Tatra National Park, Poland

Yesterday afternoon we caught a train from Krakow to the winter ski resort of Zakopane. This took about three hours and took us from the flat lands of the middle of Poland up into an alpine style landscape of Tatra National Park. We are only about ten miles from the border with Slovakia.

This is the view from our balcony, although it is much cooler here, so I just took the photo and headed back inside.

The sun was shining this morning and we set off on a circular hike from our hotel.

First stop was an upside down house in Zakopane. The owner had thought of everything and the doghouse, the outside toilet and even the bird box was upside down too.

Then we passed a dinosaur park with a giant fluffy one outside.

Eventually we got to the National Park, and after paying an entrance fee of about £2 each, we started off on our hike.

The first section was easy as we walked alongside a little stream, but then the path got steeper and rockier.

We caught up with a big group of students, and feeling good we passed them on the way to the summit.

Once over the top our problems started, as it was an extremely steep downhill, and quite slippery. Strava shows that we were much quicker up the hill than down the other side.

Feeling pleased to have got down without breaking an ankle we joined the crowds who had all taken the easy direct way to see the Siklawica Waterfall. (Not over the mountain.)

It was very popular with the local Instagrammers who queued to get an arty photo in front of it. We couldn't be doing with that, so Daz jumped in between their shots.

They were also queuing to sit on a rock on the way down the hill, where there was a good backdrop of buildings and mountains.

Clouds were gathering by the time we crossed fields that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Sound of Music. Then we were back in Zakopane and stopped for lunch at a fancy café.