Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Dave strolling across a square in this fairly quaint, somewhat smaller Polish town. Bielsko-Biala turned out to be a great location for day trips (hiking, Zywiecs brewery) and was also close to Auschwitz, which we visited on our way back to Krakow.
Six backpackers in one room can mess it up in a hurry. But the room was spacious, clean, and very cheap.
The whole gang hiked up about 1000 vertical feet. It was the steepest hike I have yet done. It took about an hour and it was a fairly steep ascent the entire time. Uff da.
The view from the first summit of the hike. Jamie and I hiked up a little further and got to...
...this view. There were gliders flying around. They were about the size of a small plane, but had no engine. With the wind currents as they were, the gliders were able to stay aloft indefinitely. What impressed me were all the families hanging out, having picnics. They most likely took a cable car most of the way up, but still had to do a little hiking to get to the top. I compared this with our usual practice of just driving down to the park.
Jamie and Don at the top.
Our tasty packed lunch for the hike.
A wonderful day trip was a bus ride to the town of Zywiec, where we toured the brewer of that name. See the BEER REPORT for pictures, details, and videos.
David Osborn - world traveler.
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