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June 15: Tatra National Park

The walk is incredibly well organised. Each morning we get a brief about the walk, the short and long options, and we can collect our lunch, water, trail mix, lollies, cakes and fruit…so we are not starving! and we have an app on our phones with all the trails marked out so it’s pretty hard to get lost

Tatra National Park is a protected mountain park in southern Poland, right on the border with Slovakia. It’s located near the town of Zakopane, which is where we are staying. The town has an alpine feel, and is famous for hosting the world ski jump championship. Here’s the hotel and my room which is lovely.

Established in 1954, Tatra National Park covers the highest mountains in Poland.There is also a matching national park in Slovakia ( which is where we are going tomorrow) and together they form a shared protected area. 

The Tatras are known for their dramatic mountain scenery, sharp, rocky peaks, more than 30 mountain lakes, alpine meadows and shepherds huts.

In the afternoon, we did a walking tour of Zakopane which is very pretty town. This is Sabała’s House which is the first and oldest house in Zakopane, a traditional wooden mountain cottage  and the birthplace of a famous local legend, who crafted violins. It’s now a museum of highlander life. 

The town is filled with many beautiful wooden houses…

This is the cemetery for VIPs (there’s another cemetery elsewhere for the all-so-rant. Many of the graves are dedicated with paraphernalia relevant to their life, for example this grave celebrates a famous skier.

Zakopane has a population of around 30,000 which swells to 100,000 during the skiing season. It has a lot of character with the Tatras mountains in the background.

A lovely day….