Good News and Bad News in Žilina

On Monday morning we met Janka at the train station at 7:00 a.m. for our trip to the Immigration Police in Žilina, to pick up our new work visas.  It was a nice ride, though clouds kept us from seeing much of the mountains.  We had an invigorating walk to the immigration office with no rain and pleasant temperatures.  

This is the back side of the immigration police office - a very old, scary looking building!   

It turns out that the text they sent Pat'ka was only acknowledging MY visa was ready for pick-up, and not Tim's.  His has been approved, but the actual photo ID card is sent from Bratislava, and it hasn't arrived yet.  So, yes, you guessed it, we "get to" go back to Žilina one more time whenever they text Pat'ka again saying Tim's visa is ready.  SIGH!!!  

Janka inquired about taking public transportation back to the old town square, since it was a very long walk for Grandma, and it was kind of fun to ride the electric trolley this time!!

We had Arabian tea with cardamon and cinnamon in an outdoor café on the square.  

We did a little shopping and had lunch at another outdoor patio of a restaurant while waiting for our return train.  Our soups were delicious - onion with cheese balls!  

I've never gotten a picture of the swans along the Váh River, when it widens out before the dam on the way to Žilina, so I tried this time without much success.  But, we've seen them often, and all of those white blobs are swans ---- really!!    :-)

When we got back, Tim took his mom back to our flat to catch up on some emails, take a nap, and write postcards, while Janka and I went to school and hurried in late to our last staff meeting of the year.  It started at 2:00 and wasn't over at 3:55 when I had to leave again to get to our church choir end-of-the-year / surprise birthday party for our pastor.  

One of the singers who doesn't speak English rode with us to give us directions, but it turns out we would have known how to get there if they had told us it was at the salaš near Bobrovec, where we've been before!!  

We started out, of course with toasts, then we enjoyed sheep milk products - žinčica (the milk we've had before, and this was the best so far!), fresh cheese, and smoked cheese, along with bread slices, bacon hunks, and cakes.  

The other table of choir members.   It was really a fun time!  

When the salaš was ready to close, we all went outside onto the porch, and the choir sang some Slovak folk songs outside.  The sheep actually came closer during the singing!!  

Here's the whole group outside the salaš.  There were several choir members who couldn't make it, but those who did certainly had fun!  We had a fascinating conversation with our pastor, (with his son, the violinist, translating), who told about the personal sacrifices his family made on behalf of their faith during communism.  It really made us appreciate the freedom of religion our families have experienced for generations in America.  

This morning, Tim's mom slept in while we went to school early for staff devotions.  We took care of some paperwork after that, but there weren't any classes to teach, so we left fairly early.  We picked up Grandma and headed to one of Slovakia's favorite castles, about 2 hours away by car.  

Bojnice Castle is a fairy-tale style castle - really beautiful - but unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy for our views and our visit.  

The castle is fascinating, and you can just imagine knights in armor, princesses with their ladies-in-waiting, and perhaps even a visit from a king and queen within these walls!!  

The moat was bigger than we expected, though it's no longer filled with water.    This castle dates back to the 1100's originally, but it has been enlarged and improved through the centuries.  It was modified in the mid-1800's into its current form.  

The tour of rooms was really fascinating, with lots to see, including this Oriental room with ornate painted wood panels, a Ming dynasty vase, and other objets d'art.  

This is the music room - nice piano!!  I took many photos of this castle .....  we had to pay a fee to use a camera, and we decided to just use mine, so I'm posting a lot of pics for everyone who is following Betty's trip to Slovakia through our blog!   :-)  
Hello to all of Betty's friends and relatives (ours too) !!  

This ceiling was amazing - each panel had the face of an angel, all with different facial expressions, or so we were told!!  

In one of the huge dining halls of the castle.  

The wallpapers / wall paintings were really neat throughout the castle.  And many of the rooms had these ceramic tile wood-burning stoves for heating.   

The blue room, with ornate wooden carvings.

The inlays on the wooden cabinets were so intricate and beautiful!  

Another dining room - with floor and ceiling wood tiles, carved panels, etc.  Wow! 

The king-size bed --- it was very high off the floor for warmth.  

I was really fascinated with all the decorative wood!

One of the castle's owners brought this oil-burning lamp back from the Holy Land. 

Grandma and her son, the knight!!  (Wartburg Knight, that is!) 

There were many stairs to climb, but it was worth it to see the grounds from above.  And in this part of the moat, there's even water!!  

A courtyard below, and part of the immense gardens on the castle grounds. 

Gargoyle water spouts on the castle walls.  Quite grotesque, yet interesting!! 

This well in an inner courtyard had an enormous stone cistern dug right into the bedrock below the castle.  

This is one of the sights that almost made me expect to see some royalty entering the gateway, or waving from a window on a parapet!!  

It was a bummer that the light drizzle kept up most of our tour, but the tour was mostly inside, so not a big problem.   

This door led from the crypt below the castle into some of the gardens.  

We think this carriage must have been a hearse

Raindrops on the camera lens???  Oops!!  But this is the main entrance into the castle.   :-)

We had seen this silver-roofed church from the highway on the way to Bojnice, so on the way home again, we decided to go get a closer view!  It is a Lutheran church (Evanjelicky), with a very nice parsonage next door!

We took a short detour (intentionally) to have some apple strudel and hot tea at the little restaurant where we'd eaten last fall after hiking to Likava Castle.  So Grandma got to see this castle as well as several others on the drive!  

(This picture is actually from last fall when we hiked up to this castle.)

We went to TESCO (kind of like a Wal-Mart) to pick up a few things as we headed into town, then spent the rest of the evening quietly - Betty: writing postcards, thank-you's, and in her journal, and also skyping with Deb - Tim: journaling as well plus washing dishes - Michelle: making two batches of classic Rice Krispie Treats for school, neighbors, etc. , finalizing some travel arrangements for next week, and now blogging after the other two have gone to bed!!  I need to do likewise, but I hope you've enjoyed the latest installment.   We also got a text from Pat'ka that she received the second text from the immigration police saying Tim's work visa is now ready for pick-up.  So we'll have to figure out when we might have time for another visit to Žilina!!  

God bless!!      :-)