Levoca, Kezmarok, Tatranska Lomnica, Stary Smokovec May 13-14

By Eric

The rain had started a little while before we got up and continued until we had finished packing. Fortunately the campground had a little lodge that contained the bathrooms and a living room sort of common area. We made breakfast (coffee and muesli with instant milk) in there.

We stopped by the bar on the way out to return the bathroom key and the same two guys who had helped us out the night before were sitting in the same chairs, wearing the same clothes, at the same table, with two fresh new beers in front of them. It was about 9 a.m. They swore they had both been home and just come back in the morning, but that was hard to believe.

We spent a couple hours in Levoca. They have yet another impressive cathedral. This one caught our eye because some of the art work (the face of a Madonna) on the 100 Koruna note is taken from the altar piece here. We also saw the "cage of shame," a large bird cage, where medieval people used to put their criminals on public display.

While we were looking at some of the shops, a crowd of neatly dressed teenage girls all wearing dark short skirts and platform shoes came by singing songs. They walked the entire perimeter of the main square. It turns out they were a graduating class and this was some part of their graduation ceremony.

On the highway just outside of town, we stopped to either put on or take off our rain gear (it was one of those days) and eat some cookies when a man on a really beat up old ten-speed stopped to talk to us. He came right up to me and shook my hand. That made me a little suspicious but we were friendly to him.

He smiled and pointed to his bike, which was a piece of work. He had no brakes at all, and his tires looked cancerous. His spokes were rusted and most weren't totally connected to the rim. At first he was just pointing to his valve, which was missing a cap. We figured he was begging for a cap. I actually had an extra one in my pocket. I gave it to him. Meanwhile, Joan fished out some cookies we had bought back in Spain. They were still good and we were famished. She offered our guest cookies until he finally indicated he couldn't eat any more.

But our guest wouldn't go away. As we were preparing to leave, he asked for a cigarette. We had none. So then he asked for money for a cigarette. We figured we done enough for him and declined to give him any money. Funny, he immediately picked out me as the softy and didn't ask Joan at all.

A couple hours later we were in the town of Kezmarok. There was some sort of street fair going on with booth after canvas covered booth selling T-shirts and platform tennis shoes. We had hoped for some local crafts or something but there wasn't much of that.

We had a great lunch then checked out this fantastic bike store. It seemed more like a hardware store. In addition to bikes and bike parts, they sold sewing machines and pellet guns. The bike parts, mostly decent quality shimano stuff like derailleurs, SPD pedals, and so on, was just piled in bins. No fancy displays and too hip young bicycle salesmen. The guy behind the counter was huge and helpful and didn't give us any spiel about how this just really WON'T do and how that is really quite inferior quality and so on. Though one light we pointed at he just shook his head as if to say, "no good." We bought a few odds and ends - spare pulleys for the rear derailleur and bolts and a tail light. Best of all, Joan bought a big orange and yellow clown horn for her handlebars. It makes a ridiculous squeaking sound, good for loosening up the starers we pass.

We had ridden into Kezmarok on a back road, approaching from the south against a northerly headwind. We left Kezmarok heading south on a highway going parallel to the small road one valley over. And we had a headwind again! We had spent two hours in Kezmarok and during that time the wind had turned around 180 degrees so that we could have headwinds all day.

We camped that night near the town of Tatranska Lomnica, at the foot of the Tatras Mountains. We had been planning to hike for a couple days in the mountains because we had heard they were so pretty. Even so their stunning grandeur surprised me.

These are the tallest mountains in Europe outside the alps. They rise with amazing abruptness from the plains below. The peaks are very jagged, steep, and rocky. The highest among the peaks is about 2655m or 8700ft. The town of Tatranska Lomnica is only a few kilometers from the summit horizontally but 2.8 kilometers away vertically.

This is great for bicyclists. We were able to approach these tall mountains without much climbing. The road to the base of the mountains follows a railroad track at about 2% grade.

The main town at the base of the mountains is called Stary Smokovec. When I become a pop star I am going to change my name to Stary Smokovec. I've already got Joan calling me Stary Smokovec. Maybe that's just the town's stage name too. Stary Smokovec is trying to get the 2006 olympics. I think it would be a great spot, though I have no idea if the skiing is any good.

The transportation sure is good though. They have trains, faniculars, cable cars and buses all over the place. We stopped in a tourist office in Stary Smokovec and they found us a hotel for that night and a room in a chalet up on the mountains for the next night. We paid all the money to the tourist office using a credit card, including dinner and breakfast at each lodging.

Stary and all the nearby towns are like ski towns in Tahoe. There's no real town just an assortment of lodges and restaurants and ski shops clustered around a road.

As in New Zealand and Nepal, you can hike here without a tent. In fact in the Tatras it is illegal to camp. Lodges perch all over the mountains connected by very well marked trails. We were both raised with that American idea that hiking is best when you don't see anyone else and you feel good about being 100% self-contained. You carry everything you need.

The rest of the world has doesn't seem to share this idea. Most people like to have a pleasant day hike with a small pack followed by a warm evening in a lodge by a fire with french fries and beer. Or something like that. I'm beginning to rather like this myself.

Next: Slovakia Chapter 4--Chalet Hopping in the Tatras

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