Can you say "Szlak Orlich Gniazd"?
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As well as a helicopter museum, the hotel has a very arty vibe.
Inside...
And out.
And, err, far out man!
Anyway, we're getting ready for our day.
We're going to cycle to the Będkowska Valley, which is supposed to be very beautiful but not very bike friendly, so we'll go walking there instead.
Again, we're only a few km from the major city of Kraków in a popular tourist destination, yet not a word of English, let alone any other language. I do re-iterate we're not complaining, just surprised. In some ways this absence of concern for foreigners is almost more like Japan than anywhere in Europe that we're familar with.
We've tied up our bikes, but I don't think we've reached the unridable bits yet. We cross this mighty ford with a water depth that must run into whole centimetres!
But before too long... This is, as you can see, clearly marked as a cycle route, but its defintely for hardcore mountain bikers only. Our hire bikes wouldn't stand a chance here, let alone full-on road machines. Yet, as we have seen elsewhere, this same symbol also marks smooth perfect tarmac surfaces you could use for sprint races.
And as if sent by Providence to pour scorn on our doubts, a rider passes!
Hmm... Getting a bit dangerous even walking here. The drop is only about two or three metres so a collapse as you crossed wouldn't kill you, but you'd still rather it didn't. Fortunately it doesn't.
We find ourselves out of the woods and walking through farmland.
Let's have a selfie.
What are we seeing, though? it's not a crop we recognise.
Amanda's plant-finding app comes to our rescue! This is the seed stage of oilseed rape, so in fact we've seen it all over the UK but only been aware of it when the brilliant yellow flowers fill the fields.
Back in the woods again, we hear some buzzing noises that we can't quite place for a moment.
Then we look down and there's a wasp nest burrowed into the base of this tree.
Conversely, looking up, there's another wildlife habitat that's a bit less subtle.
Farmland again, and the harvest is underway.
The edge of the field is surrounded by sunflowers. It's hard to know, but we think they're just decorative rather than a crop here, because they aren't filling the field themselves.
Perhaps they're to encourage bees?
My sock seems to be attractive to butterflies.
Smarter butterflies realise they're better off sticking to flowers.
Back in the touristy bit of the valley again, we see some steps leading up into the rocks. I wonder where they go....
Ah, haven't had a shrine for a while! Seems the Virgin Mary appeared here in 1914. Damn, only 110 years too late to catch her live; these days we only get to watch her reality show, "Real Housewives of Nazareth". Or am I getting confused again?
Let me do some online research. Wow, Wikipedia actually has an article "List of Marian apparitions"! Sadly this one doesn't seem to be sufficiently notable. Indeed, Poland's only officially approved (by the Roman Catholic Church) apparition was in 1877.
That said, if you search for "Objawienie Maryi 1914", which is the title on the wooden plaque, you will find many web pages in Polish which presumably say (politely) "What does the Roman Catholic Church know about it anyway?"
Right, we've had a fine day's walk, time to return to the hotel.
Shower, clean clothes and it's time for dinner.
Again, nice food well presented.
This evening the inside is available, but we prefer to sit out. In fairness, the weather hasn't been entirely as summery as we would have expected for July, but if one jumper is sufficient for Amanda it can't be that cold.
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