Central Europe Blogs — aroundtheworldin-definitely

Crossing from Lithuania into Poland was the first time that we had seen any signs of authority at a land border since entering Europe. The border between the two countries stretches about 100 km between Belarus in the east and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the west, a strategic territory known as the Suwalki Gap, a border region that could be described as an “Achilles heel”, as it is a direct land route to Kaliningrad and therefore well and truly within Putin’s crosshairs. We weren’t stopped but there were a number of police around and it certainly had a different, more watchful feel about it. Aside from the increased police presence, our entry into Poland was somewhat gloomy. The number of heavy trucks on the road increased 100-fold and we were driving through yet another snow blizzard. On the plus side though, we did have a destination, something that is becoming more elusive the longer we travel.

We were headed to the Bialowieza Forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the last remaining primeval forest in lowland Europe. Straddling the border between Poland and Bellarus, this 15,000 km² area is the world’s last refuge for European Bison, the largest land mammal on the continent. Hunted to near extinction, the bison were reintroduced from captivity and today they number over 700. On arrival at the tiny village of Bialowieski we checked into an expensive and disappointing hotel, already missing the affordable, luxurious accommodation that we had enjoyed throughout the Baltic States. Things got worse though when we found out that we needed a guide to access the main part of the park, which despite several phone calls we were unable to organise. Nearly everything in the village was closed up, the main signs of life coming from the depressing looking army base that had been set up less than 1km from the hotel. The following day we set out on a forest trail that did take us to the Bison Reservation, a large modern enclosed natural park where we got to see several bison as well as a herd of tarpan horses, some elk, wild boar, wolves and surprisingly a very regal looking lynx. The bison were impressive but the most memorable animal within the park would have to be the massive Zubron, a hybrid between a bison and a cow that weighed in at 1200 kilo and stood well over 175cm tall (17 hh for all you horse people out there).

Apart from satisfying our Bison curiosity, our detour to Bialowieski had left us in no doubt that driving through Poland was going to have to be done on the main roads. The minor roads were so snow bound that it was impossible to go more than 20-30 kph and although the BFG AT’s were performing well, the road surfaces were icy enough to send us sliding around bends every time there was a lapse in concentration. Main road travel is mind-numbing and our journey through Poland didn’t do the country any justice at all. The white countryside didn’t change and the only impression we had was that of heavy industry and a dense population.

With explorations curtailed somewhat we decided to focus on other things. Bob had a number of issues that were causing us a few problems. None of his reversing lights were working, neither was the reversing camera and with two bikes on the back and a droopy cargo net suspended from the ceiling, visibility out the back window was a tiny area about the size of a saucer, a visibility that immediately closed whenever Leroy decided to sit up. The gas struts on one of the gullwing windows were failing, one of the mudguards had fallen off and the back step was only just hanging on. Bob was also coming up for a service and so we made the necessary arrangements to drop him of at an independent Landy mechanic in Krakow while we based ourselves in the Old Town for a few days.

Krakow is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland and quite possibly one of Europe’s most beautiful. Unlike Warsaw, that was more or less completely destroyed during World War II, Krakow emerged virtually unscathed which is evident in the plethora of grand historic architecture which creates much of the charm of the medieval Old Town. With the Rynek Glowny (Central Square) at its centre, it is fairy-tale stuff complete with castles and dragon legend.

Over the centuries Poland has seen epic climbs, cataclysmic falls and back-from-the-brink recoveries. In the mid-1500’s, united Poland was the largest state in Europe and perhaps the continent’s most powerful nation, yet two and a half centuries later, it was divided between contending empires and disappeared off world maps for 123 years. Proud to be the birth place of some outstanding world figures including Nicolaus Copernicus, Pope John Paul II, Marie Curie and Frederic Chopin it has also endured extremely dark periods and often been labelled as one of the “Bad Boys’ of Nato, a label which has been somewhat rescinded given the astonishing generosity that the Poles have extended to more than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees pouring across their eastern border.

As a visitor to Krakow, the top-rated tour is an hour’s coach-ride away to Auschwitz, the largest of Poland’s German-Nazi concentration and extermination camps where over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives during WWII. Dark tourism is big business these days, making it easy for people to visit sombre monuments in order to pay their respects or to better understand the magnitude of death and destruction that has taken place, but it wasn’t for us and so we opted for a visit to Wieliczka, one of the oldest salt mines in the world.

