Today was a sightseeing day. However it had rained hard overnight and so my day started with helping to push a 4 ton Frenchman (well his motorhome) up a slippery grass slope. My good deed done for the day.
We packed up Basil and got started. First stop LIDL because Basil’s cupboards were looking bare. On the way to LIDL we saw a group of 7 cyclists in smart matching kit. Nothing unusual in that you might think, and you’d be right. But then we saw another and another and another. They all looked very smart and almost professional. Then we saw some team cars. I speculated to Sarah that there might be a race in a day or two and they were all out on training runs.
While I waited in LIDL car park for Sarah to do a trolley dash, well more a trolley dawdle when it’s Sarah, I looked on the International Cycling Union website and found that it was indeed the Tour of Slovakia coming up. In fact coming up very fast. Starting today, with a 3.5km time trial around Levoca in the very town where we are camped! We had intended visiting Levoca later in the day and so we could kill two birds with one stone.
Our first proper stop of the day was Spissky Castle, one of the largest castle complexes in Europe. The outer walls enclose 4 hectares (10 acres). It was originally built in the 14th century in reaction to the Mongol invasions of Eastern Europe. It eventually succumbed to a series of fires in the 17th century but the essential shell of the castle has been restored and awarded a UNESCO World Heritage status in combination with Levoca and two churches in the same area.
Spissky Castle
As usual the thoughtless castle builders had put it on top of a great big hill, which we had to ascend to reach the entrance. It got top marks from us to start with by letting in Mabel and Melek. Once we were inside it was very castly. Walls, ramparts, arrow slits – the lot. And with its hilltop position there were great views of the surrounding countryside. The place was full of young school parties, with good reason, the castle caters excellently for the young with a huge portion of the 4 hectares taken up with practical activities, such as archery, coconut shies etc.
Spissky Castle
Our next stop was just 3 miles away and part of the same UNESCO recognition. It was a church in the village of Zehra where in the 1950’s some 13th century wall paintings were discovered under some lime plaster. The lime plaster was rather amusingly removed using cottage cheese, which is apparently very effective for this purpose. I’m not sure why I am going into so much detail because it was shut! I was very grumpy. Sarah and the dogs, not so much. I can’t remember the last time I found a UNESCO site shut.
So on we pushed to the third part of the UNESCO sites, a cathedral and associated medieval buildings at Spisska Capital. We arrived and parked up next to a building with a sign saying we had to buy tickets there to enter the cathedral. The only problem was that there was nobody there. So we wandered up the cathedral and tried the door. Shut. We were not having a good day.
Spissky Capital
We were ambling about looking at the other buildings when we saw a couple go up to the cathedral door, give a good rattle and they appeared to be let in. Brilliant I thought and hot tailed it back up the cathedral and rattled the door. Nothing. So I knocked on the door, again nothing. After knocking twice more the door was opened by a young lady who said “would you like to come in and destroy our cathedral!” I said I would like to come in and look round, so she begrudgingly said I could come in for a minute because the next tour was not for another hour. We had a frank exchange of views on the fact that nowhere was it explained that there were tours. She explained that there was no such notice because essentially she did the tours when she wanted. If there were many people she did them regularly, if only one or two then only hourly. Again I explained that it might be nice if this was written down somewhere for visitors. I don’t think she wanted to make things easy for visitors but rather for herself.
Spisska Capital
As a result of my discussions I was not in a good frame of mind for my literally one or two minutes in the cathedral, so I cannot express an opinion other than I think it was nothing special.
Finally Basil hauled us back to Levoca and we parked him up in what we thought was an ideal spot just outside the city walls. We entered the pretty old town to find it inundated with professional cyclists and their paraphernalia. These were not the world’s top riders but second string professionals, but some well known teams such as Astana and BMC were present. So we wandered around taking it all in. There were not big crowds and so we could essentially go wherever we wished. Today’s first stage was a time trial, which means each rider goes on his own at one minute intervals in this case, and the person round the course quickest is the winner and takes his time advantage into the following stages.
While we were waiting for the stage to start I nipped into St. Paul’s Church to look at some wonderful renaissance carving by a renowned Slovakian called Master Pavel. His masterpiece is the world’s biggest wooden altarpiece, which is 18 metres high and truly spectacular. I was the only person in the cathedral and so could admire the beautiful interior at my leisure. Unlike Spisska Capital St. Paul’s is definitely worth a visit as is the picturesque town of Levoca, even when there isn’t a bike race.
Master Pavel’s Altarpiece
Finally Sarah and I stayed and watched the first 20 or so riders start their time trial and then walked back to Basil, only to find that Basil was parked on the time trial course and all the vehicles around him had been removed!! Basil was literally the only vehicle on the time trial course other than police and officials! I nervously approached a policeman and asked him what I should do. He initially said he couldn’t speak English. But once he had understood that I was the owner of the undesirable Basil, he suddenly found a few words! He found a safe space between riders and ushered us off the course.
Basil itching to take part in the time trial!
We then spent the best part of an hour trying to find a way to our campsite, but we eventually found all routes blocked by the race. So we are currently parked at the local cemetery waiting for the time trial to finish so we can go home!
