August 5, 2022

In addition to Zalipie, I had heard a great deal about Zakopane as a town that attracted tourists, so of course I put it on my list. The day before we headed there, I got the laptop out to make a list of things to see in Zakopane, and I encouraged Diana to do the same.

It didn’t take long to realize that we were both having trouble making a list. Zakopane is kind of at the “entrance” to the Tatra Mountains, so it is in a beautiful setting, as the forests are building as you get closer to the mountains, and the smaller foothills make for some great hiking trails and ski areas and other winter recreation. It is easily accessed from Krakow, so Zakopane is a winter destination for snow recreation as well as a summer destination for mountain hiking. The mountains create a natural border between Poland and Slovakia. The tallest peak on the Polish side is Rysy, at 2499 meters (8200 feet), which is just south of Zakopane.

Zakopane has a lot of “chalet architecture” making it look even more like the winter resort that it is, and even on a weekday it was crawling with tourists. We continued past town and deeper into the Tatras, into Slovakia and along the southern side of the Tatra mountains, passing through several more resort villages that were jam-packed with tourists, mostly enjoying the hiking and bicycle trails in the area, before looping back up into Poland and on to our hotel for the evening.

Sadly we didn’t take many photos. I think we were both still suffering from Norway overload, and our minds were unfairly comparing the scenery to Norway. It seems like the natural beauty of Norway has left a huge impression on us — more than anywhere else either of us have traveled — and hopefully the longer we are away from Norway, the more fairly we will be able to appreciate other places. We both felt guilty at the end of this day when we realized how much natural beauty we had ridden through, yet how little we had documented it.

So here’s a photo and a short unedited video from our day in the Tatra Mountains.

Looking across the cornfields to the mountains.