From Podlesok to Miscolc

Day's Summary
"Had a quick look at the activities available in the National Park before getting back on to the motorway and heading for Hungary. We passed Spissky castle again and made a shopping stop before getting to the Hungarian border. After getting our new vignette we drove on a fairly South African standard single carriageway road to Miscolc where we went to the spa, did a bit of cycling around and camped in a public parking area."

It was a sunny morning when we woke, although we had a long wait for the sun to get to us as there were very tall trees to the east. I had to wash off the levellers as they were rather muddy. European campers have to put up with a lot of things we don’t think of – sloping sites and mud.

We parked next to the road at the entrance to the campsite and we took a short walk along a lovely trail to the river that flowed past the campsite. The very challenging canyon trails was closed, as were a number of other trails, since it was too early in the season, but it was lovely to see how clear the water in this rural setting was. The trees were also fascinating and there seemed to be quite a variety. We also noticed that there were quite a few hikers around, and the info boards showed a wealth of hiking, riding and cycling routes in the area.

We made our way back to the motorway along the road we had come, going through Hrabusice where we saw the gypsy settlements again. At Spissky Stvrtok we joined the motorway. We had last dramatic views of Spissky castle and soon afterwards went through a 5 km long tunnel before we bypassed Presov and then turned south towards Hungary. About 20 km before Kosice the motorway became single carriageway again with a lot of road building along the way. We stopped at a Lidl to top up our provisions spending Euros, as both Hungary and Croatia used their own currencies and it was always a battle to get to know the new prices. From Kosice it was a short drive to the border where we stopped to find out what the situation was with regard to tolls, after getting caught out coming into Slovakia. We managed to buy a vignette for the windscreen as well as coffee at the stall at the border (we were starting to realise that open borders meant very limited facilities). The road to Miskolc was quite narrow and a bit bumpy and patched. There was quite heavy truck traffic along the way and Miskolc proved to be quite big, in fact the fourth biggest city of Hungary!

We had found out that there is a Spa, which has a famous swimming route through a system of natural caves and headed towards it. Parking was a problem, we but found a place where we could stop outside a pizza restaurant and I stayed with the car while Marianne walked through the gardens to find the cave baths. They were very close and when we got back we moved the camper to the nearby parking area we had found on Park4night. There we had some lunch and got the bicycles off the car, and cycled to the caves. We had some difficulty finding a place to leave the bikes (in Europe!), but eventually got through the very clean change rooms and found ourselves in an absolutely amazing place. A river flows through a series of underground limestone chambers and passages that have been given floors and lights so that it possible to walk and swim through the warm water for quite a distance. The temperature of the water is certainly not as hot as might be expected in a spa, but it is the experience of being in natural caves that is special. There were plenty of locals enjoying themselves, lots of pretty girls and handsome young guys, fatties and oldies and kids. It was all very civilised and proper. We really enjoyed it. Then we got back on the bikes and rode around the beautiful gardens, which were quite extensive, before riding back to the camper.

We had decided to spend the night there so moved the camper into a better position. After supper we went for a lovely ride, covering about 10km. We discovered that this part of the city was actually very upmarket with some beautiful homes. We were a bit concerned about camping in such a public place but another camper arrived. They parked close to us and a couple of kids were soon riding around on their little bicycles. The father was French and he told Marianne that there was no problem standing there and he had done it before. That made us feel much better and we slept very well.

Geschreven door Leartravels