She’ll be coming around the mountains: cycling High Tatras Adventure travel can transform relationships. Last year Hannah and I forged a special bond when we swam together in the ‘sea of love’ in Estonia thus ensuring that according to legend we will love each other for ever, something Hannah still reminds me of regularly. But [...]
A bowl of honeymoon goulash in High Tatras

A bowl of honeymoon goulash The High Tatras rise incessantly to our left and make us feel small; like any mountain range they are beautiful, inspiring, yet imposing forces of nature. And as we make our way up and down a road that tracks around them, passing through mountain towns, villages and off-season ski resorts, [...]
Looney tunes in Slovakia’s High Tatras

Looney tunes in Slovakia’s High Tatras The kids noticed them first, in a souvenir shop in Strbske Pleso, up in the Slovakian High Tatras. They weren’t easy to find, amongst thousands of items of folksy themed tourist tat. But there they were; alongside Vyoke Tatry sheep, above Tatry goat bells, below heart shaped leather ‘I love Tatry’ [...]
A splash of sunny yellow in Tatralandia
It’s exhilarating descending from the LowTatras We speed down out of the Low Tatras in the early morning heat. It’s already 30 degrees but going downhill gives us a light breeze. We veer off the main road into a beautiful mountain village and stop to play in the river. After reaching 1232 metres the day before, [...]
Counting Tatras

Counting Tatras “Dad, what was I up to?” asks Hannah, tapping me on the back from her stokers position behind me on the tandem. To be honest I find it hard to remember, because I haven’t really been giving her my full attention. I got bored somewhere in the three hundreds, preferring to focus on [...]
Turning up the heat in Bratislava

In Bratislava and the heat is on A naked woman eating an ice cream strolls past us. It’s typical of the Wickes family (and very disappointing for Stuart) that I’m the only member of the family who notices; they’re all too busy reading about chocolate fondu, chocolate pudding and delicious sounding chocolate drinks. To be [...]

















