Slovakia-High Tatras

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The High Tatras form part of the Carpathian mountain range lying between Poland and Slovakia. The Tatra National Park (Tatranský národný) was founded in 1948. There are 29 peaks over 2,500m.  We found the name romantic and had wanted to visit them for some time.  Then an opportunity arose.  Peter, a post-doctoral student at Cambridge, and he and his wife Paulina and baby Palko lived in our house in Cambridge for a few months in 2007. They invited us to visit them in Bratislava.

Slovakia is green and hilly and the woods cover the hills like a quilt, and meet the sloping fields in soft wavy lines.  The Tatras are ‘young’ mountains. They were formed by Alpine-Himalayan folding and thrusting. Ice age glaciation subsequently shaped them into the pinnacles and rocky summits we see today. A thick layer of sedimentary rocks covers he crystalline massif core. For the hiker and climber they are something of a ‘hidden gem’, with their impressive spiky summits.

The jewel is Kriváň (2,495 m), and its famous curved profile is an important symbol in Slovak culture. Rysy, straddles the border between Slovakia and Poland, and is the Poland’s tallest peak.  Lomnicky stit is the second highest peak in the High Tatras after Gerlach (2,655m).  

After our adventures climbing the mountains we went to Bratislava and wander around the Old Town and get a feel for the history of a central European country emerging from Soviet dominance, now looking prosperous and modern.

 

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