Kłodzko and the trip to Kudowa-Zdrój

The plan to visit Kłodzko (kwodz-ko) and continue to Kudowa-Zdrój (Ku-do-va Zdroi-ee) worked with only one small hiccup. The train from Wrocław left late so we missed the connection at Kłodzko main station to Kłodzko Miasto. Since we're not going to wait 50 minutes for the next one, we decide to walk the 2km with our cool rolling luggage along the Odra river. We get a great view of the ancient fortress this way.

Kłodzko is heavily touristed and rightly so. It's town square is pretty without being dominated by over-priced beer tents and restaurants. What is surprising is that the tourist office has no English at all. Sprechen sie Deutsch is all we hear. Even though there's free wi-fi, they can't figure out the username and password we're supposed to use. We settle in for a decent pizza and beer and then head for the fortress. Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%82odzko_Fortress. We also decide to take the labyrinth tour but duck out half-way as it's hard to walk stooped over for long. 

A small part of Kłodzko's humongous fortress

An arrow slit in the multi-metre thick fortress wall

Interior of the fortress

A small section of the labyrinth under the fortress

One of the many decorations on Kłodzko's stone bridge

Kłodzko's Town Hall

View of Kłodzko from the ramparts

View from the stone bridge in Kłodzko

We pick up our previously checked luggage (2 zł per piece per hour) from the nice toilet attendant at the bus station. In spite of us saying "nie Polski - we only speak English", she insists on giving us the full explanation in Polish. Maybe she thought if she said it enough times, we'd understand? Anyway, we had planned on the 16:30 bus, and since there's one waiting with the right sign in the window, we get on and let the driver put our luggage in the hold. The bus left seconds later -- at 16::15. (btw, the bus fare is 9.8 zł each plus 1.8 zł for each suitcase!). Then we get another surprise. After five minutes, the bus turns off the highway and goes down a small road to a village. We then continue on back roads all the way to Kudowa-Zdrój giving us a great tour of places we'd never see otherwise. There's an old mill (no longer in use) next to the tumbling river. We cross the railway track several times as both it and the road climb into the hills. Further along, the tracks cross the road on a viaduct at least 30 metres high. The rain starts, heavily at first but turns to light drizzle as we approach the town

We get to  Kudowa-Zdrój just before 17:30, ask the woman in the store across the street where our hotel is, and get to the Villa Kaprys ten minutes later. Inside, we are warmly greeting by Sylwia and her daughter Gaby. It looks like we're the only people here. We're on the second floor (3rd if you're from North America) and the 50 stairs take their toll after hiking through the fortress and labyrinth earlier.

The room is huge - twice the size of anything so far this trip. There's large double bed, two night tables with lamps, a bureau, a wardrobe, a table with two chairs, and a couch. The bathroom has a large shower, and strangely, a sink about 3½ off the floor. And another first - soft water after three weeks of soap-destroying hard water. There's a large balcony which, if the rain stops, will be a great place to sit and enjoy the view. With breakfast, this is costing us 140 zł (less than $50) a night.

The view from our balcony at Villa Kaprys

Dinner is at the Amfora - large portions of decent but not exceptional food. But there's no wine. We settle for blackcurrant juice instead. It's common here as well as good blackcurrant jam. Clarisse's 'hunter's pie' was actually 3 large potato pancakes with stewed pork. My chicken salad had chunks of battered deep-fried chicken with feta cheese, corn, green olives, and tomatoes on a bed of cabbage. Since we'd started with soup, there was no room for dessert that night.