Our Hansel & Gretel Experience

Guess what?! After we got back on our bikes after our amazing ski jump, and pedalled round the corner, we came across a smaller ski jump specifically for children and novices. If only we'd known! Mind you, we're glad we did the real thing proving we are 'real' bears.

After that adrenalin rush we needed a bit of sedate activity. Our leader Jackub had just the right thing for us. He took us to see some of the oldest buildings in Zakopane and they are quite amazing as they are all made from wood and are very beautiful. How's this for an example (don't spend too much time looking for us, we took the photo so are not in it).


Hopefully you can see us in our next picture which shows us investigating a lovely old wooden well. We thought it might be nice to have a shower to cool off after our ski jump exertions, but unfortunately either the well was dry, or we hadn't got quite the right technique (or strength!)


From here we went on to a traditional Highland restaurant (Polish, not Scottish). This was none too soon as we were ravenous after all our exertions. We were very intrigued by the furry trousers the Highlanders wear as part of their traditional costume. We wondered if they were trying to be bear like.

Keep reading for more exciting adventures.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

The Eagles Take to the Air

We soon discovered that we needn't have worried about our fellow tour members being bear friendly as cycling seems to attract a bear friendly clientele. At the appointed rendezvous place and time we heard a friendly voice asking who was ready to go cycling and our Polish tour leader Jackub introduced himself.


Jackub was a great leader as a) as you can see he likes bears b) being Polish he speaks great Polish which is very useful especially when we found that the few words we had learnt, we weren't pronouncing correctly and c) he loves his country, so was the perfect person to tell us all about it.

Once all the group were assembled we headed by bus for Zakopane at the foot of the Tatra mountains taking our bikes in a big trailer, making us quite a long vehicle.

Zakopane is very beatiful and a favourite holiday spot of Poles, Germans and Russians, obviously not of the Brits as we didn't hear a single British voice while we were there.

In the winter Zakopane is a very busy ski resort. Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, one of the first things we saw on our warm up cycle ride round the town was the world famous ski jump. We had no idea it would be so big and it looked simply terrifying (our photo just doesn't capture the fearsome aspect). Nevertheless there was a certain allure, and while our minds said 'no way!' our legs voted otherwise, and the next thing we knew we were at the top of the jump trying to spot our minders and give them a wave so they didn't miss our jump.


It's just such a shame that we are too small to show up on the photo our minders took after Yorkie had the brainwave of phoning them up and giving them the shock of their lives by saying we were about to jump.

Action bear Chelmer is really proud of us. We don't think we've ever done anything as scary though as that jump. Perhaps the experts get used to it ... we think that would take us a very long time!

Lots of love George & Yorkie 'The eagles' xxx