Banska Bystrica and Banska Stiavnica

A quiet night until 6am when the church bells went bonkers – that’ll teach us to park in a church car park! After secretly binning the donated Wiener schnitzel we set off en route south for Banska Bystrica. We like Slovakia …interesting scenery. Big hills, even a ski resort, communist looking blocks of flats and beautiful villages with wooden houses and churches. We arrived at lunchtime and took Rufus with us into the town centre – just as the heavens opened and it poured down. Lovely square in the middle of the town though.
Drove on through long winding (and bumpy) roads to Banska Stiavnica where we’d arranged to meet our old friend Jo and her mate Sam. It was raining again so we met for coffee in ‘the Tiddly Cafe’. Lovely to see them as they’re travelling around all the places we’re heading to so we swapped notes. Confusion when we asked for the bill and the waitress seemed to be pouring several pints 🍺 for us…er, no – the bill please! Nice town with a steep road through it as it’s actually in a caldera where an ancient volcano used to be. After walking Rufus we all went out for dinner – 3 courses, 2 bottles of wine €20 each! All very nice …bargain!