After a 3 hour drive from Kraków and crossing the border to Slovakia, we arrived at the resort town of Tantranska Lomnica, where we stayed for two nights at the Penzion Encian.
It was a short walk to our accommodations in the foothills of the Carpathian mountain range. It was obvious with all of the ski shops that this was quite a resort area in the winter time.
In the summertime, it was a mecca for hikers with many trails to explore in these rugged mountains. Many hikers used the trains, funiculars, and the gondolas to get up to high places that save them the drudgery of hiking up steep hills.
In the town, the trains took hikers to various spots along the mountain resort area. We did the same the following morning.
In the afternoon, we had free time to explore the resort mountain village before dinner at the Penzion Encian.
I had a delicious trout dinner after waiting a very long time for the others to be served their dining choices.
The following morning, we again had a full breakfast buffet, which provided something for everyone. I chose the usual scrambled eggs, Polish sausage, coffee, and orange juice, but when I got my second coffee cup of coffee, I picked day small dessert like item that turned out to be soaked Chia seed with a topping of some fruit and granola. Tasty, but gummy.
Krysthof told us that we should expect some rain on our 6 mile hike along our trail in the Carpathians.
I was pleased to see that we first took a train, and then a funicular up to the top of one of the mountain ski runs before beginning our hike.
Shortly after we got off the train, we saw these two maps depicted the area one was in the summer time and the other winter time.
There were lots of eager hikers along the trail, and it was pretty well marked.
We then got the funicular to the next resort area where there was another gondola and trail signs.
Fortunately, it was light rain, and the rest of the trail was mostly downhill on a fairly rocky trail.
After a few miles, we turned down a little used trail. It was grass covered. The trail led over several log bridges, by a reservoir, and the ski resort area at the top of the gondola lift area.
We continued on down the trail to our Penzion Encian after hiking about 6 miles.
After some refreshing drinks, some of us walked about the resort village.
We had dinner at the Grill Pub where grilled meat was king. I enjoyed the big steak, cabbage, and roasted potatoes along with ginger ale.
The following morning, our Hungarian driver showed up in a 20 passenger van, so we had a comfortable ride down through the border to Hungary, and onto Budapest, our final destination for the 15 day Intrepid Tour of Central Europe.
This is our last view of the Carpathian mountain range as we sped to Budapest and much hotter weather – – in the mid 90s.
