretty pointless!!

Finally on the way home we visited a thermal spring area. We were disappointed not to have brought our bathers with us, as a swim in the hot springs would have been a lovely escape from the -10C temperatures of the day. There are loads of hot springs in Slovakia, and taking the waters is a very popular past-time for Slovakians. The winters here are generally long and very cold. You can understand the attraction!!

4/ Hot Springs near Kezmarok

Well it really wouldn't be a road trip without us getting lost. And today was no exception. Not only did we accidently divert to Tibor's home town in the morning, as we started for home we took a wrong turn in Poprad and ended up in the Whirlpool factory complex. It took us nearly 15 minutes to find our way out again. As we drove around and around, it reminded us of being caught in an endless spin cycle. Dana & Tibor were amazed that we could have found the Whirlpool factory let alone get lost in the complex. Aaaah ...but we explained that we especially "geographically challenged". We're not sure they understood this term, but they certainly understood that n0-one they knew could possibly get lost in the Poprad!!

Tomorrow, we are back under supervision with Tibor & Dana. We are going to do a walk in another National Park area of Slovakia - we can't wait!