🇸🇰 Slovakia! No stopping at the border from Hungary and we stayed a night on the outskirts of Košice at a campground.

From there we drove via Spiš Castle (above) and on to the Slovak Paradise National Park where we are now for two nights.

Today we started early at 6am to do the popular Suchá Belá walk. It's about 2.5 hours up a river with lots of ladders and steps in stone climbing about 400m and a nice gentle walk back down a cycle track. 1.5 hours back.

Here's Sally bravely bounding up one of the ladders. Four points of contact at all times.

Up into the High Tatras today and a short walk from Štrbské Pleso (a lake) to Popradské Pleso (another lake). Nice to be up in the mountains again. The peaks in the middle of the photo are the border of Poland. We're thinking we'll pop into Poland in a couple of days for a quick look.

Here's what your driving route might look like if you were one degree out in the longitude field of your destination in the satnav. One degree is 1/360th of the circumference of the globe and 1/3rd of the width of Slovenia.

We stayed near this lake in Štrebské  Pleso, Slovakia. We had a nice walk around  it and hoped to get in a row boat but it was not to be. Also, bought some High Tatras tea liquor. Coconut for me at 22% and Original for Damian at 42%.

Stayed at Prosiek. A walk up to a waterfall (apparently more impressive in Spring or Autumn) but a nice walk all the same.

This is a little village in Vlkolínec, Slovakia. A UNESCO world heritage village with wooden houses and wood carvings. Still families living here so we had to be very quiet when we visited before 8am.

Poland! A bike ride along the Wisła river. We came across a gang of food and drink outlets. Apparently the time for a Mexican festival which had been disrupted because of Covid. So, we tried the amazing craft beer from Pinta. The brewers have been in New Zealand and they had a couple of collaboration beers with 8 wired. They were too high alcohol for us to try though. We found out after we left that the brewery was only 10 minutes from where we were - would have loved to have visited.

Poland was short and sweet, just enough time for Damian to collect the Polish flag for the van. From here we drove to Olomouc in Czech Republic (to get another flag). This was a lovely town where we were able to stay for free in the town carpark.

A quick sprint through Slovakia again and we're into Vienna, Austria. Everything here is big. I am must learn more about the Hapsburgs. Here is their palace in town, The Hofburg.

And here a picture of the grounds of the Schloß Schönbrunn. The summer palace, not very far from the in town one.

Schloß Schónbrunn

On the slopes up from the palace there were different teams of robot mowers quietly wandering about keeping the grass low and occasionally returning to their docking stations for a charge up. If I were rich and had a lawn I'd definitely get one of these!

We cycled from Krems to Melk and back along the Danube. It was quite flooded so we had to do a few diversions. Who knows what this picture is of.

The town of Melk, cycling to get a coffee because we set of at 7am.

Oh, and you can't miss this little Abbey on the hills above Melk.

Cycle ride was 80km's in total.

Our lunch on route at Spitz. Not shown in my yummy creamy garlic soup (sorry about the garlic breath Damian).

There was a bit of rain. This is the Wachau region which is famous for wine, apricots and apples.

We couldn't get in to Toni Peter on our first try so we spent the night in a carpark and doubled back the next day. It was a nice winery where we tried their wines and food. We got a couple of bottles of the Schilcher which is a funky Rosé which is famous in this region. We also got some bio Wildbacher cheese nearby which is aged in the local grapes.

Ljubljana! We were here on a Sunday so was pretty quiet. Cycled in from where we were staying (which was at a nice family restaurant where we ate too much). Really good cycle ways. We parked up our bikes and walked around this small city. Many bridges and a castle on the hill. We had burgers and craft beers for lunch, a brilliant ice cream which was as good as our Rome experience and tried some Slovenia wines in the afternoon.