Real winter recovery
I have been away in Slovakia for the last two weeks, where I enjoyed some much needed rest and winter recreation in the form of skiing and sledging with my wife's side of the family. We were staying in the eastern part of the country near to the Polish border in the foothills of the Vysoke Tatry (High Tatras).
A while back I wrote a post about properly varying seasons being really important to me for feeling revitalised. Well, winter this year in Eastern Europe is what I think of as a proper winter, on arriving the temperature was down to -28 ℃ with a clear blue sky and 50-100cm of snow on the ground. For someone from South East England -28 is mighty cold, but it didn't stop me from enjoying myself. My only regret is not getting the opportunity to do some cross-country skiing, it's quite popular in central Slovakia but less so where we were so the limited time we had was spent on the slopes of the local ski resorts.
I really shouldn't be spreading the word too much but the mountains and surrounding are at present unspoilt by tourism and there is some fantastic skiing availble in the area. The Russians, Germans and Polish have caught on to this and numbers of tourists are rising and the although this is a welcome boost to the economy there is a feeling that the newly found popularity may begin to take it toll on the area.
Currently the only damage to the area was done by last years hurricane which has stripped a wide band of trees away from the forest on the hills. It looks like the valley has received one long single grade 1 scrape from a pair of clippers. Luckily it will grow back to a respectable length over the years.
I really want to return to Slovakia with bike soon because driving round on four wheels has shown me some routes around the mountains that looked perfect for tackling with two wheels.
Back home and to cycling, I have fitted the new Flash-Point wheels and will be out on my first test ride tomorrow!
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