Slovakia and the Alps

What a world we’ve seen since last I wrote! The weather in Europe seems to have turned upside down, and last week saw temperatures in Spain and southern France in the 50s, with wind and intermittent rain, while sunny weather covered Eastern Europe with highs the 70s. Ever seeking spring, we sprang, and drove northeast. We stopped briefly in Lyon, to see our friends Dominique and Roger Micallef. Roger fed us incredibly well for dinner, and the lively conversation made me feel like I hadn’t been away for almost 13 years.  

This visit, we were only breezing through, on the way to Slovakia, but we’ll be back to Lyon soon.  Before we left, we stopped by the neighborhood market, where farmers and vendors sell vegetables, fruit, cheese, meat and wine, and picked up a few provisions, including the rotisserie chicken and potatoes that our youngest daughter Maria and so I loved when we lived there. 

It took us three days to get to Slovakia, including our sobering visit to Dachau (see previous blog entry) and a night in Liechtenstein.  

Slovakia was amazing. We spent a day with our friend Kajo Zboril and his family, wife Sandra and daughter Teresa.  Kajo is a community organizer and trains organizers across Eastern Europe, and stayed with us in Virginia for several months about six years ago.  They hosted us at their village house outside Banska Bystrica, near Zvolen. The house has three large woodstoves, built into the walls, that keep it toasty. There is a ruined castle on the hill just behind the house, and the next door neighbors’ yard is full of sheep. They took us to where Sandra teaches handicrafts, a cultural center in Zvolen, and then out to dinner at a restaurant featuring local traditional foods. Yum!!! Teresa (Tete) charmed us, and we really enjoyed seeing them all.  

In the morning, we drove to the city of Banska Bystrica to meet Chuck Hirt, also a community organizing trainer. Chuck and Joe have done many trainings together in Hungary and other countries over the last decade. 

That afternoon, we walked through the city’s beautiful pedestrian downtown and marveled at the region’s complex and painful history – from plagues to wars to repressive governments and economic struggle.  Today, the city seems to be thriving, and it was great to see. Chuck and his kids, 17-year-old Nikki and 15-year-old Hugo, took us to an even more traditional restaurant, where we were greeted by servers wearing traditional Slovak costumes and serenaded by wonderful music. 

Our third day in Slovakia wasn’t nearly as fun, as we were felled by some kind of intestinal bug that laid us both low. Despite it, I went by car up the nearby hill with Chuck to see a mining village there with a beautiful church.  As we got out of the car to walk the last part of the way, Chuck saw his former uncle-in-law, Milan, whose house is beside the church. Milan invited us in for coffee and a black currant liqueur (at 10am!), which I couldn’t refuse, despite my protestations of an empty stomach. Surprisingly, it was delicious and light, and seemed to settle my tummy quite nicely. 

Fortunately, as we were camped in Chuck’s yard, we just stayed an extra day, did some laundry, and slept until the bug was gone.  We had thought we might continue northeast into the High Tatras Mountains, but a forecast of two days of rain made that sound less appealing, so we headed back west toward Austria. 

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We took a short first day, stopping at the very nice campground in Oggau am Neusiedlersee, just south of Vienna, where we had camped on the way out.  We never actually saw the actual “see” – the lake – as it is surrounded by miles of wetlands and reeds, but we enjoyed walking around the incredible flat countryside with Jacob.  Still a little under the weather, we decided to take a second night there before meandering our way through the Austrian Alps to Salzburg.  

Did you know that if you go by major four-lane tollways, it takes 3 hours 10 minutes, according to our GPS, to get from Oggau to Salzburg, but if you select “avoid tollways” on the app, it takes closer to 6 hours – slower in a campervan – because of all the small town roundabouts and mountain hairpin curves?  Not only that, but because you are seeing all the pretty, small towns and beautiful, majestic mountains, you have to stop and take pictures and take walks and play in the snow and dip your hands in the cold mountain streams and tour the salt mines.  So it took us two days.  Thanks to the town of Liezen for providing a free camper parking spot along a beautiful walking trail, nestled between the town and the snow-capped mountains.  Photos of our journey are below. 

And now we are in Salzburg, in a campground overlooking the city, eager to head into town tomorrow to see the childhood home of Mozart. 

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The snow melt from the mountains rushes into the alpine rivers, 

giving kayakers a dangerous and thrilling ride - and us a beautiful hike. 

It was 70°F at the road. On the riverbank, the passing water chilled a good 

10° out of that, and there was still snow on the ground. 

We hiked the remains of a cross country ski trail at another stop, higher up. 

Still warm, but the snow was more dramatic here. 

I took lots of wildflower pictures, but those will have to wait for another day.

The view from the overnight parking place in Liezen

Below, more mountain - and valley - scenery