CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Zakopane it runs 529 km to Zakopane; allow about 8 h 28 of riding. The stops in between: Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš, Dobšinská Ice Cave, Vlkolínec and back through Vlkolínec. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 75 km this is Slovak High Tatras Freedom Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Zakopane is the winter capital of Poland, and in summer it is the hiking capital too. The town lies at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, the highest range in the Carpathians, with the peak of Giewont, topped by a metal cross, looming above it. Nearly thirty thousand people live here, and many millions visit each year, so the main street, Krupówki, is crowded with souvenir stalls, grill restaurants and walkers. It is lively rather than quiet, but the mountains behind it are real.
Read the complete Near Zakopane write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zakopane is where the day begins. Next is Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš.
Master Paul of Levoča carved the tallest Gothic wooden altar in the world, and you can stand in front of it in the church of St James in the centre of this walled town in eastern Slovakia. Completed in the early sixteenth century, the altar rises almost nineteen metres, with life-size figures of the Virgin and saints in limewood, painted and gilded, under a forest of pinnacles. It is the masterpiece of a sculptor about whom little is known beyond his work, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments.
Read the complete Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš comes up 54 km in. Next is Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Step out of a warm summer day into the Dobšinská Ice Cave and the temperature drops to just below freezing within a few metres. The cave, on the northern edge of the Slovak Paradise in eastern Slovakia, holds a vast mass of ice, tens of thousands of cubic metres, with frozen floors, walls and columns that have built up over thousands of years. It was explored in 1870 by Eugen Ruffinyi, opened to visitors soon after, and became one of the first caves in Europe to be lit by electricity. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, shared with Hungary.
Read the complete Dobšinská Ice Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
109 km in you reach Dobšinská Ice Cave. Next is Vlkolínec.
At the end of a narrow road climbing out of Ružomberok, a single street of log houses runs up a hillside meadow beneath the forests of the Veľká Fatra. Vlkolínec has been a World Heritage Site since 1993, chosen as the most complete surviving example of a traditional Central European mountain village of its kind, and it remains a lived-in place rather than an open-air museum, with residents, gardens and the occasional dog asleep in the sun.
Read the complete Vlkolínec write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vlkolínec, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vlkolínec write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vlkolínec sits at 217 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vlkolínec.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vlkolínec write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vlkolínec comes up 271 km in. Next is back through Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dobšinská Ice Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
326 km in you reach back through Dobšinská Ice Cave. Next is back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš, late in the day. Next is Zakopane.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Near Zakopane write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 529 km.
Zakopane → Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dobšinská Ice Cave → Vlkolínec is 111 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Vlkolínec → back through Dobšinská Ice Cave is 111 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Dobšinská Ice Cave → back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš → Zakopane is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.