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Destination: BanskáŠtiavnica, Slovak Republic (Pop. 9,000)
Daily Cycle Distance: 45.5km. (28.38 mi.)
It's 7:30AM. I'm sitting in the restauráncia of the Pension Tilia listening
to nice music and having my morning coffee while waiting for Bob to come
down for Frühstück. Life could not be better. It is hard to imagine this
two days ago.
As usual, we seem to get started around 9:30AM. We looped around
the Centrum to get our bearings. Today, starting from an elevation of 168m,
we head North then NE along the back roads as long as possible to avoid
the tertiary route 524 which is one of the four roads into Banská Štiavnica.
Today’s villages: Nová Dedina -- Between Devicany and Pukanec, we were
passed by a 'real' cyclist (helmet, camelbak) from the Czech Republic.
He was not interested in a chat (No English) and rode on. After gaining
a lot of elevation (230m), we had to drop down to meet route 524 for the rest
of the climb to Banská Štiavnicá. I was passed
twice by a long haired guy on a mtn bike and a little later by another
guy on a '10-speed beater bike'. After climbing to ~750m (net 582m (1909ft.)),
just before Štiavnicá Bane, we reached a mountain
lake with bathers. From Štiavnica Bane, we started
to drop down into Banská Štiavnicá. The last
2 or so kilometers into Banská Štiavnica was
on a cobblestone street. This town has more tourist interests in mind and
is in the process of conservation and renovation (seemingly from the top
of the hillside down) You can actually see where the fresh paint stops.
We stayed the night in the Hotel Grand Matej in the center of Banská Štiavnica.
The room was 1280SKK ($28) Managed to find yet another cyber café and to
make a phone call to Becky. The price of two phone calls (1615SKK) that
Bob and I made was more than the room.
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