Leeds to Amsterdam and Utrecht Having made much of the band Within Temptation on the Iceland blog, we decided it would be a fine idea to go and see them in the Netherlands their home territory. For this trip we were accompanied by our good friends Ela and David. We got the train, a packed Trans Pennine unit to Hull, and then a taxi to the dock. The ferry crossing was good, we availed ourselves with the food on offer (david managed five courses for the evening meal) and entertained ourselves with some beer and cards. Next mornin [View Full Entry]

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With the sun out and a warm breeze we had a walk round the landscape around the hostel. Kasia was feeling a bit under the weather from some pesky cold so we kept it fairly short. We set off north, inland now over the pass deeper into Eastern Iceland. Up a gravel road (and on a steep bend) Rosa unexpectedly came face to face with a bus and became detached from her motorcycle. Unfortunately that wasn’t the only thing to be detached from the motorcycle - a footrest came off too. There was only one thing for it, as soon as [View Full Entry]

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The Island Our stay on the island was just for a few days, but it was great. Time became unimportant, just the tides and wind mattered. Everyone settled in: Rosa's little lads, Jakub and Isaak set to helping us bash the angelica with gusto. The allotment had been overrun by this herb, which grew with strong stems over a metre high, so good is the soil (birds and basalt, at a guess, to thank). Kasia introduced a fine Polish recipe or two, Placki (potato pancakes) and Sorrel soup. The Sorrel was growing outside in the grass, and has very much [View Full Entry]

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Midnight Arrival It was a murky, misty arrival close to midnight. Out of the window, there had been solid cloud all the way, and now we were treated to our first real glimpse of Iceland - bare rock, lava and mist. My first thoughts were: how do people scratch a living off this? In fact, what were we doing flying from one damp island off the Atlantic to another more northerly one, situated at the edge of human habitation? Well, visiting the Vikings of course, our good friends Rosa and Erling from Iceland, who had lived in Leeds for several [View Full Entry]

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Vratna valley, Terchova So our base for the next 5 days was here. With the weather still good, we made our way up Boboty peak as a warm-up for the larger peaks. The climb was 400m, but very steep. The descent involved a bit of clinging on to a chain over a bit of rock. The day after we went via Stefanova for the climb up to Poludniovy Grun and the 1608m Stoh. It was tough going, as it was very steep, and I got very hot on the lower slopes, carrying all my crap. Maybe it’s because I was [View Full Entry]

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3 trains, 2 buses and a taxi. Another overnight on the rails, but travelling to Slovakia from north east Poland is never easy. One option had been a 0600 departure from Kraków, but that is a more of a chore than a holiday. So why not devise a complicated multi-modal travel plan instead? Now there may be better ways to get to Terchova, but this isn’t bad, at least if you can get a sleeper (we couldn’t). We dropped in on our friend Radek in Warsaw and acquainted ourselves with some Bulgarian red wine. This eased our post midnight departure [View Full Entry]

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To escape the urban world, we went as far east as we could to the Belarussian border and beyond convenient commuter time. Jałówka tells a different story, EU cash has been spent on doing up the roads and pavements, and the village green. The green had been a market place in more prosperous times. The shops look like they have had some money spent on them too and the church was sporting a spanking new roof, glinting gold in the spring sunshine. We strolled along a track northwards, which brought us to the Świsłocz valley, which forms the border with Belarus. [View Full Entry]

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Leeds - Aachen - Białystok So we have a 12th anniversary and Orthodox Easter to celebrate. The idea: visit Kasia’s folks and have a relaxing dip in the thermal baths of Aachen on the way. How can we do it in face of the high price of rail travel? Well, we got to Aachen for about £75 which is not too bad. Then a “Spar Night” from German Railways got us the overnight sleeper to Warsaw at a reduced price. From Leeds to Brussels we booked through with Eurostar. That ticket includes any Belgian destination, and that means the German [View Full Entry]

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Komańcza So we topped the summit and were in Poland. On the way down Roman stopped off for us to have a look at a new Uniate church (Greek Catholic) shrine that had been built close to a spring that never freezes, even when the outside temperature drops to minus 25C. We were staying at Roman’s again and decided that we would have a little amble around the rest of the day. That turned out to be a fine little walk along the Komańcza village trail which goes into the wooded hills. There's lots of information boards along the way [View Full Entry]

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So just as Stuart has managed to find a interesting/tenuous link with Andy Wharhol in Beyond the Clouds to the Kingdom of Women, here's one with the eastern corner of Slovakia! We have been to Slovakia several times over the years, it's a fab country, though this time we were travelling through because it offered the nearest rail route to our destination in Poland. Last time we were in Hummené, (1995), the Hotel Karpaty had the dubious attraction of the Erotic Disco. It was in the basement guarded by a big bloke with a [View Full Entry]

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