Harmonia, Slovakia to Nove Mesto
View 2008-05-22 Harmonia to Nove Mesto, Slovakia in a larger map
Highlights: no rain but windy, Slovak castle, rolling hills, polite kids, trucks & buses, camping place closed
Castle courtyard (Cerveny Kamen)
Castle view looking north (Cerveny Kamen)
Another town, another castle (Smolenice)
Bumpy bike path - better than nothing I suppose (near Trstin)
Old church (Chtelnica)
Journal: After back-to-back nights of seemingly expensive accommodations in Slovakia ($100 US & $80 US for a double room), Joe & I decided today to shoot for one of the few campgrounds shown on our bike maps. After eating the included morning meal in Harmonia (similar to German/Austrian meat & cheese breakfasts, but with eggs as well) & updated my blog (the hotel actually had wi-fi!), we headed in a north-easterly direction following the path of the Carpthian Mountains for much of the rest of the day. This meant quite a few rolling hills as we descended into small villages, then rode back up the other side. Would have been better if not for the recurring large vehicles (delivery trucks, logging trucks & buses) speeding by on the almost shoulderless road, but it could have been worse too. The biggest problem in the morning was actually the wind (headwinds & crosswinds), which felt about 10-15 mph and made it difficult to ride more than 10 mph on level ground.
The highlight of the morning was a 3 km detour up one of the hills to the nicely restored 13th century castle Cerveny Kamen. Visitors are allowed to walk the grounds & enter a few rooms for no charge, so this is what we did before descending back to the main route. As we headed north & east, we passed thru at least a half dozen "scenic" towns (according to our maps), but in truth most of the towns were fairly unremarkable (especially compared with Austria & Germany). One of the few exceptions was the small town of Dechtice where we stopped for a late lunch, found a nice bench in the town center & were politely greeted (in Slovakian) by the children walking home from school.
After riding along rolling hills for much of the day with occasional traffic hassles, we decided to take a longer but more leisurely 20 km ride along the river Vah as we headed north to our intended campground near Nove Mesto. It was a good decision for the most part, except for a 6 km segment of bumpy, muddy unpaved road at the end (similar to yesterday's slow muddy road experience). When we reached the campground at 7 pm, we discovered it was closed (not sure if permanent or just for the season), but I guess this is what can happen when the maps you are using are seven years old. We had no choice but to ride into town & find a place to stay, which was easier said than done. After turning down another over-priced two-star hotel ($100 US) we settled for a more reasonable one-star facility with shared facilities ($30 US). We have seen enough of Slovakia now (neither loving it nor hating it) so will head over the Carpathians tomorrow into the Czech Republic if all goes well.
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