Hrebienok Hikes - Day 1

Monday morning we set the alarm (yes, we were on vacation, and we still set an alarm!)  HA!  We took a train to Poprad and then up into the High Tatras Mountains.  

Our destination was Stary Smokovec, which we discovered to be a very 'tourist-y' and scenic mountain town.

We stayed at this hotel - Villa Kunard - which was very reasonably priced compared to the bigger hotels and resorts in town!  Nothing fancy, but comfortable and clean.  

As soon as we stowed our luggage in our room, we took the 'funicular rail' cog-train up into the mountains to Hrebienok.  It's quite a steep incline, as you can tell by the angle of the rail cars.  

We love these helpful trail-markers listing destinations and the time it takes to walk there.  But as you can see, the conditions were extremely foggy!!   :-(

The trails were mostly cut into steep slopes.  It looked dangerous, but the snow was packed down so that traction was pretty good. 

Fairly soon along the trail, hikers were all backed up, and we soon discovered that a big avalanche was blocking the trail, so people had to climb over and past the obstruction one at a time - very slowly!!  It was a LONG way straight down!!!  That's when I understood why 'mountain rescue insurance' was offered down where we bought the cog train tickets!!  YIKES!!  

Our first stop along the trail was this little hut which served as a souvenir shop and beverage house.  It was jam-packed inside, so we just took a look around and came back out.  Very rustic and antique-looking!  

By the hut, there were several really huge snow/ice sculptures, which were definitely past their prime, but still fun to see.  This is a nativity.  

This sculpture had carvings on the sides, like this face!

It was still very foggy along the trail most of the time, so we were thankful for the trail markers all along the way!  

Yes, still foggy, but it was still very beautiful walking through the peaceful silence of the woods and along the creek filled with the sounds of rushing water.  

The trails along the creek go by many pretty waterfalls.  Some were frozen, but there was still a lot of melting water rushing downstream from the mountain.  

We have been told that the mountain views from up on Hriebienok are quite spectacular.  We certainly couldn't confirm that rumor from our experiences on Monday!!   ;-)

One of the spectacular waterfalls - it was really big, though it's difficult to tell size and depth from the picture!

This 'chair' was carved from a tree stump.  There were many of these creative resting spots along the trails.  But the snow is so deep, the chairs were too low for sitting now!

We finally took a break from the hiking when we arrived at a Chata (restaurant).  We had a big lunch - Tim had Hungarian goulash and knedla (boiled bread), and I had potato dumplings filled with meat with sauerkraut and bacon.  Both delicious!  

The decor in the Chata was very 'mountain-hunting' themed!  

Antique skis and skates were on the ceiling, and many mounted antlers and animal heads were on the walls.

All the light fixtures were made of antler racks.  

We approached the chata from the back side, so as we left, we took a picture of the front.    From the looks of things, there must be magnificent views overlooking the valley below, at least we can only assume so, since there was so much FOG!!!!   

Back at the main part of Hrebienok, we discovered this big snow/ice fort which was really cool.  But we stumbled upon it, since we couldn't see it from even about 50 yards away!  

We finally decided to head back to Stary Smokovec, where we saw this wooden church near the town center.  

We caught the train to Štrbske Pleso, where we'd gone with the kids and Katarina & Michael over Christmas, hoping the weather would be clearer there for the afternoon!  

Picturesque church out the train window.  

I always wanted to get a picture of the railway workers holding up their green 'all-clear' sign before the trains pull out of the stations!!  :-)

We got to Štrbske Pleso, and it was still foggy, but we saw a sign for the Lakes of Love, which we didn't see on our previous visit, so we took a walk to see them.  They were all frozen over and quite small, but it was a lovely walk!  

And then ---- do you see it???  Blue skies!!!  Yes!!!   The sun finally came out when we reached the big lake at Štrbske Pleso!!  YAY!!  

The hoar-frost on every limb, twig, weed, and branch was really beautiful!!  

We were excited to see the sunshine, the shadows, and the clouds off in the distance instead of surrounding us!!  

The sunshine illuminated the frosted trees across the lake - so beautiful! 

The hoar-frost was so thick, and it was shaped like feathers on the branches!

The clouds and fog started rolling in again after we had almost completed our loop around the lake.  (You can see the ski jump across the lake, on the right.)

Just as we got back to where we started hiking around the lake, when we reached the sign showing all the mountain peaks in the distance, the thick fog rolled in again, so we couldn't see any of the peaks any more to identify them!!  In fact, we could no longer even see across to the other side of the lake!   LOL!!

We finished our afternoon by returning to Stary Smokovec and checking out the cute little shops in the centrum area.  We were shocked by the incredibly high prices for clothes, etc., but it's evidently an area for rich tourists!!  Our only purchase was a small fridge magnet - HA!!  We found a wonderful tea/coffee shop with sandwiches for supper - very reasonable, thankfully.  During our supper, snow started gently falling outside, and it was like a romantic movie set seen through the windows next to our table.  There was free wi-fi back at the hotel, so we skyped with our parents (since we hadn't made connections on Easter), then played some cribbage while listening to news in English on the BBC.  It was a very relaxing evening after all our adventures of the day!