The Low Tatras

Svätý Jur vines

Leaving Bratislava, we headed through Svätý Jur, a wine region at the foot of the Little Carpathian Mountains. The local village by the same name, dates back to around 3000 BC.

The vineyards seemed to cling to the sides of every hill in this area. The grapes that are grown here, contribute to Müller Thurgau, Rizling rýnsky, and Pesecká leánka wines (Riesling style), and Frankovka modrá a Svätovavrinecké wines (pinot noir style).

Our next stop was Nitra which is one of the oldest town settlements in Slovakia and an important economic centre of this western region.

Nitra Castle

There we saw the Nitra Castle, and the Upper Town, which had lovely well-preserved historical buildings.

Driving on, we reached Banská Bystrica.  We had the address of a camping ground there. However, we decided not to stay, as it had a very sloping site which does not go well with big campervans like ours.

Moving on, we found our way to a delightful camping site in the very little village of Rohozna.

The campsite, called Kemping Sedliacky Dvor, is set in open rolling meadow-land surrounded by the foothills of the Low Tatra Mountains

Leigh outside Kemping Sedliacky Dvor

This is a small and lovely site kept by ex-patriot Dutch couple, Dion and Monique Suppers. We parked in an orchard behind their house.

We are their first guests of the season, and it is incredibly peaceful with just some sheep with bells around their necks, hens, 2 cats (whose antics we enjoyed) and 2 dogs to keep us company.

The first thing we saw each morning was the mist rising from the Low Tatra mountains through the multitude of trees, all about to break out into blossom.

We had a very restful day yesterday relaxing and catching up with the mundane things like washing. And, we have just bought fresh farm eggs – yum!

Low Tatra Mountains

The internet is strong here, which is great as we’ve been out of touch for quite a few days.  

It was very exciting to make contact with son Mike on Skype, and to talk to grandsons, Callum and Luke. We are so missing them. It's lovely to catch up, and also show them our new campervan via the computer camera.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of rain last night, and today is wet and a bit cooler. Apparently, it get very cold here – we were told that the temperature can drop to minus 30 degrees! We can’t imagine being so cold.

Local produce bought from the campsite

The snow and cold plays havoc with local roads – they are the roughest we have been on so far. We just cannot avoid all those holes. Poor van!

We made some purchases from Monique at the campsite before we left for the next part of our journey - Monique’s home-made cherry-plum liqueur to help warm us up as we drove around the mountains of Slovakia (very yummy), some delicious home-made berry jam, and home-made slippers knitted by one of her neighbours (perfect for the chilly nights). 

The next morning, we moved on toward the High Tatras.

The above describes part of our 7 month campervan trip around central and southern Europe, which began in Germany.