Poland – Zakopane

 Zakopane is the gateway to the Tatra Mountains.  It is busy it is very commercial, but it is set in a beautiful part of the world.

It reminded me of Queenstown in New Zealand, but with hundreds of stalls selling local produce made in China, and food and drink.

The food was very good and we had the two best meals of our holiday at Bubuja Bistro.  Although we saw very few other British tourists, all the info boards in the National park and around town and menus were in Polish and English.  We even found a pub decorated in Liverpool FC memorabilia!

There was a booming craft beer sector with a lot of choice of fine brews, which we didn’t find as much in Krakow.

We used Ubers a few time, they were efficient and by UK standards cheap.  

The main street does have some interesting features.

We went on the funicular, but at the top it was mainly stalls and booths selling local food, drink, local crafts and Chinese trinkets.  There were a few interesting buildings..

This was probably my favourite – an open-air church.

There were views. 

The most spectacular were over to the Tatra National Park, at the other side of the valley.

We did two walks from the centre of town, both were busy.- both led to waterfalls – one more spectacular than the other, 

The first was the valley Dolina Bialego

This was a walk alongside a stream (or in more like a stream bed)

to a “waterfall” – the UK is not the only place with dried up streams.

But it was a pleasant walk

And certainly a nice place to sit and chill at the end.

The second walk was much busier along the Strazyska Valley, but at least the Siklawica Falls had water.

The walk was very similar, which was not surprising as the two valleys were only a few KMs apart.

Towards the end of the trail, there was a brief period of sunny weather, which coincided with some of the most dramatic views.

The latter part of the walk was dominated by the cliff face

The main walk reached a picnic ground at the base of the cliff face of Mt Giewont.  Unfortunately, the weather closed in again.

From the picnic area, there were there was an extension of the trail to the Siklawica Falls. This was very busy.

There were two routes which linked the two valleys – as it was raining and the stone slippy we chose the low level.

This was probably my favourite house – Adams Family holiday home

Probably the first building we saw after getting off the train. Really gave a good impression.

Opposite where we were staying.

Some random street art – none more random than the Swing Dancers outside the railway station

On the side of one of the mountain streams flowing through town

A park with sculpture rather than a sculpture park

In case you forgot where you were

On our last night we were just passing through the park near the middle of town, and were treated to a stunning sunset.

Because of issues with late delivery of luggage we were not able to go on some of the walks we planned and spent most of the time in and around the town.  But we still saw some great scenery.

 I would certainly recommend anyone with a love for the outdoors to visit – but recommend mid week and not in the school holidays – the Polish people certainly like to walk.