After our strenuous hike yesterday, today was going to be a bit more relaxing. At least that was the plan. It was, at the very least, a day of discovering things right in our neighborhood, and they were lovely things.
I was up before anybody else so decided to go for an early morning walk. Right next to our villa, between our building and the next, I noticed that the driveway ended in a sheep meadow, so I took a walk out that way and it is actually a huge, grassy area above the main body of the town, which was much more pleasant than walking into town and back. Stopped at the bakery for some breakfast pastries and my Polish (which basically amounts to speaking Czech and hoping they understand) was quite inadequate for the task, but the girl behind the counter spoke English.
Then, we went back to Tatra National Park, but via a different entrance, within easy walking distance of our accommodations. On the way, we discovered a couple of restaurants that actually seemed quite affordable. The park was beautiful, no mountain lake or horse and wagon this time, but a steeper, rockier trail alongside a rushing stream, crossed and recrossed by small, wooden bridges, leading up to a very impressive waterfall. Then we tried another side trail but decided to come back down when we got exhausted. Just outside the park, our path was blocked by a flock of sheep crossing the road.
The restaurant we chose did, indeed, serve big, healthy, Polish meals at reasonable prices and then we took a walk back by a different way, which turned out to be a dead end, but a couple of the villas there (this town is well over 50% tourists and damn near 100% that style of architecture) were very lovely, particularly the one Helena said reminded her of a Smurf house.
Tomorrow, we drive back to Prague. It has been a beautiful, and memorable vacation.
www.gurukalehuru.com 