Pat and Marian on the Chata balcony

Marian at the Chata in Latky, SK

View from Chata balcony

Well, we are still learning how to compose with pictures in HTML so bear with us. Here are a few shots from our first night in Slovakia staying with Reni's folks at their beautiful vacation home in the mountains south of Bresno.


Next, we'll try to capture a sense of AquaCity in Poprad, a lovely town butting up against the High Tatra mountains. We drove about two hours to get here from Latky where Reni's parents own a retirement home. AquaCity is in one sense sort of like Clementon Park with its water attractions, but it is an inside and outside park with a luxury hotel and spectacular wellness and spa treatments, so it is so much more. The focus here on wellness and prevention, rather than fixing you after a major illness, is exhilarating. Today we concentrated on utilizing what was here in the resort. There is an olympic-size 50 meter pool as well as several other thermal pools-some of them outside which is a treat. A few of them have bars, so you can get a drink as you lounge (Don and I discovered Happy Hour exists over here as well and had a drink at one of the swim-up bars...). My favorite was the Vital Center where you could visit various rooms at your leisure. There were steam rooms and inhalation rooms as well as cold pools and an arctic cave--we even had a water walk that is supposed to make your feet and ankles feel better. In between treatments, you can relax on a hot stone bed that looks out over the High Tatra Mountains--not too shabby. Think of it as circuit training without the exertion.... There was a laser show tonight--think Disney World but with hundreds of people in the water in a huge pool with water turning different colors--and you would be somewhat close to our experience. Clearly, we are not in Kansas anymore!

Tonight, I also had my first cyrotherapy session. After donning scrubs and mittens and booties as well as a headband and nose cone, I went into a chamber for 30 seconds that was -60 degrees C, and then went into another chamber where the temperature was -130 degrees C for two minutes. Of course before going in, I was interviewed by a medical doctor who took my blood pressure and ascertained that I could take this treatment. When exiting, I rode on a stationery bike for ten minutes to spread the hormones throughout my body--at least that's what Don told me after he interviewed the doctor while I was the guinea pig. Those of you who know me know that I am not particularly adventurous, but I didn't even have time to think about it. We interviewed the doctor--who when I told him I was from Philadelphia immediately mentioned the Flyers--and said I was an adventurous Philadelphia girl--so I was honor-bound at that point to just suck it up and swallow my nervousness --which I did and it was a cool (in more ways than one) procedure. It's close to 11 p.m., and I'm writing this off the cuff, so I'm going to exit now. Don's going to post pictures of the hotel room--and we are going on two cable cars tomorrow afternoon that will give us the Tatra experience--we go to the summit.

View from our room's balcony

Notice the spa robes on the beds....

Chromotherapy just before the laser show