Eastern Europe 2004

On this and following pages you may find the travelogue of our vacation in July 2004 to Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, three new EU member countries since May 2004. During the outward journey towards Poland we stayed one night in a hotel in Dresden before continuing to Kalna. Kalna is a small village southwest of Krakow. We stayed there for six nights in apartment Villa Kotlina and from there we made several trips in the surroundings. We visited the Wieliczka salt mine, the former concentration camp of Auschwitz and of course the city of Krakow. From Kalna we went to Slovakia where we stayed for five nights in an apartment in Vyšný Medzev, a small village in the south-east of Slovakia near Košice. From there we also made some trips to e.g. Košice, Spišský Hrad, the Dobšiná ice cave and the breathtaking aragonite cave of Ochtiná. Our next destination is Slovakia was its capital, Bratislava. We visited that city and also the city of Komárno near the Hungarian border with its very special Europe Place. After four days near Bratislava we left Slovakia and crossed the border into the Czech Republic. Via the cities of Kromĕříž, Olomouc en Litomyšl with their colourful squares we went to camping Dolce Vita in Oblanova Dolce where we also stayed for four nights in a cottage. From there on we went to Prague and the beer capital Plzeň. Our next stop was Mariánské Láznĕ, famous for its health resorts and also Karlovy Vary. In Mariánské Láznĕ we stayed for two nights in an old 19th century hotel that was being restored. We were the only guests in 'Hotel Panorama'. Those were also our last nights in the Czech Republic before we went back to Germany where we stayed for two nights in a rental caravan on a camping near Nuremburg. From there we went on a daytrip to the nearby 'Playmobil Funpark' in Zirndorf. The last two days of our vacation we spend with friends in Bornheim, a small town near Bonn before we drove back home.