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Maybe my best and most beautiful slovakian biketour was finished in the last day before arriving at Budapest in 1998 because of a fault in manufacture in the tyre.

Crossing the Carpathians by bike 1999

Gyorgyigabor
2004-02-05 19:58:20

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was to arrive at Krakkow from the other direction. He would had to wait for us in the main square, that place that everybody visit in Krakkow. We were waiting for each other to come back from having lunch under a tree at the bank of the river Vistula. Some of us ate cold food, others chose to eat in a fast food restaurant. Although I liked to spend more time in the center, the afternoon went away fast, so I got only one and a half hour to look around. The guys gave me only so much time. They had only so much enthusiasm left to enjoy the buildings and the atmosphere of Krakkow.

9th day, Krakkow - Rabka: We directly searched places for our tents not far from the town, because in the morning we wanted to visit the salt-mine museum in Wieliczka, that I had seen with my parents some years before. Although the entrance ticket was a little bit expensive, the visit was an experience: on the stairs we went about 100m down under the surface of the earth, where we saw sculptures, relieves, chandeliers made of salt. After turning back towards the Tatra and Hungary we continued the tour on a calm, little trafficked road between low hills and on short climbes. During a rest in a village we spoke with a friendly uncle, who spoke with us with a pleasure after hearing that we were hungarian. We reached Rabka in the evening, where we set up out tents between a stream and some fir trees.

10th day, Rabka - Árvaváralja (SLK): It was atmospheric to wake up between the fir trees and next to a stream and then to write cards at the banks of it. Not too far from the slovakian border it was a good feeling to take a photo about us and a table, that showed the distance between the place and Budapest; it was 321 km (photo). It was interesting that a table in Poland shows the distance to Budapest. We were cycling on a gently sloping ascent to the 709m high Przeelecz Bory pass, from where we had to push the pedals to the border because of the facewind. ...