Thrilled to receive a phone call advising us that Bob was ready to be collected, we returned to Landstajnia garage. Krystian, the owner, had done a great job, somehow managing to deal with every item on the list that we gave him. He replaced the reverse light switch which also fixed the rear-view camera, added new gas struts to the gullwing, reaffixed the mudguard and rear step and changed the oils. He also detected a leak in the coolant pipe which he replaced and tightened up the suspension arm bolts on the rear passenger side which were completely loose. What a fortuitous pitstop this turned out to be and we were now ready to get back on the road.

tatra mountains bordering poland & slovakia

We exited Poland over the Tatra Mountains, a natural border between Slovakia and Poland where the higher peaks are up around 2,500 metres. The roads over the top were slick with ice and although we navigated the uphill stretches better than most, we literally crawled downhill in second gear with virtually no grip when applying the brakes. To be honest this was not entirely due to the slick surface but a nuisance reminder that we needed new brake pads AGAIN. With Bob being so heavy and the amount of mountain driving we have been doing, my feeling is that the pads are only lasting for about 15,000 km and the current ones were put on about 25,000 km ago. Why oh why didn’t we get them done in Krakow???

Pushing all thoughts of compromised brakes to one side, we focussed instead on our surroundings. Both sides of the mountains are national park and popular areas for hiking and skiing. We passed through some small ski resorts on the way up on the Polish side and on the way down on the Slovakian side, but by the time we reached Poprad, the Slovakian gateway to the Tatras, all the snow had disappeared. It was as if someone had pressed a giant re-set button and for the first time in almost nine weeks our world wasn’t completely white.

The first thing we noticed about Slovakia were mountains in every direction we looked. The terrain is almost 80% mountainous with the High Tatras in the north and the low Carpathian mountains in the center, there are foothills to the west and the Danube River Basin in the south. There were large swathes of beautiful deciduous forests and given its relatively unexplored nature it is undoubtedly a hidden gem, particularly for winter sports and hiking lovers. The infrastructure was good, definitely better than Poland and the prices were a lot cheaper. On the few hikes that we did manage to fit in, every single person we met smiled and said hello – a friendliness that we hadn’t really come across since leaving Scandinavia. We also saw our first campervan since leaving the North Cape, surely a sign that we were no longer out in the cold.

We really did just get a glimpse though, as we crossed over into the Czech Republic after only a few days in Slovakia. The Czech Republic in contrast is more hilly than mountainous with wide, rolling plains and holds a more strategic position astride some of the oldest and most significant land routes in Europe. The once combined, former communist state of Czechoslovakia was peacefully separated from Russian rule following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, followed by a dissolution in 1993 resulting in the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It seems that the countries have maintained a close allegiance over the past 30 years and although there seems to be current disagreements regarding the influx of refugees, there are many similarities between them. They are both land-locked countries with very similar languages. They both rank car manufacture and car parts as their top exports along with machine and broadcasting equipment. Whilst Czech Republic manufactures its own brand cars (who could ever forget the Skoda?) and the popular Iveco trucks, Slovakia is now the leading car producer per capita in the world since the Big 4 have opened factories there – I won’t make you look it up, they are Volkswagen, Peugeot, Kia and ……….. Jaguar Land Rover!

Similar to a lot of Europe, both countries have quite an extensive cave network and we visited the Punkva Limestone caves in South Moravia, discovered in stages between the years of 1909-1933 by a group of speleologists. Although touted as being one of the top things to see in Czech Republic, being the largest and most significant karst landscape in central Europe, we had the hardest time finding them. Google was struggling and even though we knew we were quite close there were no road signs to indicate exactly where they were. We eventually stumbled onto a large, mostly empty, carpark located at the top of Macocha Gorge, but once again there were no pointers as to where to go, no ticket office – just a few people wandering around. So, we also started wandering around until we noticed a trickle of people appearing up a small pathway, apparently climbing up the side of the gorge. With lack of a better plan we headed down into the gorge until we reached a narrow tarmac road. This time there was a signpost pointing in various directions but, as it was all in Czech, we were none the wiser and, trusting to luck, swung a left. So far, our efforts had taken over an hour and we were beginning to think we were on a bit of a wild goose chase when, all of a sudden, a large ticket office appeared with lots of people milling around, plus a cable car arrived bringing more people down from the top of the gorge – how had we missed that? From a seemingly hopeless start, things improved dramatically and 10 minutes later we were the only people on the English speaking tour. We were led through a door set into the walls of the gorge and along a network of tunnels which led us through the most amazing rock cathedrals full of stalagmites and stalactites. Strategic lighting enhanced the eerily beautiful and silent spaces until the tunnels eventually arrived at the bottom of the 140m deep Gorge where our journey continued on a small boat along the deep, greenish waters of the subterranean Punkva river. It was an unusual experience and given our fleeting visit to the country it did give us a strong memory of our time there.

thick fog for 4 days crossing from czech republic to austria

Although similar in many respects, we did notice a more westernised influence within the Czech Republic opposed to a more traditional and cultural lifestyle that is still quite strong in Slovakia. However, both countries were very friendly, safe and, with the exception of the caves, easy to navigate.

It does make us feel a bit guilty not to fully explore each country that we drive through, but with our current EU stay expiring at the beginning of February and neither of us keen to organise yet another visa run out of and back into Schengen Europe, we have decided to head to Morocco for three months which will give us an opportunity to slow down a bit and reset the passports ready for another onslaught on Europe at the beginning of May.

