August 2
Today we traveled from Krakow Poland to Levoca, Slovakia. It was a long drive but it was a beautiful drive. We crossed the high Tatras Mountains. They form the border between Poland and Slovakia.
We made our way to Levoca and we found our campsite, just outside of the town. Our campsite has space for camping, little cabins and a restaurant. We have a covered picnic area near us, which is good because it has been raining a lot lately. It is getting quite cool at night and we have to bundle up a lot! Liam and Brendan are getting pretty good at putting up our tent!
After we set up the tent and we went on a hike up to a church called Bazilika na Marianskej hore. It is a beautiful church up on top of the hill and it overlooks the town.
It was the site of a pilgrimage that Pope John Paul II came to in 1995. There were over 650 000 people who came to see him at the site.
On our hike back down it was a bit hectic as Liam got into a fire ants nest and was covered in biting fire ants. He cried a lot. I felt really bad for him.
August 3
Today was a rainy day and we decided to visit the Dobšinská ice cave. A mining engineer named Eugen Ruffiny from Dobsina discovered it on June 15 1870. Ice is formed in the cave and kept by a natural underground cooling in the cave spaces in the winter season. It is estimated that the ice is more than 1000 years old, and the age of the limestone cave is 220 million years. The ice cave stays at between -4C and +0.3C all year long.
The water dripped though cracks in the ceiling of the cave and dripped down and made ice sculptures that formed like stalagmites. The tall pillars were large and almost looked like giant daggers poking up out of the ground.
We walked through the tunnels that have been made in the ice, it was so neat to walk through the ice and to see the layers and layers of ice.
We walked into the great hall – it was a used as an ice skating hall for at least 50 years –. It had a flat ice floor and tall pillars that you could easily have skated around. It’s too bad that we can’t skate on it any more!
In the picture of my dad you can see the layers in the ice, the ice was like a glacier inside the cave. The Ice cave was really cool – we thought that we heard squeaking, and it turns out that this cave is home to 12 different bat species and is one of the most important winter nesting grounds in central Europe!
August 4
Today was a really special day. My mom has been reading about visiting Spiš Castle for a long time and we were finally able to get there! It was really busy and as it turned out, it is free on the first Sunday of each month – so it was really busy!! But that was okay.
We hiked up the big hill to get to the castle. It was the biggest castle that I have ever seen. It was neat to see that the castle was built on top of a huge outcrop of rock. You could tell that they built the castle up there as you could see so far in every direction and would be able to see enemies coming!!
We walked around the large curtain wall – it covers an area of more than 4 hectares. It was incredible to see.
The Castle was first built in 1214, and has changed hands many times. It was finished to the size it is today by the end of the 1200’s. One family (the Ĉaki family) owned this castle from the late 1600’s until 1949. The Castle was destroyed by fire in 1780 and gradually fell into ruin until 1970. It was taken over by the country of Slovakia and is being restored. It became an UNESCO site in 2003.
Liam got to dress up like the King of the Castle and we took a family picture - it was pretty fun!
We saw some of the castle rooms that have been restored with their former medieval glory. We saw the Castle Kitchen, the Armory, the Chapel of St. Elizabeth, the Castle tower and the Torture Chamber. They were all restored in such a way to make you really understand what life was like in the castle.
We learned that there have been many movies and films shot at this castle – some famous ones include Dragonheart (1996) and The Last Legion (2007). I am going to have to go back and watch these now!
It was an amazing castle to see – I’m so glad we were able to see it.
Mari and Tia.
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