Want a great year round get away, try Bedrichov, Cz. I just spent 10 days there, reading, eating, and walking. It was predominantly a ski area for years, but has developed into a year round (very economical) get away. It is located in the corner where Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, come together. The Jizerske, and the Krokonose mountains come together here.

In the winter there are dozens of ski slopes with modern lifts and equipment rentals, and hundreds of small pensions to stay at. In the summer there are endless activities, hundreds of miles of road and mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, backpack camping, leisure walking, ?dry skiing?, and eating.

Dry skiing(my term) are 3 foot long skis with wheels. It is like cross country skiing only on the roads. There were hundreds of people doing this, but it looked too ambitious for me. It appeared though that the big attraction to the area was biking and every car had bike carriers on them.

The food was fantastic and diversified. I spent my time reading, walking, and eating.

I know that this feature wouldn't be of interest to most here, but there are 6 piano factories within 2 hours of Bedrichov, and piano related industries are numberless. If a person wanted to extend a day trip to an overnighter, you could probably visit 80% of the piano factories in Europe.

lb

Thanks lb, I'll make a note of it.

My mother's parents were from CZ, and I intend to see my motherland someday.

I love Eastern Europe. I finally got SigOther to agree to go to Poland last fall. I had a great time, I think she was enlightened and expanded her horizons, but it didn't seem like a 'vacation' to her. It was the first time she'd been to a country where English was not the predominant language. I speak some Polish, so I was having a great time.


This probably belongs on the "Interesting Travel Stories" thread, but...

I was in Prague for a while. One night I stopped into a pizza place for dinner. I was seated at the only empty table, even though the table was big enough for six. Shortly after I sat down, two women appeared at the door, apparently a mother and adult daughter. Forgetting that I wasn't in an English-speaking country, I motioned to them and invited them to share my table.

Fortunately, the mother lives in Australia, so she spoke English. They accepted my invitation. I apologized for what I considered to be a bit of a cultural faux pas.

The restaurant did not have a menu in English. Since Czech is similar to Polish, I was able to make out most of the items on the menu. But there was one pizza that I simply could not figure out. I didn't recognize any of the words in the list of toppings, at least not in that context. I asked the women to translate. Peas, beans, eggs, some other kinds of vegetables (squash?)... The woman said, "it's understandable you couldn't figure out what is on this pizza. It doesn't make any sense even in Czech."

PJ

Where did you go in Poland? My wife and I have spent a couple weeks the last 3 Fall's in Zakapone.

The leave changing there is stunning, even better than Vermont.

lb

Warsaw and Wroclaw.

The language problem was different in Wroclaw because everyone assumed that we were German -- it seems about 98 percent of the tourists there are German, which figures since the city was part of Germany from 1790 to 1945 (during that time it was Breslau).

I have heard Zakopane is lovely. I'd like to spend a couple weeks exploring more of Poland.

I've been investigating working there...in fact we went there as a bit of an experiment. SigOther has been saying for years that she'd go with me anywhere my job will take me. Well, this was her first time in a non-English country. It was quite a challenge for her.

I still want to take an assignment in Poland, or anywhere in Eastern Europe, but there are other issues at home we need to settle first.


mshattuck is in Gdansk.