We crossed the border into Austria in thick, heavy fog which stayed with us for the next three days which meant that we didn’t actually get to see anything of the country until we were more than half-way across. With a relatively small population of just over 9 million, around 20% of whom live in and around Vienna, we had decided to give the capital a miss and instead we followed the Danube upstream for a couple of days. We had been very close to the source of the Danube when we were in the mountains of Germany’s Black Forest some months back and it was nice to catch up with the second largest river in Europe in another country. Admittedly, we didn’t see too much of it due to the fog but when we did get a glimpse it looked very peaceful as it made its way along its 2,857 km course towards the Black Sea. The towns and villages that we passed through were very definitely closed for the winter season and our overall impression of Austria was of a country that is as neat as a pin!

Yes, we were in a hurry to get further south but there was one call that we did want to make at one of Austria’s premier ski resorts…..

…..a visit to our very own cupid!

Too many years ago to recall, Ian and I were introduced by a colleague that I worked with in London who had been in University with Ian. Obviously, this chance meeting had huge consequences for both of us and we were keen to catch up with the person responsible, someone we hadn’t seen for a number of years. We knew he had a ski chalet in Kitzbuhel but we weren’t quite prepared to find that he owned what was probably the biggest and best accommodation in the area. In a resort that costs an average of €1,500/night we were only too delighted to move into the super chalet for a couple of days surrounded by the skiing elite of Europe. Ordinarily a popular resort, due to a favourable position on the main Alpine ridge ensuring very good snow reliability and 90% coverage of snow cannons, during a season where many of Europe’s resorts were still waiting for snow, Kitzbuhel was packed. A quick look around confirmed the glitz and glamour of the place with fur-trimmed winter coats, designer shades and blingy handbags – and that was just the men. It was like stepping into another world, one where we surely looked a little incongruous amongst the jet-set. No such concerns for Bob however – Land Rovers were definitely the vehicle of choice and many an envious look was cast in his direction – lapping up the attention as he cruised around the cobble-stoned streets lined with designer boutiques.

Not having seen them for a while, it is easy to forget just how majestically beautiful the Alps are and keen to get with the program, we were quick to jump into a cable car to get up onto the slopes. Unfortunately for us, we were sharing the lift with a young boy that spent the whole time talking into his mobile whilst continuously coughing. Unsurprisingly, two days later, back on the road again, we were both struck down with the most aggressive virus either of us can recall which turned into a most annoying and persistent cough. We have been so lucky to date health wise, so much so that it is easy to take it for granted, but this was a huge wake-up call as we were unable to do anything other than very sedate walking and only then if it was completely flat. Cycling – out, hill-climbing – out, yoga – out. In fact, the only thing we could do was drive and so we coughed and spluttered our way out of Austria and into Liechtenstein.

Situated in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland, this tiny, independent, German-speaking principality is Europe’s fourth-smallest and the world’s sixth-smallest nation. Just 24.8 km long and 12.4 km wide, Liechtenstein is home to 38,000 people, has the second-highest per capita GDP in the world (surpassed only by Morocco) and has virtually zero national debt. The country’s only billionaire is worth 50% of the entire nation’s GDP – a fortune derived from dental products! The country hasn’t had an army since 1868 but it’s interests are safeguarded by Switzerland whose consular protection is extended to all citizens It would have been too easy to just drive through this second-least visited nation in Europe – San Marino, a sovereign nation in northeast Italy tops this list – but we wanted to get a little feel of the place and stayed overnight just outside the capital of Vaduz. Our very short stay was quite illuminating. Never before have we been amongst such genuinely kind and happy people, which is quite a statement given that we have experienced many, many, generous acts from some truly beautiful souls. There was something quite magical about the people that we met, a feeling of true acceptance and exceptional interest and hospitality that is often missing in our busy world. Our short stay left a huge impression and should we return, which I hope we will, it will be on 15th August, a national holiday when all inhabitants and any visitors are invited up to the prince’s castle for aperitifs.

Regrettably, we drove across Switzerland sticking mainly to the motorways, still too ill to do anything other than head south. About half-way across, there seemed to be an invisible line where German-speaking stopped and French took over. In fact, everything took on more of a French feel, the people were a bit more laid-back and softer spoken, there was a welcome reappearance of the bread and pastries that only the French seem to be able to produce and everything just sort of felt lighter and more fun. In some respects our bout of ill-health has had a silver lining of sorts as had we continued to potter around at our usual ponderous rate, we would have needed Bob to sprout wings at some point in order to get us out of Europe before our visas expired. As things stand though, we are covering a lot of ground (admittedly with a list of countries to be re-visited properly) and are on track to enter Morocco as planned. All we need to do now is get rid of these blasted coughs.