Olomouc to Banska Stiavnica

Day's Summary
"We enter Slovakia at a minor border and head for Zilinia, which we by-pass and turn south towards Banska Stiavnica which we understand is rather special - an ancient silver mining town that is described in our guidebook as "a town frozen in time." After driving through beautiful countryside and following the Vah river for a time we get to a viewpoint overlooking the town. There is a lot of new town but the book is quite correct. Going into the old town is really like going back in time. We find the tourist office in the Holy Trinity square (the main square) and then go to look for a camping site. Up the hill outside town we find a site next to a lake where we are able to stand for free. We have a look at the still closed for the off season campsite and have a peaceful night."

We discovered that our GB companions were the worst campers we had ever encountered. The showers and toilets were filthy – poo on the seats – and the poor cleaning lady looked desperate as every time she cleaned another person would come in and be disgusting. I managed to chat to one of the fellows – they totally ignored us – and discovered that they were from Ireland. He was quite friendly and when I mentioned the accent he said that it was different when they spoke to each other. I was sorry that I did not ask him where they were headed after Olomouc. We certainly did not want to meet up with them again. Marianne will never forget the two ±14 year old girls with the short skirts and pink high heels!

Today we were heading for Slovakia. Another new country! We picked Zilinia as a suitable aiming point from the map and put it to Google Girl. Our route followed the E442 which would continue into Slovakia. The scenic route led mostly through forests and a few small towns. Suddenly we realised that we were now in Slovenia! We stopped here of course. There a memorial to a battle that had taken place in 1944. We looked around, but it was freezing with a icy wind cutting through us. At least it was not raining! There were a bunch of signs about speed limits and one that indicated that blue and green roads were “with payment” or tolls. But no indication of how tolls could be paid.

The countryside remained much the same. Forests predominated, but there were a number of roadside eateries and small towns. We eventually had no choice but to get onto a freeway to Zilina. This was not good as we still had no idea of how the tolls worked. Zilina proved to be quite a big place. We tried to get to a supermarket which we picked up from Google, but we got ourselves totally tied up in city traffic with no hope of finding parking. We eventually managed to get onto the road that led to Martin. This is the main east-west freeway and it runs through a spectacular gorge alongside the Vah River. The traffic was very heavy with lots of trucks. We managed to pull off at a truck lay-by to take a break from the stressful driving and had some coffee - a big advantage of a camper!, We turned off on to the 65 to Banska Stiavnica. The road condition varied from not very good to fair with varying surface quality. It was mostly narrow with occasional passing lanes and very seldom some sort of shoulder. The short bits of double carriageway freeway were excellent. We eventually got to Banska Stiavnica (Banska means mine) and stopped at a spot overlooking the town, (but for some reason didn’t get to take pictures) and then drove down through modern communist era outskirts into a very beautiful, very old town. On the hill overlooking the valley stood a very alluring Calvary which we simply had to get to tomorrow.

As usual we didn’t know where to go and without knowing anything about the place we couldn’t give Google Girl any directions. We drove along cobbled streets that got to be quite narrow and I stopped at what looked like the centre of the town. Marianne went to look for tourist info while I stayed with the car. After a few minutes I was asked to move along, so I stopped outside the tourist office with the engine running. This was apparently acceptable to the police and I was left in peace. Marianne came back after a few minutes. Now we knew where to go so turned round behind the plague monument in the square (another one!), went past the old St Catherine’s church and then headed up a steep narrow street towards the parking that Marianne had had pointed out to her. She insisted that we stop to get pictures since the low evening light created a wonderful effect. I didn’t bother preferring to wait till the next day when we would be better orientated. A bad mistake! There was a chance that we could spend the night at the parking space next to the castle, but I preferred going to spot at some lakes described in IOverlander. So we continued up steep twisty lanes. A right turn onto a fairly minor looking road took us to a parking area next to a big lake exactly as described. It was a very scenic spot and totally deserted. There were indications that it had been a camper parking place (might still be used in summer?). We parked and then looked around, noting there was also holiday accommodation in neat wooden chalets. They would probably be used in the summer season and we could look inside them as they were not locked.

The lake was quite big and we learnt that it was a part of a system of about 60 mining water reservoirs called tajchy. They were built from the 15th to 18th centuries to drain the silver and gold mines and provided power for the mines. They are connected by a 100km network of channels. Tomorrow we would learn about the silver mines which were the basis of the town’s prosperity. After exploring around the lake we made supper and took the opportunity to get to bed fairly early for a change. We could not believe it when the rain started beating down on the camper roof again!

Geschreven door Leartravels